Nicole’s recent book A Living Remedy explores loss and family as well as sharp observations about American health-care.
Nicole Chung has written two memoirs in five years—both about loss and family. The first is the highly acclaimed All You Can Ever Know which was a finalist for National Book Critics Circle Award. It explores the circumstances of her adoption as a Korean American by a white family who were advised take a colorblind approach to parenting, the implications of that decision for Chung, her successful search as an adult to find her birth family, and the loving support of her adoptive parents. Her recently released second memoir A Living Remedy deals with the deaths of her adoptive parents within a two year period, how the healthcare system failed her father, and Chung’s struggle to balance the duties of a mother with that of a daughter as her terminally-ill mother who lived across the country went into hospice as the country shut down due to the pandemic. A Living Remedy deftly navigates personal loss with a hard look at broader societal issues and Chung discusses balancing between the two, the extraordinary difficulty in writing this memoir that has at its center the abiding love she shares with her parents, most particularly her mother, and finding grace as she learned to live with grief. Let us know what you think about Art Works—email us at artworkspod@arts.gov.
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