Please Look After Mom
By kyung-sook shin
One day a elderly woman is lost on the subway in Seoul. One minute she is behind her husband the next minute he can't find her. The story narrative is each childs thoughts and feeling of their mother's journey during the time she is lost.
Where did she go all this time? Why can't we find her? How can our father loose our mother, and not know where she went? These are questions are asked all through the novel.
One of the children could not separate their mother from the kitchen. The one son thought her mother had no life, but living in the kitchen.
Her daughter thought her mother was in misery, but she was happy in her life.
Her eldest son needs a important certificate. But, it can't get to him. So, she decides she is going to trek and get it for him. What a mother will do to sacrifice for her own child.
Her children, I thought were very selfish, and did not have the time to appreciate, and care what happened to their mother. But, come to the realization while they are trying to find their mother, that she was a selfless, devoted and caring, and, do almost anything if her child needed her,
All the children realize toward the end of the story that they really don't know their mother.
At the end do we really know our mothers? Do we know they have another life outside of their children and their husband? Would we make sacrifices for our children? Most mothers do.
I don't want to tell you the end of the story. It has a unique ending. I thought this book was a nice effort to give tribute to all mothers. It is a mystery, suspense, and a literary story.
Would I rare about it, probably not. But, I am still glad I read it, becuase it made me appreciate my mother. I hope there will be other books that will be a love story to our mothers. Here is the NYTimes thoughts on this novel.