She cited as inspiration the fiction of Jewish writers Bernard Malamud and Philip Roth, who, she said, "write about very fraught communication between parents and children".

Kirkus Reviews praised it as "wonderfully written" and "The debut of a writer possessing a distinctive, fresh imagination and voice".

[6] The New York Times Book Review called it "Elegant.… A delicately calculated balance sheet of the losses and gains of immigrants whose lives are stretched between two radically different cultures.

The end result is that sometimes parents can't give their children what they need most: a firm foundation of cultural and family history".

[9] In a comment to The Washington Post, Min Jin Lee said: "I read Hunger again this fall, because I return to great work when I need to be nourished.