Crying in H Mart Chapters 16–18 Summary & Analysis

Summary: Chapters 16–18

Chapter 16: Jatjuk

After their disappointing trip to Vietnam, Michelle and her father return home feeling just as distant from one another as they were when they left. A few hours after their return, Michelle gets a call from her father and learns that he has been in an accident, totaling his car and sustaining minor injuries. She is angry at him though he denies driving while drunk. Instead of tending to him, she copes with her grief and isolation through cooking rich, classic American meals. Peter comes to visit for Christmas and while Michelle is looking for their decorations, she finds closets filled with more of her mother’s belongings. She finds children’s shoes and toys that her mother had been saving for Michelle’s future child, and carefully organizes them. The rest of her mother’s stuff she gives away. Longing for comfort, Michelle searches for a video recipe by Maangchi for Jatjuk, a dish Kye often made for Michelle’s mother. She follows the recipe and finds herself finally satisfied from eating the simple, familiar porridge.

Chapter 17: Little Axe

Michelle gets a job as a line cook at a pizza place, working through the night. She purposefully works herself to the bone, as a way to distract herself from her grief and guilt. During the day she writes songs that she records with Nick and Peter, producing a short album called Psychopomp. After this, she and Peter depart for their belated honeymoon in Korea, where they stay with Nami despite Michelle’s anxiety of imposing on her aunt and the challenge of their language barrier. When they arrive, she is comforted by Nami’s maternal care, and uses a translator app to communicate her gratitude for her aunt and her desire that they maintain a relationship. Being with Nami brings her solace and a sense of solidifying her connection to Korea. They have a final dinner together before Michelle and Peter head off to visit all the places Michelle’s mother wanted to take her before she died.

Chapter 18: Maangchi and Me

Michelle reflects on the role of dreams in her life. She recalls her mother believed that dreams about poop were lucky, and would buy lottery tickets whenever she had one. Back from her honeymoon, Michelle is plagued by dreams of her mother, of finding her alive only to lose her again. She is living with Peter and his parents at the time and throws herself into searching for jobs and apartments in Brooklyn. They move to Greenpoint and she lands a salaried job at an advertising company in Williamsburg. Though she is pleased with feeling like an adult, she is still haunted by her mother’s death, and decides once again to turn to Maangchi’s YouTube channel for guidance. She begins cooking all the dishes she loved as a child through Maangchi’s recipes, each one bringing back positive memories. She finds a local H Mart and commits herself to learning how to make kimchi, a process that she finds rewarding, satisfying, and comforting, a way to connect to her Korean heritage.

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