Please Look After Mom By Kyung-Sook Shin

Please Look After Mom (엄마를 부탁해), a novel by South Korean author Kyung-sook Shin,  sold a million copies within 10 months of release in 2009 in South Korea.  The English translation by Chi-young Kim won the 2011 Man Asian Literary Prize and was also chosen by Oprah to be one of her “18 Books to Watch for in April 2011” and by Amazon as one of its “Best Books of the Month: April 2011”

Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin

When sixty-nine-year-old Park So-Nyo is separated from her husband among the crowds of the Seoul subway station, and disappears, her family begins a desperate search to find her. Fliers are posted all over the city and distributed by hand. Sightings throughout the city are followed up by the family. The crisis drives a wedge between the family members, and soon bickering and blame unfold in equal measure.

Awash in sorrow and guilt, they are forced to ponder on how well they actually know the woman they called Mom. The novel explores the adult children’s guilt over their aging parents, parents’ guilt about being burdens to their children, and spouses wishing they had been better spouses.

The story is told from four alternating points of view: Chi-hon, the oldest daughter and a successful novelist, Hyung-chol, the oldest son who is wracked with guilt for not living up to his mum’s expectation, her husband who inevitably disappointed Mom through his selfishness and adultery, and last of all, Mom.

This book will open your eyes to your own level of participation in your relationships and force you to face difficult questions about your own relationships. Do you take people for granted?  Do you really know the people closest to your heart?  This book is a warning to you to ask these questions when you still have a chance to answer them and to make you realize that you should take the time to know those you love and also allow them to know you!

This story took me through an emotional roller coaster that reminded me of all my personal shortcomings in the relationship department with my own family and my mum. It stimulates my own recollections of my own mum who passed away slightly over two years ago.