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Liked It “Okay this book was a bit sentimental, but I couldn't help but be compelled by her passion for food & her rather remarkable journey. She's young & sometimes that came through in her personal story, but the love of good food & the recipes were just wonderful. I loved reading this on vacation &...” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “I didn't finish it. I thought the book was pointless, directionless, and our heroine whiney, ungrateful, and unlikable. I hope someday she finds a way to be content with her life.” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“I didn't finish it. I thought the book was pointless, directionless, and our heroine whiney, ungrateful, and unlikable. I hope someday she finds a way to be content with her life.”
cookiegirl wrote this review Thursday, October 29 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“On a park bench in a Korean marketplace, three year old Kim Sunee was told by her mother to "wait right here." Kim did, and her mother never came back. After being adopted by an American family from New Orleans, she learns to love to cook and eventually makes her way to and around Europe, trying her hand at writing and attempting to figure out where her place is in a world that abandoned her at such a young age.
sheelysmom wrote this review Tuesday, October 13 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Ack, this book was a disappointment. Kim felt like an emotionally unstable and unreliable narrator. I felt so frustrated with what seemed to be such a biased picture of her life. I recognize that a certain amount of bias comes with the territory when you're reading a memoir, and yet, Kim gives such a self-absorbed portrait that I couldn't help but wonder what she wasn't telling me.
She hates her mother, feels completely rejected by her, and yet tells us virtually nothing of how it came to be that way. It's almost as though Kim feels like her adoptive family is somehow responsible for her abandonment, all the pain is rolled up together. She falls "in love" with many different men (one relationship is much more lasting than the others) and over and over Kim seems to justify and blame her past for her inability to cope with the present.
Her time in Europe felt, on the one hand full of flavors and life. She really does have a powerful writing voice and she uses a vast palate of words (both English and French) to describe her experiences and culinary creations (All the French might drive some readers crazy, though). Despite the beauty of the food and the landscape, so many Europeans she encountered were petty and flighty - their relationships came and went, marriages meant nothing. It all just rather...depressed me, I think. And I know that I am not a particularly adventurous cook, but not one single recipe in this book appealed to me. If you love exotic and haute cuisine, this might be right up your alley, though.
Her "Korean-ness" is a theme throughout the book - what does it mean? Is it just a way to look? Is there something inside her that she can find that will make her feel more like the way she looks? Readers who have been adopted from foreign countries might find familiar feelings in this memoir, especially those who can relate to her constant feelings of loss - that ever-present desire to search for the happiness that eludes her. For me, it just wasn't a good fit. ”“Okay this book was a bit sentimental, but I couldn't help but be compelled by her passion for food & her rather remarkable journey. She's young & sometimes that came through in her personal story, but the love of good food & the recipes were just wonderful. I loved reading this on vacation & dreaming of trying all the yummy recipes.”
TJ Book Babe wrote this review Monday, August 10 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I choose a great time to read this book...while in France. Although I like Kim's poetic writing style, I got a little irritated with her repetitive whining. I could relate to the gypsy, unsettled feeling but she contradicted herself throughout the book and as a result she was a bit unbelievable. ”
Carrie wrote this review Saturday, August 1 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I wasn't certain for the first few pages, but I began to find the book very interesting in seeing Kim's growth.”
Carol W wrote this review Friday, July 24 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I really liked this book. Kim Sunee was a lovely writer who tells a thought provoking story. I wanted so much for her to find a place that felt like home and to appreciate all the people who became her family along the way. This book has stayed with me to the point of looking on the internet to see how she is doing. I watched a video clip of her going back to Korea. She was on a Korean program where people were seeking their birth families. I wish the best for her.”
Zoe F wrote this review Friday, June 5 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This was a well-written, sweetly sad memoir about loss, loneliness, the search for home and love. I didn't want it to end but could hardly bear reading it, Kim's story made me so melancholy for her. She wanted so desperately to belong, to be anchored, to have a real home and family. The descriptions of people, place and FOOD demonstrate a real writer's gift. Highly enjoyed it and recommend it.”
Beth G wrote this review Friday, March 27 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I loved this story, a memoir of trying to find ones self. Well written and full of wonderful recipes.”
alison d wrote this review Friday, March 13 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love and the Search for Home
BookReviewsByDebra wrote this review Wednesday, March 11 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
Kim Sunee
Grand Central Publishing, 2009
ISBN: 978-0446697903
Reviewed by Debra Gaynor for ReviewYourBook.com, 03/09
4 stars
Kim was only three-years-old when she was left on a bench with a fist full of food. After sitting there for three days, a police officer takes her to the police station. A couple from New Orleans adopts her. There are few Asian girls in the area. In her early twenties, she joins an executive in France where she lives as his mistress and cares for his child. Kim was still searching for the place where she belonged and her mother.
Kim Sunee has a talent for imagery. Her descriptions are magnificent. However, the best thing about this book is the wonderful recipes! Kim conveys a sense of sadness at her loss and abandonment.
”
“This book was beautifully written! It led you through Kim's life - most of it centered in her 20's after she had moved out of the United States. It showed such a deep yearning to try to understand where she fit in, where she belonged, that you just wanted to reach into the book and take her in your arms to let her know that it would all be okay. By being "lost" by her mom, she grew up always searching, never quite feeling "at home."
Kristi (Books and Needlepoint) wrote this review Saturday, February 21 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
I interpreted the title "Trail of Crumbs" to be a metaphor for two things. First, she used to have a dream about her and her brother as Hansel and Gretel, just waiting for the moon to come out so they could see the trail of crumbs - only to find out that they had been eaten by the birds. Secondly, how she seemed to feel most comfortable in the kitchen, regardless of where she was, cooking wonderful dishes for friends. So as she traveled, she left her own 'trail of crumbs'. Her book is doctored with tales of wonderful foods in exotic (to me) places. At the ends of many of the chapters are recipes of what sound like delicious dishes. I hope someday to have the courage to try some of them. (There is an index in the back of the book listing these recipes.)
You must read Kim's story of loss and loneliness as she loved, in her way, Olivier, but could not come to accept the life he created for her.
"Somehow, I thought, he'll never realize that the everything he wants to give me will never take away the nothing that I've always had." (p66)
Join her as she searches for acceptance and family and discovers a strength to let go of what cannot be changed and move forward.
”
