A million-plus-copy best seller in Korea—a magnificent English-language debut poised to become an international sensation—this is the stunning, deeply moving story of a family’s search for their mother, who goes missing one afternoon amid the crowds of the Seoul Station subway.
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.
You will never think of your mother the same way again after you read this book.
Read more from Knopf here.
Read a New York Times book review here.
And an NPR review here.
(Venessa catalogued this book at work and had no idea it was garnering all of this attention when she decided this would be a good book for the Yardscribes....)
I think there is a lot we can talk about with this book; unfortunately I had to return my copy yesterday and I'm just not feeling intellectually stimulated at the moment to really delve deep or express myself eloquently, but I would like to get the ball rolling, so here goes.... I suppose I should also post that IF YOU HAVEN'T READ YET, DON'T READ THIS YET!
ReplyDeleteOK, so basically this book tells the tale of an overworked, unappreciated woman who sacrifices everything for her family who fails to notice her until she disappears. Not only do they fail to appreciate her, but the realize that none of them know who she really was. For example, one of her daughters was aware that she suffered from debilitating migraines, but none of the children knew that she also suffered from breast cancer, or that their father neglected to take her to a doctor until the disease was already far advanced.
Korean cultural norms aside, the husband was a total [fill in the blank].
I know this isn't the most important item to be gleaned from this wonderful novel, but how do you think Mom died???? I love when novelists leave you guessing, especially when it connects with the plot: obviously no one in the family will ever know what exactly happened to her. Indeed, as soon as I read Mom's chapter it was obvious she was dead and we were getting the 1st person perspective of a ghost.
One more comment on technique: I thought she mastered the 2nd person, which is very hard to do and sound natural. And I loved that she incorporated 1st, 2nd and 3rd person into the novel.
Like I said, far from eloquent, but perhaps a starting point to launch into a more intellectually stimulating conversation....