Almost American Girl

Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner (2021)

This memoir reflects on Zauner’s relationship with her mother Chongmi, after her mother’s death. The memoir oscillates between Zauner’s memories of her mother in her childhood and teenage years and her reflections on her mother after her death. Like Robin, Zauner’s relationship with her mother was sometimes stressful and strained, but she came to understand her better in adulthood. This memoir reflects on the difficulty and beauty of intergenerational immigrant relationships and the avenues people take to stay connected with their culture.

• Crying in H Mart on SuperSummary

Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong (2020)

This autobiographical book of essays reflects on Hong’s experience as a second-generation immigrant growing up in the United States. She uses personal stories and reflections to examine feelings common in immigrant communities, and each of her essays adopts a widely varied perspective on Hong’s relationship to aspects of racial discrimination in the United States. For instance, one essay discusses the racism she faced as a child and its lasting impact, while another discusses the elision of anti-Asian hate, assaults, and murders by mainstream American media.

• Minor Feelings on SuperSummary

East Goes West by Younghill Kang (1937)

This fictionalized but semi-autobiographical novel follows Chungpa Han, a Korean man who flees Japanese-occupied Korea and immigrates to the United States. Han arrives in New York City with four dollars and works an assortment of jobs to scrape by. As Han learns how to survive in this new country, he observes the increasingly brazen industrialization, consumerism, and materialism of American society through the 1920s and 1930s.

This book provides one of the earliest accounts of the Korean immigrant experience in the United States. It is sometimes colloquially called the first Korean American novel.