Review: Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home by Kim Sunee

About the Book: At a South Korean marketplace, three-year-old Kim Sunee's mother deposits her on a bench with a fistful of food and a promise to return. Three days later, a policeman takes the little girl and what is now a fistful of crumbs to a police station, where she learns that her mother isn't coming back. From here, her extraordinary life journey begins. Adopted by a young New Orleans couple, Kim spends her youth as one of only two Asian children in her entire school and church. At the age of 21, she becomes involved with a famous French businessman, and suddenly finds herself living in France, mistress over his houses and stepmother to his eight-year-old daughter. But despite this glamorous lifestyle, Kim feels like an outsider, and it is in food and cooking that she finds solace and a sense of place.

My Review: Don't read this book if a) you don't want to feel your heart ache with longing and homelessness or b) you're hungry

Which should pretty well sum up how beautifully crafted this memoir is. The motif of hunger for homelessness (by which I mean spiritual homelessness, not physical homelessness) is woven throughout every page of the story. And that fast food you just ate? It's not going to satisfy once you read about the wonderful French cuisine in this book.

The writing is exquisite, the little details of life in France are enjoyable (I used to want to live in France very much...I would still do it, if I could) and the food just sounds SO delicious. But it's impossible not to feel what Kim feels..this memoir is very raw, very honest in ways I'm not sure I could ever be!

It's interesting, because at one point, Kim gets the opportunity to go to Korea, which is the land of her birth. They go in February, to Seoul. Years ago, when I worked in Japan, I also went to Seoul in February and it was freezing!! And I went with a friend, who like Kim, was born in Korea, adopted by an American family and had no idea about her roots in Korea. I thought of her often while reading this book. But you don't have to have been adopted to relate to the search for home and a place to belong.

I also thought it was interesting that she got really sick when they went to Hong Kong. I went to Hong Kong once, and remember thinking the air was really oppressive and wondering it was healthy to breathe it. But it is a fabulous and interesting place...I'd love to go back someday.

I highly recommend this memoir. It's gorgeously written and captivating on every page.

Rating: 4.5/5