Summary of Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner

By Condensed Books

A high-quality summary of Michelle Zauner ́s book Crying in H Mart, including chapter details and an analysis of the main themes of the original book.

About the original book:

Michelle Zauner proves herself to be far more than a talented singer, songwriter, and guitarist in this magnificent story of family, food, tragedy, and endurance. She tells of growing up in Eugene, Oregon, as one of the few Asian American students; of struggling with her mother's particular, high expectations of her; of painful adolescence; and of cherished months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond late at night over heaping plates of food.
Her Koreanness grew increasingly remote as she grew up, relocating to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant sector, and performing gigs with her nascent band—and meeting the man who would become her husband—even as she found the life she wanted to live. Michelle's identity was forced to cope when her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer when she was twenty-five, and she was able to recover the gifts of taste, language, and history that her mother had given her.
Zauner's voice is as vibrantly alive on the page as it is onstage, vivacious and plainspoken, poetic and honest. Crying at H Mart is a book to treasure, share, and reread, full of intimate experiences that will connect widely and be filled with family photos.

• Language: English
• Publisher: C.B. Publishers
• Release date: Jul 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005496838

Book preview

OVERVIEW

Crying in H Mart is a book written by Michelle Zauner, the lead singer of the indie rock band Japanese Breakfast, and published in 2021. It takes an unflinching look at Zauner's mother's cancer death and honors her mother's relationship with her through Korean food and culture. The book is based on a similar piece published in the New Yorker in 2018.

SUMMARY

Crying in H Mart is about Zauner's connection with her mother Chongmi after Chongmi died while Zauner was 25 years old. The narrative jumps around in time, with many chapters starting in the aftermath of Chongmi's death and then moving backward to Zauner's childhood memories. When Zauner was a child, Chongmi was a strict woman who was quite demanding.

Zauner sought for her acceptance, which she found in their common love of Korean dishes that Chongmi had created or shown to her as a child. During Zauner's adolescent years, their relationship was difficult and even violent, in part due to Zauner's growing interest in music, but Zauner and her mother were coming to appreciate and understand each other. Zauner relocated to Philadelphia around this time to pursue her music career while seeing her boyfriend Peter.

Zauner's world is placed on pause as she returns home to Eugene, Oregon, following Chongmi's cancer diagnosis. She believes she will be able to repay her mother's tireless caregiving at this period, and she longs to prepare the Korean dishes that her mother adored. However, she is hampered by the intensity of her mother's symptoms, which are so severe that she must be admitted to the hospital early in Zauner's stay.

The entrance of her mother's friend Kye, who takes over much of the caretaking despite Zauner's conflicted sentiments, exacerbates her lack of access to her mother's care. Meanwhile, Zauner's father seems unprepared to deal with his wife's illness, causing a developing gulf between Zauner and her father.

When chemotherapy fails, Chongmi chooses to stop treatment; she sees her sister go through 24 rounds of chemo and yet succumb to cancer at a young age. Chongmi's family is planning a trip to Seoul so she can meet her other sister and visit her homeland.

The trip is a fiasco, as Chongmi becomes ill and has to spend many weeks in the hospital; this prompts Zauner to demand that she and Peter marry as soon as possible, which Peter agrees to. The wedding takes place in the family's backyard, and Chongmi is energized by the planning and ceremony, despite her inability to stay the entire evening.

Chongmi's strength soon deteriorates, and she succumbs to her disease. Zauner and her father decide to take a vacation to Vietnam to distract themselves, but the trip turns disastrous as old wounds resurface; Zauner abandons her father at dinner and goes to sing karaoke with a stranger, and while she understands her father's struggles, she refuses to forgive his failures as a father and husband.

Following the trip, he is involved in a drunken vehicle accident, and within a year, he sells the family house and relocates to Phuket to live with another woman, severely stressing his relationship with Zauner.

Zauner and Peter stay with Eugene after her mother's death to assist him to settle his affairs and prepare for their next steps. Zauner resumes creating and playing music during this period, eventually recording Psychopomp, the first Japanese Breakfast album.

She and Peter decide to return to the East Coast, but first, they travel to Seoul to visit Zauner's aunt, Nami Emo. The vacation is therapeutic, especially because Zauner and Nami bond over the meal that she and her mother used to eat together.

When Zauner returns home, she tries hard to learn more traditional Korean cuisine, consulting a popular Youtuber named Maangchi for help. Every month, she starts cooking kimchi as a form of rehabilitation, going through the laborious procedure. When her father sells the family house, he sends Zauner her mother's kimchi fridge, which she discovers is loaded with hundreds of candid images from her childhood, demonstrating the mother-daughter bond.

The narrative comes to a close with Zauner's breakthrough with Psychopomp, which she wrote in honor of her mother and which allowed her to tour Asia. The trip comes to a close in Seoul, and Zauner sees the evening as a celebration and continuance of her mother's spirit.

She ends