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    Please Look After Mom
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    Please Look After Mom
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    Please Look After Mom
    Audiobook7 hours

    Please Look After Mom

    Written by Kyung-Sook Shin

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    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.


    From the Hardcover edition.

    Editor's Note

    Heartbreaking & beautiful…

    “Please Look After Mom” is at once one family’s history & a window into contemporary Korean culture & life. A heartbreaking & beautifully written look at how important family can be & the devastating effects of loss.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 5, 2011
    ISBN9780307747372
    Unavailable
    Please Look After Mom
    Author

    Kyung-Sook Shin

    Kyung-Sook Shin is one of South Korea's most widely read and acclaimed novelists. She is the author of The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness, I'll Be Right There, and Please Look After Mom, which was a New York Times bestseller and a Man Asian Literary Prize winner.

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    Reviews for Please Look After Mom

    4/5

    454 ratings55 reviews

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    • 3/5
      Fascinating book, way outside my usual areas of reading. Tells the story of a family and their responses when their mother/wife goes missing. The story is skilfully told in the voices of different family members, gradually revealing the dynamics of family relationships. There is much regret in reviewing their past interactions with the missing family member. What seemed normal/acceptable then, often seems heartless and cruel in the new circumstances. One of the strengths of the book is that such regrets are universal.The book is set in the economic surge in Korea from the end of the Korean War in the 1950s through to the current time. From illiteracy and fear of not having enough food, to fear of not having enough time in the bustle of the modern world. Many of the relationship stresses are related to the changes in life and lifestyle that flowed from the economic boom.
    • 5/5
      I find books written in second person challenging to read. Yet as the story of mom’s life and her disappearance in a Seoul subway station unfolds, second person is a great writing tool for telling the story. What a jerk of a husband and dad, what self-centered children, and such a strong mother. I kept worrying about how the book would end…it ends perfectly, just the way I wanted to remember the mother. The message I got from the book is that no one really knew Mom. Maybe we all need to take another look at the mothers in our lives.
    • 4/5
      This was a sad story of a Korean woman who becomes lost in a crowded subway station in Seoul. Her family tries desperately to find her and during that process the stories of their individual relationships are told. The book is written in second person which I found difficult to read. The son, daughter, husband and then wife each tell the story for their perspective. It is a reminder of how you should never take relationships for granted and you shouldn't leave things unsaid.
    • 2/5
      Felt like I was stuck in a post-modern Victorian novel
    • 4/5
      This is a story of a Korean family whose mother/wife goes missing. The mother and father are at a train station, and it's crowded, and somehow, Mom gets lost. The story is told from different family members and each section creates an image of a truly loved but often overlooked member of the family. Every storyline added something new about Mom's life to the story that was revealed.

      As a mom, this was an incredible tribute to a woman's life. All too often, you go through the motions of motherhood, not because it's a fun part of the job, but a necessity. This mom cared for her family above all else - constantly striving to get them the food they needed, the education that they needed, and the wisdom they needed. I can only hope that I have done even a portion of that for my own children.

      I struggled with this storyline, only because I felt so deeply for the children and the husband - clearly, there were lots of unresolved things that they wanted to say and wanted to do. All in all, I enjoyed the ending as well and thoroughly enjoyed hearing a story that I wasn't expecting to like as much as I did.
    • 5/5
      Wow....wait, I need to capitalize this: WOW...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 Mom. The last time I was this wrecked was when my father passed away of cancer 2 years ago.

      The story begins when the 70-year old mother of a family disappears from a Seoul train station. The family, 5 grown children and her husband, is desperate to find her and yet, on the other hand, are blaming themselves and each other for not spending more time or paying more attention to her. The book is divided into 4 major sections with 4 narrative voices: the oldest daughter, the oldest son, the husband and the mom herself, with a shorter epilogue again narrated by the oldest daughter. A second person narration is heavily used in the book..in all except for the personal narration of Mom. It takes a little getting used to but then ultimately one would start to identify with the voice:

      "You were the one who always hung up first. You would say, "Mom, I'll call you back," and then you didn't. You didn't have time to sit and listen to everything your Mom had to say..."

      "Mom was the kitchen and the kitchen was Mom. You never wondered, did Mom like being in the kitchen?"

      As the story unfolds with each person's narration, we understand a little more about Mom, her love for all, her everyday life, her relationship with each of her children, her relationship with her husband and her husband's demanding older sister. We come to know that her children and her husband know very little of her, except that she was always there for them, taking care of them. When Mom's voice starts narrating at the end, we get the complete picture, almost...

      It's no coincidence that the Korean word for "death" is a homonym for the number 4 (same in Chinese). This is a very sad story to read, yet I can't stop reading, especially toward the end. The translation is great, leaving Shin's original writing style unchanged. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves his/her Mom.
    • 4/5
      Hard to put down with the suspense of a missing person at the heart of the plot. The missing person turns out to be a metaphor. "You don't miss your water til your well runs dry."
    • 5/5
      A heart-wrenching story of a Korean family whose elderly mother goes missing on a subway train. The life and characteristics of this old amazing woman, Park Sgyuen, gradually unfolds as each member of the family tells in his or her words of his relationship with Mom. We learn about the sacrifices that the woman made for every member of her family. Although Park Sgyuen was a simple illiterate woman, she made a huge impact on her family (and many other people) and her absence leaves an enormous void. The stories are filled with sadness and regret. Listening to this book, I definitely felt and could relate to the feelings of remorse of not spending time and attention with the people we love. Beautiful story that made me miss my mom.
    • 4/5
      A moving and compelling novel, which gradually reveals the lives and relationships within a Korean family, after the elderly mother disappears. The story is told from multiple points of view, moving between the present and a slowly expanding past. The characters are strongly developed, and created at least in me a strong emotional response. The background is fascinating -- the enormous changes that have taken place in Korea even in the lifetime of fairly young people is vividly brought out. Thtere was one structural issue that puzzled me (among a group of four adult siblings, one barely appears) but overall this was a very satisfying read. The feeling of temporarily sharing lives that are very different from my own was strong, and the sharing of some emotions very similar to my own was even stronger.
    • 4/5
      Despite the terrible title, I liked this book. The story was fast paced and intriguing, but I did struggle with the point of view, just who was telling the story? Worth reading.
    • 5/5
      Seemingly effortlessly translated into English, Please Look After Mom unabashedly attacks the heart and leaves the speechless reader in a state that can only be remedied by picking up the phone and calling your mom. Internationally recognized author Shin Kyung-Sook's unforgettably poignant 2008 novel is the recipient of several literary awards. However, is it all just culturally specific schmaltz lost on American readers or is there enough literary substance to warrant its international acclaim?The story is about an elderly woman who accidentally becomes lost amidst a busy Seoul subway stop and her selfish family's frantic, consequential search. The book is contextually divided into four narratives: the critical eldest daughter, the favorited eldest son, the nomadic absentee husband, and finally the saint-like mother herself. Each chapter delves more into the tender, borderline naive characterization of the mother and the subsequent guilt felt by those who ultimately failed to live up to their proper familial roles. The characters are humanly flawed but forgivingly empathetic. You find yourself criticizing almost each family member for their insensitivity but then apologetically root for their redemption. Culturally speaking, the setting is a striking contrast between socially progressive Seoul-centered modernization and war-torn traditional country-side values that are more and more lost with each passing generation. The mother's poverty-stricken childhood is but a dim memory to her doted children who knew little of her sacrifice and sorrow. Other than a few culturally contextualized moments, the narration needs very little pretext for the average non-Korean reader to appreciate the depth of this story. After all, everyone has a mother.That's the general consensus with this touching story. At some part in most people's lives, like the characters in the story, we all have an epiphany and realize that our own mothers were not born mothers but instead chose to be mothers. Even though my own mother's personal sacrifices were naturally different than the ones described in the book, her loving presence is echoed in this story, as many other readers, too, have expressed.It's indeed a sentimental Korean tear-jerker but thankfully it's also well-written enough to be almost effortlessly appreciated by an international audience. Having read the English version, I'm anxious to read the Korean version in hopes to further pick up on certain nuances that were likely to have been inescapably lost in translation, such as the subtle differences between "Mom" and "Mother" and the title's ambiguous message which could be interpreted as either a dutiful order or a spiritual request.
    • 3/5
      An elderly woman is accidentally left behind at the Seoul subway station and her family is left to look for her as they each remember her. Having several different perspectives to see the same person is interesting; can we really know anyone? Even someone you have lived with for decades? I thought the second-person narrative was difficult to follow and I found it distancing, not intimate. I also realize I may have enjoyed it more if I knew a little bit about Korean history.
    • 5/5
      An incredibly poignant book. It's about sacrifices mothers make for their children, about appreciating people while they are still with us, it's about regrets. It actually made me cry in a couple of places.
    • 4/5
      Sad and jolting - another reminder about the value of seeing people for who they are, not just we want them to be. When Mom goes missing, her adult children and husband confront how little they knew of her other than her tireless work and how the didn't see her pain or her decline. As other reviewers have remarked, the style took a bit to get used to but I think the choice of second person alternating narratives was effective.
    • 3/5
      I won't say this was an easy book to read. The narrators did a good job of making each character have qualities that made you cringe while listening to them. I think that this is a very interesting book with lots of depth. Each person "lost" their mother years before their mother goes missing in the subway station in Seoul. As they continue to search for her, each child and the husband all think of the ways they have left their mother/wife behind over the years. Eventually the mother's voice is heard. I am also glad for the epilogue. I felt it gave needed closure to some points of the story.

      I won't say this book is a favorite. But I am glad I read it. I like reading fiction from other countries. I felt the translation was very good.

    • 5/5
      I can't believe how much I loved this book. My friends will be amazed that I've rated this book so high, since it's a translation and based in Korea no less!
      Each chapter is in the voice of a different character, which is one of my favorite storytelling techniques. Each of the characters has a connection to the subject of this book, an elderly Korean, country woman named Park. Park and her husband have traveled to the city of Seoul to visit one of their children and while in the subway station Park gets separated from her husband and is lost somewhere in the city.
      The book is really the story of Park and her relationships with the people around her. Just a terrific book.
    • 4/5
      An elderly mother is left behind at a train station on her way to visit her adult children. This story chronicles the thoughts and emotions of the children and husband as time continues to pass and the mother is still missing. Regrets seem to outnumber the contented memories. Slowly, it is discovered that the mother is more than any of them knew she was or could be. The children and spouse question if the possibility, in fact truth, that hopes and dreams existed outside the kitchen.
    • 2/5
      An elderly mother goes missing in Seoul after accidentally separating from her husband at a train station. Her grown up children and husband search desperately for her over, plastering the city with posters. As they search over the next few days, then weeks and months, they each reflect on their relationships with their mom, and begin to realise they really didn't know her. They took her for granted and now become filled with guilty remorse. The story is told from shifting perspectives in the second voice, and in one segment also in the first voice, and that was really confusing. The grown up children were not particularly likeable but their characters felt only sketchily filled in.. They forgot about Mom throughout their lives, so by the time she was forgotten into oblivion, they have only their guilt left to nurture.
    • 4/5
      I would have given this a 5 star but the ending really turned me off.
    • 5/5
      Wow, this one will tug on your heartstrings. What are heartstrings, by the way? I don't think that I even knew that I had them until diving into this book.
    • 1/5
      Was this book written by a "Jewish Mother?" You'll be sorry when I'm gone!
    • 4/5
      I had my ups and downs with this book (sometimes I felt I was being emotionally manipulated), but overall I liked it. The majority of it was in the second person, with sometimes confusing (but purposefully, I think) shifts between narrators. You can learn a lot about Korean culture from the book, and from the fact that it was a big bestseller there.
    • 3/5
      This may be an emotionally manipulating best-seller, but it's a really good emotionally manipulating best-seller.

      Call your mothers.
    • 5/5
      a heartwarming story. not very do i give 5 stars. this is a well written book. different characters tell about their feeling towards the mother when she vanished. lots of regrets but also thanksfulness. it makes you want to call your own mother and be closer to her. very nice atmosphere.
    • 5/5
      I found this book to be moving and powerful. The only reason I gave it four and a half rather than five stars was that there was no humor in it. But Kyung-Sook Shin deftly wrote a wonderful book, one I think I will never forget. We lived in South Korea, in Seoul, in the country and in a good-sized city from 1965-1985, when the transformations brought out in the book were happening before our eyes. We were struck then by how strong Koreans are and Korean women, mothers especially are. We knew many mothers like the "mom" of this novel, and many of our friends had mothers like that - some became dear, life-long friends, one as close to me as my sister. We admired them and marveled at them. So often their families took them for granted, except as a massive force of nature devoted to the family's well-being, until later. Believe me, the iconic Jewish Mother has nothing on the Korean Mom! I cried through the last third of this book, but I did not consider it sentimental as several reviewers apparently did -- to me it was honest and realistic even with the underlying spirituality in some places. I think some of the universal aspects of the book, that can reach and touch readers from any nation, are of course, the sacrifices loving mothers make; the difference they make in their children's lives; the way we often do not "see" our mothers as fully people until late in their lives or ours; the way families sometimes struggle together but are in a sense, a common, inseparable unit. Stylistically there were several elements that bear notice and have been remarked on in other reviews: though this family is said to have 5 children, only three of the children's voices are heard and a lot of people seem to have lost track of the other kids, which is probably okay because you wouldn't want the book to be any longer. The use of the second person as narrator is striking, unusual, and I think in this case is successful, but it is different to be reading a book with five different "you"s (three of the children, father, and mother) telling the story, and the reader needs to stay alert. It is up to the reader to determine the success of the mother's selfless efforts - but I would vote that she has had a worthwhile and rewarding life, even if unappreciated until too late...like a lot of people I've known.
    • 4/5
      The book jacket states that you'll never look at your mom in the same way after reading this book, and it's true. First, everyone blames themselves for her disappearance, then they blame each other and, finally, they discover " hidden" information about her. Sometimes it's difficult to remember that our mothers had hopes and dreams of their own, and for some, it may not have included motherhood. Many loose ends, but lots of opportunities for great discussion.
    • 5/5
      -- The plot of PLEASE LOOK AFTER MOM is simple & horrifying. A woman doesn't get on subway car with husband. In each of four chapters a family member reminisces about Park So-nyo. She was underappreciated until she went missing. She planted, harvested, & prepared food for five children & husband. Park So-nyo understood the importance of books & reading. She was illiterate. One daughter became a writer & another a pharmacist. Park So-nyo had cancer & a stroke. The Mom in this international bestseller is remarkable as is author's writing style. --
    • 5/5
      I listened to this book on audio, and the use of four narrators on the audio book matched the authors' use of four voices to tell the story of So-nyo, an elderly Korean woman who has come to Seoul to visit her children. Although she is traveling with her husband, she becomes disoriented and is lost in the subway station. We hear about her family's efforts to find her and, through recollections, about her life, from her daughter, her son, and her husband. The distinct voices make it clear that each member of the family knew a slightly different side of So-nyo, and perhaps none of them knew her well at all. In the final section of the book, we hear from So-nyo herself and gain even more insight into the secrets she held throughout her life. This book is written beautifully. The search for So-nyo propels the story forward, but it is the recollections of their mother, snapshots that gradually reveal a life, that are at the heart of this book. The book provides a glimpse of Korean culture, but more importantly Shin explores the universal issue of how well we can ever know another person.
    • 2/5
      "Please Look After Mom" is a novel about a mother who goes missing, and the way in which her family scrambles around in her absence. Set in modern day Seoul, the story waltzes across two generations of South Koreans through a series of flashbacks.The book wallows in the misery of its characters. The missing mother is lamented, praised and pined for, chapter after chapter, with each of the characters confessing their self-centered affronts to each other. It does, however, paint a striking picture of two South Korean generations in a time of dramatic change.
    • 4/5
      Compelling but sad story of a family that is like most families.