Tastes Like War A Memoir
Tastes Like War A Memoir by Grace M. Cho is published by Feminist Press at the City University of New York in 2021 and spans 289 pages. This memoir explores the intersection of food and family history, detailing Cho’s experiences as the daughter of a white American merchant marine and a Korean bar hostess. Set against the backdrop of a xenophobic small town during the Cold War, the narrative delves into how identity is shaped by language, cultural references, and memories, particularly as Cho navigates her mother’s struggles with schizophrenia.
Readers will find a blend of personal and sociological insights as Cho embarks on a journey to understand her mother’s condition through the lens of their shared culinary heritage. The memoir reflects on the complexities of multiracial families and the immigrant experience in the United States, highlighting how food serves as a bridge to the past. Through the act of cooking dishes from her parents’ childhoods, Cho seeks to honor her mother’s legacy while grappling with the challenges of mental health and familial bonds.
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Finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction
Winner of the 2022 Asian/Pacific American Award in Literature
A TIME and NPR Best Book of the Year in 2021
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
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