Zauner's memoir deals with her experience of grief and her struggle to cope with the loss of her mother. The book follows her as she tries to find the right way to remember her mother while navigating the severity of the loss. In this way, the book charts Zauner's experience of grief, from the immediate devastation of her mother's death to the emotional visit to Seoul at the end of her tour. In doing so, she subverts expectations, highlighting how her specific experience of loss didn't align with more traditional narratives. With this book, she joins the company of other literary non-fiction writers offering a more nuanced depiction of grief.
In her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion writes about the sudden death of her husband John Gregory Dunne as well as the hospitalization of her daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne. Dunne's death occurs at the beginning of the book and Didion writes about her emotions caused by the loss, constantly reevaluating the moment of his death as well as the meaning of the time they had together. She also discusses research about grief. She critiques the traditional idea of closure, describing how she largely experiences Dunne's death as a series of waves of anguish and reflection.
In his memoir A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers depicts his experience raising his brother Toph in San Francisco, California after their parents die. Eggers writes about balancing this new responsibility with his lifestyle as an unmarried man in his mid-twenties. The tone of the book is witty and Eggers employs many experimental literary devices, including footnotes. He often worries about being a good caretaker to Toph and expresses concern about how he is coping with the absence of their parents.
Both writers depict grief with nuance and sensitivity, writing about unexpected elements of the experiences. Didion rejects the notion that grief ever concludes, while Eggers writes about the massive loss of his parents in a comedic and cerebral manner. In a similar manner, Zauner writes about how food is an essential part of her grieving, as it reminds her of her bond with her mother. Like Didion and Eggers, Zauner's book adds complexity to our understanding of grief and the experience of loss.
