A review by documentno_is
Please Look After Mom by Kyung-sook Shin

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Reading this novel I felt my mind slipping to Bonnie Burstow's book Radical Feminist Therapy, and how womanhood (and motherhood specifically) is thankless, and our relationship to mother and father in the context of the patriarchy is a damning fate. It can be easy to overlook the mother, who is tasked with providing everything and is given almost nothing in return. This novel is a series of "looking backs" of a family's life who surrounded a mother who was left alone and overlooked in life at various turns. I think this is also a harder read for those who do not have a good relationship with their mother, and I found myself fighting between feelings of anger and sympathy throughout. 

It's always hard to evaluate a translation- you can never be sure what you've lost in the process.