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Cover of Crying in the H Mart. The background is red, and the foreground has two sets of chopsticks, holding noodles between them. The noodles make an H.

Memoirs for AAPI Month

Written by alamancelibraries on . Posted in Book Reviews.

As the end of May wraps up Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, here are some memoirs written by AAPI authors to check out! 

Crying in H-Mart by Michelle Zauner

Cover of Crying in the H Mart. The background is red, and the foreground has two sets of chopsticks, holding noodles between them. The noodles make an H.

Crying in H-Mart details the life of musical artist Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner as she traverses from growing up as the only Asian-American at her school in Oregon to bonding with her mother over food in her grandmother’s apartment in Seoul to reconnecting with her cultural heritage in the wake of a terminal diagnosis and her mother’s passing. This book is a devastating portrait of grief, but Zauner still infuses her writing with such humor and heart while depicting her struggle with her Korean identity, growing up mixed race, and her relationship with her mother. (Be sure to have tissues on hand for this one. You’ll need them… Trust me.) 

Family Style: Memoirs of an American from Vietnam by Thien Pham

Cover of Family Style. The background is cartoon-style frames of people bowling, excitingly watching something, picking crops, riding bikes, and other scenes. The forefront is a noodle bowl with a spoon and chopsticks resting on the rim.

Family Style is a young adult graphic novel that follows the harrowing but true story of a family’s escape from Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War and their eventual journey to California as refugees. As someone who has read and enjoyed many graphic novel memoirs like The Best We Could Do or When Stars are Scattered, this is a new favorite that I will be thinking about for a while. With beautifully evocative artwork by the author, this book illustrates the power and the cost of the American Dream for immigrant families—the ways that assimilation is often paid for by the loss of one’s cultural identity and heritage.

Beautiful Country by Quin Julie Wang 

Cover of Beautiful Country. The cover is a photo of a woman holding a child's hand, walking to the right, and a man walking the other way, looking at the camera as he walks "off the cover" to the left. They are walking in front of a brick wall, and above the brick wall are posters with Chinese characters and Struggle to Survive in English. There's also a barbed wire fence above and on the right.

Quin Julie Wang shares the daunting account of her childhood growing up as an undocumented immigrant in the memoir Beautiful Country, showing firsthand the trials and tribulations immigrant families frequently encounter. This book also exists in conversation with the complexities of the American Dream. In China, Wang heard tales from family and friends of two Americas: one where everyone is rich, and one where everyone is poor. That duality is accurately captured here and highlights the reason many immigrants continue to make tremendous sacrifices to move to the United States with the hope for a better life—for themselves and their children. Beautiful County is unflinching in its depiction of Wang’s adolescence as an undocumented immigrant, but still offers a glimmer of hope.

Sara D. is a Library Assistant at Graham Public Library.

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