Crying in H Mart

A very raw and personal journey through one woman's life balanced between two very different cultures, trying to find her own path aside from her mother's culturally infused parenting only to be confronted by a looming loss that will change her perspective and course in life and find some solace in the same culturally significant things she once felt removed from through her childhood and adolescence.
It is interesting that though we all go through personal losses that seem so isolating at the time, the feelings, thoughts, pain and turmoil you experienced are so similar to others stories. Michelle's story definitely hit a nerve and very close to home in a lot of ways. Although I haven't experienced the same cultural and racial trials she has, I did understand all too well the heart-breaking journey of cancer and loss. Her story is so many of us who have had to go through that same journey and the turmoil, grief and pain it inflicts, but also how we find ways to cope and connect afterwards.
I enjoyed Michelle's honest and raw way she wrote her personal journey and how her mother's Korean culture was both a separating and connecting string through it. It opened a door for me about the Korean culture itself - especially the food (I want to try SO much of it!) and the difficulty of finding an identity of her own when she was born of two cultures and both wanted to honour that, but also carve her own path. It has not something I've had to grapple with myself, but Michelle's writing made me feel empathy for her struggle.
Lots of feels, lots of food and a very good story of dealing with loss and of forging a path ahead that both honours the past and takes what we learn from our parents and grandparents into the future.