Please Look After Mom by Shin Kyung-sook

So again, it’s hard for me to create a book review. Since you will somehow get the idea of who this person is and what is the relationship of this person to the main character, which is the mother.

It will be easier to grasp once you get the hang of it. Until you realize that the speaker is actually this person, or the next chapter is actually the point of view of another person. So some parts might be confusing at first. This book is written on the second point of view. But what was clear is that she has constant headaches, and she knew her memory is slowly fading, and only a few more time was left for her. It’s not stated that she had dementia, or she’s having an Alzheimer’s disease. And as you read it’s no wonder why she will be lost in the city because her memory is already failing her. The plot is about a mother who was not able to ride the next train with her husband. Please Look After Mom is the kind of title that will make you realize that it is more of a reminder, than a book title.

But I should have prepared a box of tissue too. I was equipped with a bookmark and sticky notes. And it’s because a lot of the situations in this book are so relatable to the point that a son or daughter, husband and a mother-in-law, or a sister-in-law could relate to this.

But the things I forget regarding my mother is very clear in this book. Not the exact scene but very similar to it. The impact is so strong for me, who is now an adult, who also had those moments in the story. I stopped reading for a while just to compose myself.Īlthough I know that a sad scenario started this story, I never really expected to cry so hard. I knew this book is meant to be read during Mother’s Day month. I read this book during the month of May, and finish it during the last day of the month. But I am giving it to you as a fair warning. I’m telling you now, this book has no happy ending. It’s because you might get depressed, you might cry every other chapter, and you might ask me why I made you read such a story. The truth is I don’t want you to read this book, even though I am rating this five stars. I understand if you are so into Korean Drama that now you are curious how a Korean author will write his or her story. Thoughts:ĭearest fellow reader, I worry about you since you are curious with this book. Told through the piercing voices and urgent perspectives of a daughter, son, husband, and mother, Please Look After Mom is at once an authentic picture of contemporary life in Korea and a universal story of family love. Yet as long-held secrets and private sorrows begin to reveal themselves, they are forced to wonder: how well did they actually know the woman they called Mom? When sixty-nine-year-old So-Nyo is separated from her husband among the crowds of the Seoul subway station, her family begins a desperate search to find her.

Please Look After Mom by Shin Kyung-sook