Please Look After Mom in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Nov 26, 2011 Aleetha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

That you don't know what you've got til it's gone.
~Counting Crows~

Tidak perlu membaca sinopsis di belakang buku untuk tahu tema apa yang diusung buku ini. Dari judul yang tertera di sampul depan, saya dengan mudah bisa menebaknya. Dan tidak perlu berpikir lama untuk membawa pulang buku ini dan menjadikannya salah satu penghuni rak buku di rumah. Yah, semua buku yang mengisahkan perjuangan dan pengorbanan seorang ibu untuk anak-anaknya seperti For One More Day yang ditulis Mitch Albom, memang That you don't know what you've got til it's gone.
~Counting Crows~

Tidak perlu membaca sinopsis di belakang buku untuk tahu tema apa yang diusung buku ini. Dari judul yang tertera di sampul depan, saya dengan mudah bisa menebaknya. Dan tidak perlu berpikir lama untuk membawa pulang buku ini dan menjadikannya salah satu penghuni rak buku di rumah. Yah, semua buku yang mengisahkan perjuangan dan pengorbanan seorang ibu untuk anak-anaknya seperti For One More Day yang ditulis Mitch Albom, memang selalu punya tempat khusus. Seperti halnya fantasi dan fiksi sejarah, mereka punya daya tarik tersendiri.

Park So-Nyo, wanita berusia 69 tahun, hilang. Terakhir ia terlihat di stasiun kereta Seoul. Ibu, istri sekaligus adiki ipar ini tak dapat ditemukan di mana pun. Ratusan selebaran telah dicetak dan disebar. Beberapa orang yang mengaku telah melihat wanita paruh baya tersebut. Namun hasilnya nihil. Park So-Nyo tak juga ditemukan. Tak ada yang tahu pasti apakah mereka benar-benar melihat wanita, dengan baju warna biru, jaket putih, dan rok lipit krem, ataukah hanya mengincar imbalan yang dijanjikan.

Kesedihan membayangi setiap anggota keluarga. Satu demi satu kenangan akan sosok Park So-Nya pun berkelebat di benak mereka. Perasaan bersalah mulai menghantui dan pada akhirnya menyisakan rasa kehilangan dan penyesalan yang mendalam. Dari penggalan ingatan mereka, sosok Park So-Nyo menjadi semakin jelas. Tidak hanya sifat dan kebiasaan namun bagaimana keinginan dan mimpinya terungkap dengan jelas.

Dari Chi-hon, Hyong-chol dan anak perempuan yang tak disebut namanya, Park So-Nyo adalah ibu yang kuat dan tak pernah mengenal kata lelah. Pekerjaan rumah yang seakan tak ada habisnya tidak membuatnya mengeluh. Dari dua bab pertama, tergambar dengan jelas betapa besar kasih sayang yang diberikan Park So-Nyo kepada semua anak-anaknya. Bahkan ketika mereka semua telah meninggalkan rumah. Perhatian yang diberikan sama sekali tidak berkurang. Suami, kakak dan adik ipar pun mendapatkan hal yang sama walau dengan cara yang berbeda. Seakan tak peduli apa yang telah dan tengah terjadi.

Dari semua potongan kisah itu, bagian yang paling saya sukai adalah bagian yang menceritakan bagaimana kedekatan Park So-Nyo dengan adik ipar yang seakan dianggap sebagai anaknya sendiri. Bab yang menceritakan sisi lain dari Park So-Nyo yang tidak mengejutkan suami dan anak-anaknya, namun saya sebagai pembaca, juga menjadi salah satu bagian yang terbaik dari buku ini.

Awalnya saya sempat bingung dari sudut pandang siapa buku ini bercerita. Terutama di bab satu dan dua. Namun ketika beralih ke bab tiga dan seterusnya, semakin jelas siapa sang narator. Salut atas kepiawaian Kyung Sook Shin, sang penulis. Tidak hanya cara ia menyusun semua cerita, tapi juga bagaimana menciptakan dan menghidupkan karakter demi karakter dan yang paling penting adalah ia mampu menyisipkan emosi demi emosi di setiap babnya. Walau telah menyelesaikan buku ini beberapa hari yang lalu, buku ini masih menyisakan banyak kesan. Saya masih ingat bagaimana kecemasan dan keputusaaan Hyong-chol ataupun rasa bersalah Chi-hon. Untuk sebuah buku fiksi - drama keluarga, buku ini benar-benar menguras emosi.

Tidak perlu khawatir untuk masalah terjemahan. Saya sama sekali tidak merasa kesulitan untuk memahami setiap kalimat. Kalau buku ini bebas typo, pasti akan lebih menyenangkan membacanya.

Cover
Di Goodreads, saya menemukan beragam sampul. Desain cover yang dipilih pihak Gramedia tidak kalah dengan yang diterbitkan di negara-negara lain. Namun dari semua cover yang ada, saya paling suka cover yang diterbitkan di China.

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Sep 07, 2011 Jeff Scott rated it really liked it

Shelves: korean-fiction, family

Please Look after Mom is a story about motherhood, neglect, and guilt. Park Sno-nyo is the matriarch of a large Korean family. When traveling with their father, she goes missing. During the search, members of the family reveal their love, guilt, and neglect of their mother all told in alternating chapters (and also using the second person narrative in some of the chapters). It’s not until their mother goes missing does the family realize how much they have already missed so much.

The book is very Please Look after Mom is a story about motherhood, neglect, and guilt. Park Sno-nyo is the matriarch of a large Korean family. When traveling with their father, she goes missing. During the search, members of the family reveal their love, guilt, and neglect of their mother all told in alternating chapters (and also using the second person narrative in some of the chapters). It’s not until their mother goes missing does the family realize how much they have already missed so much.

The book is very engaging and the technique of using the second person narrative, you, with the sentimentality of speaking about a mother provides a compelling storyline. It is speaking towards the selfish, entitled, baby-boomers of this generation. A theme used often in American literature.

The mother here is neglected, and signs of problems are ignored. The daughter could be very selfish, only later realizing that her mother was a person, not always a mother. The father realizes what a terrible person he’s been to his wife. The son realizes his critical role in keeping the family together, but realizes how much he has failed her. The last chapter is mysterious and reveals all. I really enjoyed the read, but was rather shocked how all the family members ignored very important signs. The mother here is a very wise woman and her story is the best of all.

Best passages:

“Either a mother and daughter know each other very well, or they are strangers.”

“When Mom scolded you freely, you more frequently called her Mom. The word “Mom” is familiar and it hides a plea: Please look after me. Please stop yelling at me and stroke my head; please be on my side, whether I am right or wrong. You never stopped calling her Mom. Even now, when Mom’s missing. When you call out “Mom” you want to believe she’s healthy. That Mom is strong. That Mom isn’t fazed by anything. That Mom is the person you want to call whenever you despair about something in this city.” P. 18

“To you, Mom was always Mom. It never occurred to you that she had once taken her first step, or had once been three or twelve, or twenty years old. Mom was Mom. She was born as Mom. Until you saw her running to your Uncle like that, it hadn’t dawned on you that she was a human being who harbored the exact same feelings you had for your own brothers, and this realization led to the awareness that she, too, had had a childhood.” P.25

“So in these days it wasn’t about whether I had to be in the kitchen or not. If I made a big pot of rice and a smaller pot of soup, I didn’t think of how tired I was I felt proud that these were going into my baby’s mouths.” P 58

“How could have you taken what your wife did for you for granted, without ever once making her seaweed soup? One day, you wife came back from town and said, "You know that butcher you like in the market? I was passing by today and his wife kept calling me...to share some seaweed soup...her husband had made her the soup...It wasn't particularly tasty. But for the first time, I was envious of the butcher's wife.” P. 129

“Even though nobody knew that you were in my life, you were the person who brought a raft at every rapid current and helped me cross the river swiftly. I was happy that you were there. I came to tell you that I was able to travel through my life because I could come to you when I was anxious, not when I was a happy person.” P. 192

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May 22, 2011 Felicia Zondlo Ko rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

Interesting look at another culture. At first, I thought the large amount of the book that was written in the second person would put me off, but it works. Definetly makes you look at your relationships in your life and ask yourself "if that person was gone tomorrow, what would have I wanted to say to them/ask them/do with them today." ...more

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Sep 06, 2012 Robin rated it really liked it

Shelves: korea

This was a great read. The characters pissed me off. The story as a whole got me to think about how families treat caregivers once they become the ones that need care.

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