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| Please Look After Mom (Vintage Contemporaries) |
Many times I paused from reading because tears were slowly coming out. All I could do is stop reading, stare at the ceiling for awhile and hope my seatmate did not notice my slight sobbing.
The book made me look at my own mother's life differently. She had a lot of similarities with Park Sonyo. All the realizations of the children and the father, I have deeply connected with since I have experienced it in my own life. Only, for sure, our mother's not coming back.
That part where everything at home is not the same when Mother leaves but everything turns back alright and sunny when she returns, that is so true. That home is different whenever she's there. That as a child, we do not even realize this thing. That mothers and daughters never really truly know each other, or they're strangers. That we forget she wasn't a mother all these times too
Somehow, I still envy the family. Even if their mother is missing, they did have all those memories and experiences with their mum. They have grown into amazing people. They had her throughout childhood and half-way through adulthood.
But, in our case, Mother left forever halfway through our childhood.
I maybe bitter and pessimistic that I thought Mrs. Park died at the end. But I re-read the last part because I was in denial. I do not want her to die.
I believe she is not dead. It's just not yet time for her to be found.
As usual, I am getting too attached and affected by a work of fiction. But isn't this what writing and literature is all about. I have read the the author wrote and intended the book to not only represent the loss of a mother but also to symbolize a loss of an important thing in any person's life. I commend Ms. Kyung-Sook Shin for writing this very stirring book. I am thankful for the perspective that I have learned from this book.
I now understand, somehow, what Mother's life has been like.
written last March 31, 2013; 10:26 AM
written last March 31, 2013; 10:26 AM