When I was given my assignment to select a non-fiction novel to read this summer, I was unsure what to choose. I have never been an avid non-fiction reader. Not certain of where to start, I asked a friend and she recommended “Crying in H-Mart” by Michelle Zauner, a memoir that recounts the story of a Korean American woman and her grief after the loss of her mother. In this extremely compelling novel, Zauner employs narration, appeals to the sense of taste, and uses foreign language in order to connect readers to her world, ultimately urging them to empathize with the struggles that Asian Americans face regarding their culture and identity. Since Zauner’s book is a memoir, she employs narration in quite a bit of it. She tells many stories from her childhood and young adulthood that assist …show more content…
These mental snapshots from her life allow the reader to see just how connected she was to her Korean heritage, especially via her mother. She saw her relationship with her mom as the only thing that tied her to her culture. When she passed away, Zauner felt as though she had lost that connection. Without her mother beside her, many people did not recognise her as a Korean. They only saw the white part of her ancestry, which she inherited from her father. Another large aspect of the book is Zauner’s love of food, particularly Korean cuisine. This is something that she and her mother bonded over. She often wrote about eating with her mother and the way she would instruct her on the correct way to eat certain foods. When she passed away, Zauner would cook Korean recipes as a way to cope with her grief. She would make kimchi often and would try staple recipes that her mom used to make. The way that she would describe the taste of the food made it feel as though I was right there with her, in her kitchen as she healed in the only way she