Below is a summation of the members' reactions to this work.
Please Look After Mom provoked a lot of discussion in the book group as members were able to look at the situation from both perspectives, as children and as mothers. The story begins as the adult children begin a search for their mother who became separated from their father in the Seoul, Korea subway station. When the father realized his wife had not followed him into the subway car, it was too late to get off. When he did make it back to the point of separation she was gone. As the days become weeks without finding their mother, the children and the father reflect on the mother's life and their own relationships with her. Love, guilt, and regret intermingle with the memories producing a panorama of emotions in each of them.
All the members liked the book. Some of the comments were--"It kept my interest"; "It was different"; "I liked that it was told from different perspectives"; "It was really hard to read but held my interest"; "I think I could have written this book"; "It riled up a lot of emotions in me"; "Lots of emotion, guilt, regrets"; "I did not like the husband." In fact, every member expressed a dislike for the husband and admiration for the mother who managed to feed and raise five children on almost nothing in post-war Korea. Several members did find the narrative structure difficult as two sections used the second-person "you" where, in English, a writer would have used the first-person "I." All agreed they were sometimes confused as to who was narrating some parts.
One member expressed amazement at how often the group's discussion led her to experience a much deeper view of each book.
