If you wonder why someone under the age of 40 would write a memoir, the
question will be answered almost immediately upon beginning this
exquisitely written book. Kim Sunée's life began in South Korea,
where she was abandoned in a marketplace--gripping a fistful of
food--around the age of 3. After three days, she was brought in by
police and then taken to live in an orphanage.
After a cursory examination, a doctor estimated that she was born
between January and June. "Maybe a Pisces," Kim wonders. "He validated
me and decided my place among the stars. My birth date is a compromise,
my beginnings a constellation of in-betweens and connect the dots. Since
the approximate age of 3, I've been a fish and swimming upstream ever
since."
In this riveting and beautifully descriptive memoir Kim recounts her
search for home as well as the need to satisfy the never-ending
hunger--both literal and metaphorical--that her beginnings bequeathed
her. From her adoption by American parents from New Orleans to her
travels throughout Sweden, France, Korea, and South America, the author
shares her love of food and people. Each chapter ends with a recipe or
two that is particular to the region previously described. "For now, I
have learned that home is in my heart--in all the places and people I
have left behind. It's in the food that I cook and share with others, in
the cities I will come to know...." At book's end, we hunger as well,
for more words from this talented writer.--Wanda McKinney
