Please Look After Mom by Shin Kyung-sook

She is now a spirit who hasn’t yet found peace (meaning that she has died but no one has found her body). The plot twist comes when So-nyo narrates the last chapter. So-nyo’s husband was insensitive to her illnesses and largely ignored her. So-nyo’s unnamed husband delves into what they endured during the Korean War, including the death of his younger brother Kyun, a death that most likely traumatized So-nyo irrevocably. The chapter also highlights So-nyo’s thinking while lost by suggesting that she tried visiting each of the 12 neighborhoods in which Hyong-chol once lived. Flashbacks show how much So-nyo sacrificed for Hyong-chol to prosper and how strong So-nyo had to be when her husband temporarily left her for another woman. Now, he feels he won’t ever get the chance to apologize. He once made a promise to become rich and to take care of So-nyo, but he forgot this promise as time passed. As he searches around Seoul with Chi-hon, he wonders why he feels so guilty about So-nyo’s disappearance. Hyong-chol also regrets forgetting about his mother. Chi-hon admits to herself that she has never thought of her mother as a human being, but as an object simply fulfilling the role of Mother. When Chi-hon has her mom tested, she learns that So-nyo suffers from severe headaches after having a stroke she never told anyone about.

Chi-hon was the first person to realize that So-nyo had an illness she hadn’t disclosed to the family. The narrative makes use of heavy flashback and memory recall to flesh out So-nyo and her family’s past.Ĭhi-hon, So-nyo’s eldest daughter, is a writer who regrets having spent her life writing, being angry with her mother, and largely ignoring her family.

The novel contains four chapters and an Epilogue-each one narrated by a family member. The goal is to find Mom, and then to look after her. Hyong-chol, the eldest son, places an ad in the paper, and the family makes a missing-person flyer they hang up and pass out around town. The family searches for So-nyo around Seoul.

She disappears, and though the family searches for her, they will never see So-nyo again. So-nyo has several illnesses and, unbeknownst to the family, is no longer capable of remembering even her name. When an elderly couple visits Seoul to celebrate their joint birthdays with their children, the 69-year-old matriarch, So-nyo Park, accidentally separates from her husband in a crowd at Seoul Station. Please note that the study guide contains references to emotional abuse, death, and other traumatic events.

This study guide references the Vintage Contemporaries 2011 translation. Please Look After Mom, for which she won the Man Asian, is her first novel to appear in English. The first woman awarded the Man Asian Literary Prize, Shin publishes widely and has written many other acclaimed novels.

Please Look After Mom by Shin Kyung-sook