Please Look After Mother
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Review
'A moving Korean novel questions the reliability of memory... Up to a point the novel plots South Korea's postwar growth against the death of its families in predictably allegorical ways...It is only in the moving chapter when Mother finally speaks for herself that her face suddenly swings into radiantly clear focus. The irony is that only Shin's readers get to see it.' (MARGARET HILLENBRAND, Lec, Chinese Lit, Oxford Uni THE FINANCIAL TIMES - 16/4/11 )
'a captivating story, written with an understanding of the shortcomings of traditional ways and modern life. It is nostalgic but unsentimental, brutally well observed and, in this flawlessly smooth translation by Chi-Young Kim, it offers a sobering account of a vanished past... We must hope there are more translations to follow." (TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT - 29/4/11 )
"An extraordinary novel about regret and our relations with those we love." (Antonio Berardi, designer HARPERS BAZAAR - July 2011 )
"I'm an emotional wreck. Intensity is heartbreaking... far too traumatised to sleep last night! complex emotional tidal wave left me feeling exhausted! Swept me along... willing for good fortune + happy end. Final haunting pages will stay me forever. Beautifully written. Emotionally charged." (Sandy Mahal, The Reading Agency @readwithsandy twitter feed )
"...The picture that emerges, of an unappreciated mother who sacrificed her life for her family, [may be] familiar... but the story somehow works, redeemed by the resolute So-nyo of the last chapters, a woman her husband and children never knew." (Tina Jordan Entertainment Weekly )
"Questions punctuate [the] narrative and lead to a cascade of revelations, discoveries that come gradually... Shin's prose, intimate, and hauntingly spare, powerfully conveys grief's bewildering immediacy. And yet this book isn't as interested in emotional manipulation as it is in the invisible chasms that open up between people who know one another best... A raw tribute to the mysteries of motherhood." (Mythili G. Rao The New York Times Book Review )
"Titles to Pick Up Now: This best-seller set in the author's native Korea examines a family's history through the story of the matriarch, mysteriously gone missing from a Seoul train sation." (Karen Holt O, the Oprah Magazine )
"The universal resonance of family life lifts a novel rooted in the experience of Korean modernity to international success. A best-seller in her native South Korea, Shin's Please Look After Mom tells the story of Park So-nyo, a devoted, do-all wife and mother who mysteriously goes missing... the book-Shin's first to be translated into English- is a moving portrayal of the surprising nature, sudden sacrifices, and secret reveries of motherhood." (Lisa Shea Elle )
"An enormous publishing success in South Korea, this simple portrait of a family shocked into acknowledging the strength and heroic self-sacrifice of the woman at its center is both universal and socially specific... Partly a metaphor for Korea's social shift from rural to urban, partly an elegy to the intensity of family bonds as constructed and maintained by self-denying women, this is tender writing." (Kirkus Reviews )
"Indelible... Shin's breathtaking novel is an acute reminder of how easily a family can fracture, how little we truly know one another, and how desperate need can sometimes overshadow even the deepest love.... Already a prominent writer in Korea, Shin makes her English-language debut with what will appeal to all readers who appreciate compelling, page-turning prose. Stay tuned: [Please Look After Mother] should be one of this year's most deserving bestsellers." (Terry Hong Library Journal )
"Affecting... Poignant and psychologically revealing... Readers should find resonance in this family story, a runaway bestseller in Korea poised for a similar run here." (Publishers Weekly )
'... the most moving and accomplished, and often startling, novel in translation I've read in many seasons.' (WALL STREET JOURNAL -28.05.11 )
'what the characters and readers of... South Korean author Kyung-sook Shin discover is that in the mother's absence she is only more powerfully present.' (REUTERS - 31.05.11 )
'a captivating story, written with an understanding of the shortcomings of traditional ways and modern life. It is nostalgic but unsentimental, brutally well observed and, in this flawlessly smooth translation by Chi-Young Kim, it offers a sobering account of a vanished past... We must hope there are more translations to follow." (TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT - 29/4/11 )
"An extraordinary novel about regret and our relations with those we love." (Antonio Berardi, designer HARPERS BAZAAR - July 2011 )
"I'm an emotional wreck. Intensity is heartbreaking... far too traumatised to sleep last night! complex emotional tidal wave left me feeling exhausted! Swept me along... willing for good fortune + happy end. Final haunting pages will stay me forever. Beautifully written. Emotionally charged." (Sandy Mahal, The Reading Agency @readwithsandy twitter feed )
"...The picture that emerges, of an unappreciated mother who sacrificed her life for her family, [may be] familiar... but the story somehow works, redeemed by the resolute So-nyo of the last chapters, a woman her husband and children never knew." (Tina Jordan Entertainment Weekly )
"Questions punctuate [the] narrative and lead to a cascade of revelations, discoveries that come gradually... Shin's prose, intimate, and hauntingly spare, powerfully conveys grief's bewildering immediacy. And yet this book isn't as interested in emotional manipulation as it is in the invisible chasms that open up between people who know one another best... A raw tribute to the mysteries of motherhood." (Mythili G. Rao The New York Times Book Review )
"Titles to Pick Up Now: This best-seller set in the author's native Korea examines a family's history through the story of the matriarch, mysteriously gone missing from a Seoul train sation." (Karen Holt O, the Oprah Magazine )
"The universal resonance of family life lifts a novel rooted in the experience of Korean modernity to international success. A best-seller in her native South Korea, Shin's Please Look After Mom tells the story of Park So-nyo, a devoted, do-all wife and mother who mysteriously goes missing... the book-Shin's first to be translated into English- is a moving portrayal of the surprising nature, sudden sacrifices, and secret reveries of motherhood." (Lisa Shea Elle )
"An enormous publishing success in South Korea, this simple portrait of a family shocked into acknowledging the strength and heroic self-sacrifice of the woman at its center is both universal and socially specific... Partly a metaphor for Korea's social shift from rural to urban, partly an elegy to the intensity of family bonds as constructed and maintained by self-denying women, this is tender writing." (Kirkus Reviews )
"Indelible... Shin's breathtaking novel is an acute reminder of how easily a family can fracture, how little we truly know one another, and how desperate need can sometimes overshadow even the deepest love.... Already a prominent writer in Korea, Shin makes her English-language debut with what will appeal to all readers who appreciate compelling, page-turning prose. Stay tuned: [Please Look After Mother] should be one of this year's most deserving bestsellers." (Terry Hong Library Journal )
"Affecting... Poignant and psychologically revealing... Readers should find resonance in this family story, a runaway bestseller in Korea poised for a similar run here." (Publishers Weekly )
'... the most moving and accomplished, and often startling, novel in translation I've read in many seasons.' (WALL STREET JOURNAL -28.05.11 )
'what the characters and readers of... South Korean author Kyung-sook Shin discover is that in the mother's absence she is only more powerfully present.' (REUTERS - 31.05.11 )
Review
This story about family, hope and guilt has universal reach. (Big Issue in the North )
Tender, thoughtful and well-crafted... (Boyd Tonkin The Independent )
I found what is in one sense a terribly sad book, life-affirming, portraying the sorrows and joys of the parent-child relationship, familiar whether you live in rural South Korea, or South London (THE TIMES )
Full of emotion, this beautifully written book is like nothing I have ever read before and I thoroughly recommend it. (South Wales Argus )
a captivating story, written with an understanding of the shortcomings of traditional ways and modern life. It is nostalgic but unsentimental, brutally well observed and, in this flawlessly smooth translation by Chi-Young Kim, it offers a sobering account of a vanished past... We must hope there are more translations to follow. (THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT )
The universal resonance of family life lifts a novel rooted in the experience of Korean modernity to international success. A best-seller in her native South Korea, Shin's Please Look After Mom tells the story of Park So-nyo, a devoted, do-all wife and mother who mysteriously goes missing... the book-Shin's first to be translated into English- is a moving portrayal of the surprising nature, sudden sacrifices, and secret reveries of motherhood. (Lisa Shea Elle )
An enormous publishing success in South Korea, this simple portrait of a family shocked into acknowledging the strength and heroic self-sacrifice of the woman at its center is both universal and socially specific... Partly a metaphor for Korea's social shift from rural to urban, partly an elegy to the intensity of family bonds as constructed and maintained by self-denying women, this is tender writing. (Kirkus Reviews )
ndelible... Shin's breathtaking novel is an acute reminder of how easily a family can fracture, how little we truly know one another, and how desperate need can sometimes overshadow even the deepest love.... Already a prominent writer in Korea, Shin makes her English-language debut with what will appeal to all readers who appreciate compelling, page-turning prose. Stay tuned: [Please Look After Mother] should be one of this year's most deserving bestsellers. (Terry Hong Library Journal )
what the characters and readers of... South Korean author Kyung-sook Shin discover is that in the mother's absence she is only more powerfully present. (REUTERS )
Kyung-Sook Shin's tale.. has hit a nerve.. it certainlytaps the universal tendency to take one's mother for granted. (THE GUARDIAN ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Tender, thoughtful and well-crafted... (Boyd Tonkin The Independent )
I found what is in one sense a terribly sad book, life-affirming, portraying the sorrows and joys of the parent-child relationship, familiar whether you live in rural South Korea, or South London (THE TIMES )
Full of emotion, this beautifully written book is like nothing I have ever read before and I thoroughly recommend it. (South Wales Argus )
a captivating story, written with an understanding of the shortcomings of traditional ways and modern life. It is nostalgic but unsentimental, brutally well observed and, in this flawlessly smooth translation by Chi-Young Kim, it offers a sobering account of a vanished past... We must hope there are more translations to follow. (THE TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT )
The universal resonance of family life lifts a novel rooted in the experience of Korean modernity to international success. A best-seller in her native South Korea, Shin's Please Look After Mom tells the story of Park So-nyo, a devoted, do-all wife and mother who mysteriously goes missing... the book-Shin's first to be translated into English- is a moving portrayal of the surprising nature, sudden sacrifices, and secret reveries of motherhood. (Lisa Shea Elle )
An enormous publishing success in South Korea, this simple portrait of a family shocked into acknowledging the strength and heroic self-sacrifice of the woman at its center is both universal and socially specific... Partly a metaphor for Korea's social shift from rural to urban, partly an elegy to the intensity of family bonds as constructed and maintained by self-denying women, this is tender writing. (Kirkus Reviews )
ndelible... Shin's breathtaking novel is an acute reminder of how easily a family can fracture, how little we truly know one another, and how desperate need can sometimes overshadow even the deepest love.... Already a prominent writer in Korea, Shin makes her English-language debut with what will appeal to all readers who appreciate compelling, page-turning prose. Stay tuned: [Please Look After Mother] should be one of this year's most deserving bestsellers. (Terry Hong Library Journal )
what the characters and readers of... South Korean author Kyung-sook Shin discover is that in the mother's absence she is only more powerfully present. (REUTERS )
Kyung-Sook Shin's tale.. has hit a nerve.. it certainlytaps the universal tendency to take one's mother for granted. (THE GUARDIAN ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Splintered narratives are in vogue in Korea, and this bestseller is a doozy. Four narrators describe their relationships over their lifetimes with Mother, an almost archetypal figure of self-abnegation and love. Towards the twilight of her life, she is separated in a train station from her husband and goes missing. The narrators, veering between despair, panic and utter callousness, recall their experiences of her.
The title in English misses the nuance of the Korean, which translates directly as 'I entrust Mum to you'. Mother is of humble origins but not without pride. She sacrifices herself for her eldest boy who remains the apple of her eye well into her old age. She is illiterate, and can't read the books that have made her elder daughter famous. The son is suffused with guilt at not necessarily having achieved all Mother wanted him to. The daughter, increasingly sophisticated with age, is irritated by her mother's superstition and stubborness, and then regrets the distance that not even love can easily bridge. Father, too, has his reasons for despair - he didn't help Mother as she spiralled into illness, both physical and mental, and he became increasingly more self-indulgent, intolerant of his wife. The family strains and creaks under these revelations, both introspective and narrative. How little they cherished Mother when she stood as their bedrock, and how much they miss her when she is lost, alone and defenceless. The little tragedies of life come to roost, and - unlike in most redemptive fiction - there are no easy answers in this tender and tragic tale.
The title in English misses the nuance of the Korean, which translates directly as 'I entrust Mum to you'. Mother is of humble origins but not without pride. She sacrifices herself for her eldest boy who remains the apple of her eye well into her old age. She is illiterate, and can't read the books that have made her elder daughter famous. The son is suffused with guilt at not necessarily having achieved all Mother wanted him to. The daughter, increasingly sophisticated with age, is irritated by her mother's superstition and stubborness, and then regrets the distance that not even love can easily bridge. Father, too, has his reasons for despair - he didn't help Mother as she spiralled into illness, both physical and mental, and he became increasingly more self-indulgent, intolerant of his wife. The family strains and creaks under these revelations, both introspective and narrative. How little they cherished Mother when she stood as their bedrock, and how much they miss her when she is lost, alone and defenceless. The little tragedies of life come to roost, and - unlike in most redemptive fiction - there are no easy answers in this tender and tragic tale.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Although I should have no reason to feel guilty about my own relationship with my elderly parents, the skill of this book is that it causes us to question the roles of the generations, and our treatment of elderly relatives when we ourselves reach adulthood. The 'mother' of the title is Son-yo who has, like many others of her generation, sacrificed self and sanity for the betterment of her husband and five children, disregarding her own views, desires and even health to promote theirs.
The book tells the story of the elderly, confused peasant mother, Son-yo, who goes missing when she fails to board a train in Seoul, Korea, with her husband on a visit to one of their children. The story is told from the perspective of the mother, her children and her husband. Did any of them really know her? Did they realise that she had been illiterate? Could they even remember the colour of the sandals she wore around her septic toe?
The use of 'you', mentioned by other reviewers, could be just the result of translation irregularities.
As generations evolve and change, they try to judge previous generations from their own standpoints, which is what we should never do! Thus the adult children fail to value the world and work of their mother, and do not appreciate her role in their lives until she is no longer there for them.
It wasn't a pleasant read because it forced me to confront generational differences, but I think its power will stay with me for a long time.
The book tells the story of the elderly, confused peasant mother, Son-yo, who goes missing when she fails to board a train in Seoul, Korea, with her husband on a visit to one of their children. The story is told from the perspective of the mother, her children and her husband. Did any of them really know her? Did they realise that she had been illiterate? Could they even remember the colour of the sandals she wore around her septic toe?
The use of 'you', mentioned by other reviewers, could be just the result of translation irregularities.
As generations evolve and change, they try to judge previous generations from their own standpoints, which is what we should never do! Thus the adult children fail to value the world and work of their mother, and do not appreciate her role in their lives until she is no longer there for them.
It wasn't a pleasant read because it forced me to confront generational differences, but I think its power will stay with me for a long time.
23 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Please Look After Mother is a novel about regret and how we wish we could go back and change how we relate to the people we love.
A mother goes missing in Seoul and her family are left trying to find her by producting flyers and searching for her. As you read this Korean novel you find out how the mother becomes lost in Seoul and you are given an insight into her life through the eyes of her daughter, son and husband, and how her going missing makes them review their attitude towards her, making them realise how they never fully appreciated her and how they never told her how much she meant to each of them.
This is a quietly, compelling novel dealing with motherhood and family, and is well worth a read.
A mother goes missing in Seoul and her family are left trying to find her by producting flyers and searching for her. As you read this Korean novel you find out how the mother becomes lost in Seoul and you are given an insight into her life through the eyes of her daughter, son and husband, and how her going missing makes them review their attitude towards her, making them realise how they never fully appreciated her and how they never told her how much she meant to each of them.
This is a quietly, compelling novel dealing with motherhood and family, and is well worth a read.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Love it
A thought- provoking, moving book, set in Korea about an elderly lady who goes missing one day in a busy train station in Seoul. Read more
Published 1 day ago by Butterfly
'you had never thought of Mother as separate from the kitchen...You...
Elderly and unwell, Mother becomes separated from her husband in the Seoul metro. Her children put up adverts and begin to reproach themselves and each other. Read more
Published 5 days ago by sally tarbox
great story!!
Please look after Mother.
I did not much appreciate when my mom pouring her affection toward me as I felt like it is very normal and she should do. Read more
I did not much appreciate when my mom pouring her affection toward me as I felt like it is very normal and she should do. Read more
Published 1 month ago by catisland
Good but....
The basis to this book: regret, love and wish that you can change things. It is relatively good book. DOes make you appreciate what you actually know about your own parents. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Anistitis
Loved this book!
Really powerful and unforgettable! It makes you to think how ignorant you've been to the people, including Mother, who have helped you as you are now. A must read.
Published 8 months ago by Kelly
A moving story of a Mother's Sacrifice
My wife's review:
This novel is from widely acclaimed Korean author Shin which focuses on motherhood and family guilt. Read more
This novel is from widely acclaimed Korean author Shin which focuses on motherhood and family guilt. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mr. S. N. Pattison
a wonderful insight to Korea
Kyung-Sook ,family we re farmers ,she worked in an electronic plant study at night whilst finally reaching the Seoul institute of arts ,her first novel came out in 1985 ,she is... Read more
Published 10 months ago by stuart allen
A mixed review
"Please Look After Mother," tells the story of a Korean family and how their lives are changed when So-nyo, the wife and mother goes missing. Read more
Published 11 months ago by K. Wright
Please look after mother
I quite enjoyed it - definitely written by by someone from another culture. My son and his family live in South Korea and which was why I had bought it and I have visited South... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Hector
A remarkable book about motherhood
As an elderly couple are about to leave Seoul on the subway, the wife gets separated and disappears. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Kona
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