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Content snapshot
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Violence
Barely any
Cancer and dying described with unflinching clarity; nothing violent, only devastating
Language
Barely any
Mild language throughout
Sexual Content
None
No sexual content
Substance Use
None
No substance use
Emotional Intensity
A lot
Grief and the cultural inheritance carried through food, mixed-race identity and belonging, the specific terror of losing a mother
What this book is about
Michelle Zauner — the musician behind Japanese Breakfast — watched her mother die of cancer when Zauner was in her mid-twenties. Her mother was Korean-American, and had passed her culture on through food. After the loss, Zauner found herself cooking Korean dishes obsessively, trying to hold onto a woman who was already gone. One of the finest memoirs of the 2020s: grief rendered specific through banchan, doenjang jjigae, and the fluorescent lights of the Korean supermarket.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
extended depiction of a parent's cancer and death
deeply emotional throughout
themes of identity and cultural loss
Reader Verification
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