nwasianweekly.com
Jan. 5, 2008

A book review of Trail of Crumbs

By Pat Tanumihardja
Northwest Asian Weekly

Born between January and June (maybe a Pisces?), Kim Sunée, now 37, does not even know her actual birth date. Abandoned in a market in South Korea at the age of 3, all that she had was the crumbly sensation of the fistful of food her omma (mother in Korean) left her with, and fleeting dreams of her birth mother that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Just like the delectable foods and romantic settings that backdrop her memoir, “Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love and the Search for Home,” Sunée recounts her life thus far in a manner that is both sensuous and cinematic. She briefly touches on her tragic beginnings in Korea, and continues with her New Orleans upbringing, followed by a seemingly languorous 10 years living in France.

After a short stay in a Korean orphanage, Sunée was adopted by an American soldier and his wife and raised in New Orleans. Although Sunée had a pleasant childhood in the company of her loving grandparents, whom she called Poppy and Grammy, her recurring dreams of meeting her birth mother kept her searching for a past that was never hers. Even her love affair with Olivier Baussan, the millionaire founder of French bath and body company L’Occitane, brought her no security and comfort.

Like a fairytale princess, Sunée became mistress of Baussan’s sprawling Provençal home, as well as stepmother to his 8-year-old daughter. Baussan was twice her age, entangled in a messy divorce, and although Sunée never explicitly expresses it in the memoir, had a controlling disposition. They traveled the world together, and threw lavish dinner parties for a close circle of friends handpicked by Baussan.

Despite this enchanted life, Sunée continually fought for her independence and struggled to create a home for herself. Whenever she felt lonely or out of place, she found solace in cooking, discovering that familiar flavors were the antidote to displacement. But cooking in Baussan’s kitchen brought her no closer to finding herself. A trip to South Korea to trace her birth family proved fruitless and only further affirmed her nomadic existence.

Predictably, this fairytale does not have a happy ending. Eventually, Sunée’s restless nature coupled with Baussan’s impatience with her literary ambitions urged her to leave him and retreat to Paris. There, she lived alone, found new friends and plunged into another unhappy relationship with a married man. Alas, as she concludes in her last paragraph, even after all this, she is “hungrier than she has ever been.”

Sunée’s first book takes readers from Korea to New Orleans to Paris and Provence, peppering the path with mouthwatering recipes. Almost every chapter ends with at least one recipe: from the crawfish bisque she learned to make from her New Orleans grandfather, Korean dishes like kimchi soup, to French dishes such as la daube Provençale (beef stewed in red wine) and crème caramel.

Although the book’s wrap-up is less than satisfactory, the joy is in the journey and not the destination. Sunée serves up course after course of vivid writing, and the universal theme about one’s search for identity that resonates throughout the book is bound to strike a chord with many of us.

“Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love and the Search for Home,” by Kim Sunée. Published by Grand Central Publishing, January 2008. $24.99.

Pat Tanumihardja can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

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