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Journal Entry 1 by boomda181 on Monday, May 16, 2011
 Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, April 2011: There is a simple, yet remarkable, scene in Kyung-sook Shin’s novel, Please Look After Mom, where the book’s title character visits her adult son in Seoul. He lives in a duty office in the building where he works, because he can't afford an apartment. At night, they sleep on the floor and she offers to lie next to the wall to shield him from a draft. “I can fall asleep better if I’m next to the wall,” she says. And with this gesture, we catch a glimpse of the depth of love she has for her first-born and the duty-bound sacrifices she’s made on behalf her family. Please Look After Mom is the story of a mother, and her family’s search for her after she goes missing in a crowded train station, told through four richly imagined voices: her daughter’s, her oldest son’s, her husband’s, and finally her own. Each chapter adds a layer to the story’s depth and complexity, until we are left with an indelible portrait of a woman whose entire identity, despite her secret desires, is tied up in her children and the heartbreaking loss that is felt when family bonds loosen over time. Kyung-sook Shin’s elegantly spare prose is a joy to read, but it is the quiet interstitial space between her words, where our own remembrances and regrets are allowed to seep in, that convicts each one of us to our core.--Shane Hansanuwat
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It has been weeks since I have read this book and I find myself reflecting on it often. While I really enjoyed revisiting the childhood memories of the main character through an adult's eyes, I could not get over the idea that they waited so long to try and find their mother. It is a beautiful narrative.
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Journal Entry 2 by boomda181 at YBS, BookObsessed Swap -- Controlled Releases on Thursday, July 14, 2011
Released 10 mos ago (7/14/2011 UTC) at YBS, BookObsessed Swap -- Controlled Releases CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
On its way to ACE
I hope you enjoy it. I look forward to hearing what you think. I have a lot of mixed emotions about the book.
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Please Look After Mom
