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 mother’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.
Winner of the
2022 Asian/Pacific American Award in Literature
Finalist for the
2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction
A TIME and NPR
Best Book of the Year in 2021