Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home

Superb!

Having worked in publishing for many years, I find it's the rare book that allows me to read for pure pleasure¿and Trail of Crumbs is just that rare treat. Beautifully written and flawlessly captivating, it serves up a sumptuous slice of life that most of us can only imagine. I devoured chapter after chapter in a single sitting, loathe to interrupt the fascinating flow while also wanting to savor every word ... then arrived all too soon at the end, craving still more. Even a few crumbs ...

3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.

Gorgeous, incredible memoir: A MUST read

I took Trail of Crumbs with me on a recent trip to the beach, and had to force myself to read it slowly- because I wanted it to last, because I wanted to linger over every word, like I would linger over a fine wine or a delicious meal. Since then, I've been apprehensive about writing this review because I know my words won't do Sunee's book justice. It's not just a book about food (though the food descriptions and recipes will leave you salivating), or travel (though I've been daydreaming about Provence and Paris and New Orleans ever since), this book is about identity, minus the overwrought cliches that sometimes accompany memoirs about the search for self. Kim Sunee is an incredible writer. I can't wait for her next book.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

loooooved this book

I have been telling everyone I know about Trail of Crumbs... I was hooked from page one. This book is a food and travel adventure, a love story, and the intimate yet elegant thoughts from a woman on the path of self-discovery. It would appeal to readers with an adventurous heart - interested in sumptuous food, exotic travel, tumultuous love stories, or an intriguing memoir. The author lets the readers into her deeply personal thoughts and experiences gracefully chronicling desire, love, heartbreak, wonder, ecstasy, confusion, glee, ⿦ every page makes you feel as if you just spend time in Kim Sunée⿿s intoxicating world. The recipes at the end of each chapter pull the flavors out of the book and into your mouth.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

You won't want to put it down!

The first book from Kim Sunee is a warm, honest, intimate read. I found myself completely absorbed in her fascinating story of her restless search for who she is. Love, loss, hunger, hope...these themes are constant throughout the book as you join Kim in her journey. She writes candidly and warmly--you'll wish you could sit with her and hear more long after you've finished reading. The recipes are a fabulous touch that ties the whole thing together. Excellent effort from a first-time novelist.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A Wonderful Read and Beautiful Book

I was touched and transported in this lovely and thoughtful book. Beautifully written and artfully packaged.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A reviewer

i absolutely love this book. it's heartfelt and poignant and keeps you engaged. the language is beautiful and poetic.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

A compelling, touching memoir!!

Kim Sunee has magnificently written an intimate and engaging account of her search for self-identity, a rewarding life of her own making, and a place to belong and call home. Born in South Korea, Kim was abandoned by her mother at age 3. Soon, she was adopted by an American couple and raised in New Orleans, but she felt as if she never really fit in. Twenty years later, Kim is living in France with her famous, multi-millionaire beau. Theirs is a luxurious lifestyle accented by travel and entertaining, showcasing her talent as a chef. Many years later, feeling smothered by his controlling nature, Kim leaves him to forge a life of her own. Through it all, food is the anchor in her life and she feels most at home in the kitchen. Most chapters end with personal recipes which are tied to her bittersweet memories.

"Trail of Crumbs" is emotionally candid, compelling and very thoughtfully written. The evocative descriptions and glorious details drew me into a number of countries, their cultures and into her culinary experiences. There is a message for everyone in this absorbing memoir. Ms. Sunee inspires me to live my life as fully as I can, while still maintaining my own identity. I truly loved this captivating book. It's a really wonderful read and I highly recommend it!

Beautiful imagery, but depressing

I was looking forward to reading this book after seeing all the great reviews about it, but I was sadly disappointed with the author's inability to appreciate the beauty of the world she was writing about. Maybe because I'm asian, but I felt that her description of being made fun of during her childhood because of her ethnicity is not an excuse for not making the most of what she has now. And she has a lot - living in Provence with a millionaire and having a supporting family behind her, enjoying luxuries that most normal people have never experienced. But despite that, she seems to spend more time moping and trying to 'find' herself, and all the glories around her just don't seem to be good enough. What happened to 'live in the moment'! I would have to agree with the other reviewer and say that she is self-absorbed and selfish. Maybe it gets better at the end, but I was so depressed after reading half way through that I could not finish the book.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

J'attends deja la suite.....

Je viens de terminer la lecture du premier livre de Kim. J'ai lu d'un bout a l'autre son histoire sans arret et elle est preuve d'une grande inspiration pour moi. C'est aussi une revelation mysterieuse qu'elle nous fait. Felicitations! J'ai meme trouve l'huile d'olives nommee 'L'Olivier' chez un marchant de Birmingham, AL. !

Sadly Lacking

Kim Sunee's journey makes a compelling and well written story. Yet her memoir is oddly disappointing. filled with her uninteresting affairs and her appetite for sex and food. It is insubstantial, superficial, and the author is so self-absorbed throughout that a dinner with Henri-Cartier Bresson, one of the great figures in art and photography, is glossed over by the petty emotional crisis of the moment. Ms Sunee's self involvement is so rapt that she does not even bother to describe many of the people who wander into and out of her life. Her family recieves short shrift in the tale of her quest for selfhood, and she describes personal details of her life with the French millionaire who cared for her in a manner that had to be hurtful to him and his young daughter, to whom Ms. Sunee was a reluctant stepmother. It is a sad, incomplete tale of selfishness, betrayal and self-absorption and Ms. Sunee comes away looking none the better for it.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

great read!

thoroughly enjoyed the book. Great writer. Inspiring.

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