read of the month

Southern Living, Jan 2008 by McKinney, Wanda

read of the month TRAIL OF CRUMBS BY KIM SUNEE (GRAND CENTRAL, $24.99)

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 Sunee's life began in South Korea, where she was abandoned in a marketplace-gripping a fistful of food-as a toddler. 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