Please Look After Mom is a novel originally written and published in Korean by Kyung-Sook Shin, a South Korean writer. If you’d like to check it out, though, you certainly can, as
it’s been translated into English! I was intrigued by the internationally best-selling novel and decided to check it out for myself. The book tells the tale of a renowned female South Korean writer, Chi-hon, and her fellow siblings when their mother suddenly goes missing.
Right off the bat, as you start reading, you’ll notice that the book frequently makes use of a second-person point of view, which is highly unique for any literary work. I believe this is done in the novel to help readers put themselves into Chi-hon’s and others’ shoes and to help the author convey her desired messages. Whatever the reason, it comes off as an effective technique in Please Look After Mom, at least for me.
Please Look After Mom is not necessarily a book that you read for its plot. In fact, scratch that. You shouldn’t read Please Look After Mom for its plot at all because if you do, you’ll be missing the author’s intended purpose. From this novel, I was reminded of the so many things I take for granted and was put into so many different people’s shoes. The book forces you to open your eyes, see things from other people’s perspectives, and question your deepest assumptions.
Having said that, there were some parts of the book that I felt to be kind of repetitive, and the second-person point of view did make it confusing to read at times as well. However, if you overlook these, Please Look After Mom makes you think about things in a new and very different way. It’s one of those books I know that if I reread at a later point in time, I’ll see things I haven’t seen before. Maybe that’s why it’s so special. But more importantly than that, the book describes experiences and feelings that everyone can relate to, regardless of their background.
In conclusion, Please Look After Mom is a very unique and powerful novel. It has some parts that may be slightly off-putting, but you may regret it if you don’t give it a shot. This book totally defied my expectations, and maybe it will for you too!
Review By ~ Andrew
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