A Living Remedy

A Memoir

De: Nicole Chung

Narrado por: Jennifer Kim

A Living Remedy has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher.

Beautiful memoir

Shares the challenge of living in a place where no one looks like you, the deep love and grief at the loss of parents, exposes the huge gaps in the healthcare system in the US, and how we may carry anxiety in our bodies. Make sure to have tissues available as crying is unavoidable. The writing is open and vulnerable and opens up areas of the readers grief and emotions. Be sure to be in a space where you have support and can be gentle and kind with yourself during the time you’re reading this book.

Heartbreaking, gorgeous writing

Chung’s use of language in her first memoir, All You Can Ever Know, has wings. Sentences crescendo and fall away with a grace that lingers. But it’s the direct and incisive probing into the hardest parts of our lives, the tougher flesh and sinews of familial love, where Chung gives me the deepest satisfaction as a reader. A story about ailing parents, exacerbated by a failing health care system, veers into the maudlin when described by lesser writers. Chung keeps the sentimental arms-length, taut.
A Living Remedy is about compassion, stupid, and a deep abiding love. It’s also another profound gesture of charity by a truly gifted writer for those, who, like me, probably need it the most.

Points of Life

Nicole has written an appropriate book for this day and time. It contains real life problems with accuracy in facing aging parents.

Not really as advertised.

At least 2/3 of this book is a day by day - sometimes minute by minute - account of the illnesses and passing of the authors adoptive parents, from a personal, religious and medical standpoint.

I wasn’t bored, exactly, but several times I did find myself wondering why I was still listening - my own parents have been gone for many years, and no question, for most of us, the passing of one’s parents is a profoundly sad event ,but this seemed more than a little a overdone. True, her mother died of cancer during the pandemic, which offered a bit of universality to the account, reminding us of the horrors of those years, but very little of this chronicle has anything to do with her being a Korean child who had been adopted by non-Asian parents. We can say this: surely no biological child ever mourned the death of parents more than did this adopted daughter.

I doubt I’ll listen to this one again, but…. It wasn’t a waste of time. Just a book of marginal interest, but one that was well narrated and reasonably short.

Touched Me on a Personal Level

Nicole Chung’s A Living Remedy touched me on a deeply personal level. Having lost my mom and now facing the reality that my dad is in the last season of his life, I found Chung’s exploration of love, loss, and family heartbreakingly familiar. While I wasn’t adopted, I relate to the feeling of being different from my parents but still holding them in a deep, unwavering love. Chung writes with such grace, capturing the complexity of familial bonds and the inevitable grief of watching loved ones slip away. Her reflections on caregiving, the emotional distance that can come with being different, and ultimately, the human need for connection and reconciliation struck a chord with me. This is a beautifully written, poignant reminder of the fragility of life and the enduring strength of love.