Would Amélie Nothomb have been inspired by Michelle Zauner? Last year, the Belgian Baroness published a story entitled Psychopomp. It has not escaped fans of independent rock that Psychopomp was already the title of an album released in 2016 by Japanese Breakfast, Zauner’s band. If the last books of the first revolve around the death of her father, the entire work of the second is haunted by the death of her mother. His autobiographical story Crying at the supermarket plows the same furrow as his excellent records.
Everyone remembers the passage of Near Swann where the Narrator, a tired man by nature, returns home even more flagged than usual. His mother serves him a cup of tea and a madeleine, as effective as hallucinogenic mushrooms: the dreamer remembers the lime that his aunt Léonie made him drink when he was little, and all the Combray of his youth reappears to him as if by magic. There is something of this order in the first pages of Michelle Zauner’s book. Born in Seoul in 1989, to an American father and a South Korean mother, she lost the latter in 2014. One day, in Philadelphia, she walked through the shelves of H Mart, the Asian supermarket chain . In front of a banchan refrigerator, remembering the eggs preserved in soy sauce that her mother prepared for her, she burst into tears. For this mute woman, love was transmitted through cooking. The flavors and images collide in the orphan’s brain, it goes beyond the reminiscences of kimchi soup: “In five years, cancer took my aunt and my mother. So, when I go to H Mart, it’s not for cuttlefish or spring onions for $1 for three bunches; I look for my childhood there; proof that the Korean in me didn’t die with them.”
What follows is a moving and lively coming-of-age story. There is often talk of Korean gastronomy, dishes such as tteokguk (New Year’s beef broth) or doenjang-jjigae (a vegetable and tofu stew) – when we stop at beef bourguignon and veal blanquette, we are disoriented. The portraits are also spicy: “Obsessed by appearances, my mother spent hours in front of the TV shopping channel, which she called to order purifying conditioners, specialized toothpastes, scrubs with caviar oil, serums, moisturizers, toners and anti-wrinkle creams.” With this sphinx, Michelle spent a relatively peaceful childhood in Oregon, singing with her over and over again. Tell Him, by Barbra Streisand and Celine Dion. Problems arise during adolescence. Streisand and Dion are okay for a while. At the beginning of the 2000s, rock came back into fashion. Michelle focuses on the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, whose charismatic singer, Karen O, has a South Korean mother. She won’t budge: against all odds, she will be a rocker. Terrible scenes break out with her mother, who will not have time to see her daughter form the group Japanese Breakfast and experience success with Psychopomp, tribute record to her late mother which will allow Michelle to tour all over the world, and to give a concert in Seoul…
A fan named Barack Obama
In Crying at the supermarket, it is also about Michelle’s partner, the musician Peter Bradley, a guitarist who read in full In Search of Lost Time – an ideal husband. They work together. From Psychopompshe released two even better albums, Soft Sounds From Another Planet (2017) and Jubilee (2021). For specialists, let’s say that this contemplative pop oscillates between George Harrison and Blonde Redhead, Albert Hammond Jr. and Weyes Blood. Michelle Zauner herself cites Björk as the ultimate reference, but she errs on the side of modesty: she is clearly better than the painful Icelander. She has nothing to do with Yoko Ono either.
Although sharp, Crying at the supermarket was a best-selling book when it was released in the United States in 2021: 1 million copies were sold. Barack Obama spoke about it, saying it was one of his favorite books of the year. With his current concerns, we doubt that Emmanuel Macron will mention Crying at the supermarket during his next speech. Let’s ignore her opinion and recommend this book by adding one last piece of advice: it takes on its full meaning when you read it while simultaneously listening to the rocker writer’s records.
Crying at the supermarket, by Michelle Zauner. Trans. from English (United States) by Laura Bourgeois. Christian Bourgois, 310 p., €22.
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