FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR NONFICTION
This evocative memoir of food and family history is "somehow both
mouthwatering and heartbreaking... [and] a potent personal history"
(Shelf Awareness).
Grace M. Cho grew up as the daughter of a white American merchant marine
and the Korean bar hostess he met abroad. They were one of few
immigrants in a xenophobic small town during the Cold War, where
identity was politicized by everyday details--language, cultural
references, memories, and food. When Grace was fifteen, her dynamic
mother experienced the onset of schizophrenia, a condition that would
continue and evolve for the rest of her life.
Part food memoir, part sociological investigation, Tastes Like War is
a hybrid text about a daughter's search through intimate and global
history for the roots of her mother's schizophrenia. In her mother's
final years, Grace learned to cook dishes from her parent's childhood in
order to invite the past into the present, and to hold space for her
mother's multiple voices at the table. And through careful listening
over these shared meals, Grace discovered not only the things that broke
the brilliant, complicated woman who raised her--but also the things
that kept her alive.
"An exquisite commemoration and a potent reclamation." --Booklist
(starred review)
"A wrenching, powerful account of the long-term effects of the immigrant
experience." --Kirkus Reviews
