Crying in the H Mart (2021) by Michelle Zauner

Musician and Author Michelle Zauner

Book Review

Crying in the H Mart (2021) 

by Michelle Zauner

  Does Michelle Zauner read all her online press? It is very much not beyond the realm of plausibility that I might come face to face with Zauner back stage at a music festival, so this review certainly falls into the category of, "don't say anything you wouldn't say to the subjects face the first time you meet." or at least to assume that whatever you say will be accessible to that subject.  Zauner, of course, is the performer beind Japanese Breakfast- I'm still unclear if there is anything to the band aspect besides people Zauner has picked up.   I don't listen to Japanese Breakfast, but I was intrigued both by the cross-cultural aspect, Zauner is Korean-American, with a Korean mom and white American Dad, and by the main story being about Zauner's mom dying of cancer while she was still struggling to put together her career in the arts.  That mirrored the story of Kristin from the Dum Dum Girls- she talked about her mom in interviews but didn't write a book about it.   I'm always intrigued by young memoirists- another one I know is Moshe Kasher- who is the younger brother of a long time friend.  It just seems crazy to put such personal information about yourself out there.   I'm sure I could never do that. 

    Anywho- if Michelle is actually reading this- wow- I could never! Just, the bravery of it all. And I think it is very much a positive that Zauner doesn't try to portray herself as some kind of virtuous angel- it's a wards and all situation, and as someone who grew up with artsy people on the west coast who ended up going to Bryn Mawr (Zauner is from not-Portland Oregon, I grew up in the Bay Area a decade before her), I feel her.  I wish I could have read this book when I was in high school, since I knew plenty of Asian and half-Asian students and had little insight on their perspective. 

   I listened to the Audiobook edition, narrated by the Author, which I highly recommend, since the tone of the writing suits the Audiobook format, and the author herself reads it to you.