About Umma, at the Edge of Memory​

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As the daughter of South Korean immigrants chasing the American Dream from the West Coast to the East Coast, then back again, Sunny Pak’s earliest memory was of the successes and struggles of starting over, first at home, then at the demanding-but-sometimes-booming businesses her parents ran. Sunny finds comfort in her fierce bond with her mother—formed in part as a way of surviving her parents’ contentious marriage, and addiction—and in her mother’s vivid stories of Korea, ancestors, and growing up with too many siblings who could not have been more different from each other. In intimate prose, Sunny explores her own identity shaped by MTV, cassette tapes, Southern California malls, and racism in this compelling coming-of-age memoir of life between two worlds.

 

When dementia takes away her mother’s ability to live on her own, Sunny confronts the psychological toll of caregiving and the heartbreak of losing the lifelong connection to a parent who’s still alive. Yet, at the same time, her mother’s indomitable essence continues to lift up the people around her in surprising ways.

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Sharp, honest, and humorous, in Umma, at the Edge of Memory, Sunny Pak has crafted a distinctly reflective and fully absorbing memoir of a mother and daughter, of grief and hope, where family creates distances but never leaves.

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Correction (July 2026): Some citations for this book have been added and a minor historical update was made in Chapter 4 (page 38 in paperback) in subsequent editions. New purchasers will automatically receive the updated edition.

 

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