REVIEW | Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin

Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin, Translated by Chi-Young Kim

Publication Year: 2008/2011 (translation)

Genre: Fiction
Series: NA

Awards: Man Asian Literary Prize (2011)
Format: Audio (from Library)

Narrator: Mark Bramhall, Samantha Quan, Janet Song and Bruce Turk

WHY?:  I don't remember where I heard about it but it made a big splash a few years ago, people liked it and the premise sounded interesting.

SYNOPSIS:  Set in modern day South Korea the book tells the story of a mother's disappearance using 4 different perspectives - daughter, son, father, mother.  Each narrator reflects on their relationship with and their feelings for mother while also sketching a picture of the woman's life.

THOUGHTS:

The first thing to know is that this is not a thriller nor really a mystery though it is at times mysterious.  I think I was expecting this type of book and it was not that at all - it is a character study and a contemplation of what "mother" means  - what it means to the mother and to all those around her.  It is also a mild commentary on modern Korean life and the contrast that apparently still exists between rural and urban culture.  I found it very readable and interesting if a tad over-the-top at times.  

The book is told in 4 parts: from the eldest daughter's, eldest son's, husband's and then  finally Mom's perspective.  In each part they are reacting to the loss of the matriarch of the family, quite literally.  On a trip from their home into the city to visit their children, Mom fails to follow her husband onto a train in a busy subway station and then is never seen again.  The book starts right after this happens with the eldest daughter's perspective and then moves further away in time from Mom's disappearance as the book goes on and the perspective changes.

In this way, from multiple perspectives, the life of Mother is revealed.  The first and last section are interestingly and somewhat confusingly told in 2nd person (for example "you hand out flyers with your brother and worry...").  I think this is to place the reader into the role of having lost your Mother in such a way.  Feeling frantic and bewildered and regretful about harsh words from the past and how you took Mom for granted.  It is likely a universal experience for children, especially if they have chosen a life quite different from their parents which is the case here.  I think this may have been my first time reading a book told using 2nd person and it was a little awkward and at times confusing but it didn't ruin my enjoyment of the book or keep me from understanding.
  
Mom and Dad raised their family in a small rural village, where there is still a lot of manual labor, poverty and tradition.  All the children have moved to Seoul and have modern jobs and lives.  We get the impression, as the tale is told, that Mom is mostly happy that her children have a more comfortable and free life than she did but it doesn't stop their being disappointments, conflicts and misunderstandings.  And guilt. LOTS of guilt now that Mom is gone.

It's a neat way to tell the story of someone's life - from different perspectives, after they are gone.  Mom is perhaps a little too much of a super woman as she is portrayed but could part of that because her children and husband are exaggerating her goodness out of guilt and loss?  Are they reliable narrators?  Regardless, her life is so interesting as is the exploration of a changing, modernizing Korea. Not just interesting but really readable and emotionally engaging as well!

I listened to the audio and that worked well.  I do have to say that the second person sections, particularly the last section were a tad confusing at times and I don't know whether that might have been easier (or harder) in print.  It wasn't enough of a distraction for me to not really enjoy the audio and the readers. 

FINAL VERDICT:  A thoughtful and emotional book about family, particularly a mother's life and role, set in a fascinating modern-day South Korea.  3.5 out of 5 stars!

Other Opinions Are Available: NPR* | Danny Yee's Book Reviews

* Maureen Corrigan was the reviewer here and she did NOT like this book.  It made a lot of people angry.  

REVIEW | The Round House by Louise Erdrich

The Round House by Louise Erdrich

Publication Year: 2012

Genre: General Fiction, Crime

Series: NA

Awards: National Book Award for Fiction (2012), ALA Alex Award (2013) + several other smaller awards

Format: Kindle

Narrator: NA

WHY?:  I'd started hearing a lot about this book the last couple of years and it and the author sounded interesting.  I was supposed to read it last year as part of Book  Riot's Read Harder challenge but didn't get to it because I'm crap at challenges.  It was pretty high up on my TBR.  

THIS BOOK.  I don't even know how to begin talking about it.  It's one of those books.  It took me a long time to read but not because it wasn't engaging or it was too hard; every time I sat down with it, I got completely sucked in as if I was living in young Joe's head.  And that was the thing.  I felt like I wanted to have the brain space and time to really soak it all in every time I sat down to read it.  

SYNOPSIS:   The Round House is a coming of age tale that takes place in the mid-1980s on a North Dakota Indian Reservation.  Joe is 12 years old and is the only child of loving, stable parents who are financially pretty well off by reservation standards and certainly compared to his group of three best friends.  He and his friends are tight and spend their time scrounging food, watching and debating Star Trek, getting interested in girls and experimenting with being bad.  Then a violent act kicks the foundation out from under Joe's  family and his life is turned upside down.  He wants to fix it and his friends want to help him but what can a band of 12 year old Indian boys really do to get justice?  The thing this book reminded me the most strongly of is one of my favorite movies; Stand by Me (1986).  I've not read the Stephen King novella that the movie is based so I have no idea if there are similarities with it but the connection with the movie was strong in my head and it gave me a lot of the same feels.

First of all, a trigger warning.  The violent act that is at the center of the book is the brutal rape of Joe's mother by a white man.  Erdrich manages to make the attack and rape gut wrenching and terrifying though very rarely graphic.  It is as if the vagueness and hints about the attack make it all the more horrendous.  So please be aware that while there is not a lot of detailed discussion of the crime, it is still plenty disturbing.  

The first strength of this book is the first person narration by Joe.  He is narrating as an adult looking back on a momentous summer which allows for some hindsight commentary.  It also though gives the reader a view not only of the crime and its aftermath but also the everyday life of the reservation through the eyes of a 12 year old.  A 12 year old who is smart, and who has grown up in a household where his Tribal judge father has worked for justice in small ways.  A man who tries to wrestle justice in a country where the white law of the land is built on precedents that de-value native people and culture:

[in regards to a 1823 Supreme Court decision written by John Marshall] "Even to this day, his words are used to continue the dispossession of our lands. But what particularly galls the intelligent person now is that the language he used survives in the law, that we were savages living off the forest, and to leave our land to us was to leave it useless wilderness, that our character and religion is of so inferior a stamp that the superior genius of Europe must certainly claim ascendancy and on and on."

The second strength of this book is how funny it can be.  For having at its core something so deeply violent, the book and Joe frequently charmed me which helped it not be something I appreciated-but-dreaded reading.  I honestly really enjoyed the reading experience.  Erdrich's wit is dry and subtle and woven in seamlessly with the more difficult themes.

"My father could out-weather anybody. Like people anywhere, there were times when it was the only topic where people here felt comfortably expressive, and my father could go on earnestly, seemingly forever. When the current weather was exhausted, there was all the weather that had occurred in recorded history, weather lived through or witnessed by a relative, or even heard about on the news. Catastrophic weather of all types. And when that was done with, there was all the weather that might possibly occur in the future. I’d even heard him speculate about weather in the afterlife."

"I left. I’d learned from my mistake with Father Travis that unusual politeness from a boy my age is an instant suspicion-raiser."

The third strength of this book was that it is really a coming of age tale.  An adult man looking back at the key moments that made him become the man he is.  These moments are much more devastating than what most people face and his actions are equally as tough.  There is one 10-15 page section about 65-70% through the book that just completely blew me away.  His father lays out why, when his cases are so often petty and seemingly inconsequential, he continues to do his job to the best of his ability.  The first quote above is from this section and the whole interaction is powerful. We know from snippets dropped that adult Joe has followed in his father's footsteps and become a tribal judge.  He also learns about relations between men and women and how they can go wrong, not only from what has happened to his mother but through his infatuation with his "aunt" Sonja who used to be stripper.  

"She wouldn’t know that I put that souvenir tassel where I’ll come across it by chance, on purpose. Because every time I look at it, I am reminded of the way I treated Sonja and about the way she treated me, or about how I threatened her and all that came of it, how I was just another guy. How that killed me once I really thought about it. A gimme-gimme asshole. Maybe I was. Still, after I thought about it for a long time—in fact, all my life—I wanted to be something better."

Basically this is one of those books that manages to be about thought-provoking and difficult subject matter while also being a simple story about characters I cared about.  It doesn't over complicate or pontificate.  The language is beautiful but simple, real and compelling. A joy to read and get sucked into.   In short, it is my favorite kind of "literary" fiction - earthy, realistic and grounded; never pompous or self-important.  It definitely made me want to read everything Louise Erdrich has written.

FINAL VERDICT:  A coming of age tale beautifully told with characters it is impossible not to care deeply about.  A really engrossing read.  5 out of 5 Stars.

Other Opinions are Available*: Taking on a World of Words | Lit Lovers (round up summary of many professional reviews)

* I especially struggled this time around getting across my full thoughts and feelings on this book so please check out the linked reviews if my ramblings have left you feeling confused!

REVIEW | The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Publication Year: 2012

Genre: General/Historical Fiction

Series: None 

Awards: Pulitzer Prize Nominee for Fiction (2013)

Format: Audio

Narrator: Debra Monk

WHY?:  It is a story based on a fable that takes place in a harsh, frontier type of environment (1920s Alaska).  Both of these aspects appeal to me.  It also got a lot of positive reviews when it came out.

SYNOPSIS: Jack and Mabel are childless and well into their middle age when they decide to try homesteading in remote Alaska.  Jack grew up on a New England farm but other than that neither has any experience with the type of hardship Alaska will throw at you.  Mabel had hoped the change and hard work would fill in some of the emptiness of their barren marriage and at least bring she and Jack closer together but it hasn't really worked out that way.  However, in a moment of winter frivolity the couple build a girl out of snow and the very next day they start encountering a strange girl living on her own in the woods.  Is it their snow girl come to life or a miracle of another kind?

At the heart of the book is Jack and Mabel and I feel like Ivey hits every note perfectly in developing their relationship. Their deep love for each other is so evident even when their relationship is not working. When their relationship does work it is magic and it's especially lovely because they are more mature. Both frustrated me at different points but in a way that was perfect. Mabel's inability to deal with her heartbreak and her insistence that they move to the wilderness of Alaska though she has no skills and abilities or even knowledge of what it takes to survive.  Her unlikely friendship with a brash, somewhat coarse neighbor, Edith, as well as the entry of Faina into their lives steadies her and we see that while she started off ignorant she is resourceful and eager to learn. Jack frustrates with his silences and his "I'm the man and therefore must shoulder all the burden" attitude. It takes a profound injury for him to relax and let Mabel take some of the load. Individually and together they make so much sense.  I cannot overstate how much I loved the evolution and depiction of their relationship.

As with any book based on a fable there is a question about how real or magical the events are.  The book does a good job surfing between the "worlds" and in the end it really doesn't matter what Faina's origins are  - all that matters is how she has affected the people around her.  The ending is ambiguous, which if I'm honest is a tad frustrating, but I can't deny that it also feels right.  I loved how the character of Faina seemed to be a human representation of the Alaska wilderness and by embracing her, Jack and Mabel slowly start to embrace the new life they have and the new place as home.  The whole book feels so beautifully thought out without seeming rigid or overly planned.

The Snow Child fulfilled all of my expectations and then some.  It is a fable of the original variety. It doesn't end with a kiss, it can at times be rather sad and disturbing but in the best possible way and not without a measure of hope.  The message of the story seems to be that life can be very very sad but to truly live it you must embrace the sadness and try and move through it - not push it aside or bury it deep.  Eventually life will also throw moments of such complete joy and beauty at you that in the end the Rolling Stones are right.  You may not always or ever get what you want but if you try, you may just get what you need.  Since this is probably my favorite Rolling Stones song, I am always going to love a book that beautifully illustrates its truth.

The audio version of the book was really good.  I liked the reader who had a good earthy voice that worked for the story perfectly.

FINAL VERDICT:  A completely lovely and engrossing read.  I recommend to anyone who enjoys fables and stories set in a frontier type setting.  4 out of 5 stars.

Other Opinions are Available:  The Washington Post | Cuddlebuggery