Please Look After Mom

So-nyo is the 69-year-old matriarch whose sudden disappearance outside of Seoul Station sets the events of Please Look After Mom into motion. Though So-nyo goes missing before the novel begins, the chapters implement flashback narratives to flesh out So-nyo’s life through her family’s memories. So-nyo also narrates a chapter from beyond the grave, as she visits key people and places before presumably passing on to her final resting place.

So-nyo’s most noticeable character traits are unending strength and resilience, which is why her failing health and subsequent disappearance shock her family so much. So-nyo suffered during yet survived the Korean War’s resulting poverty and famine, and went on to raise five children into adulthood. She sacrifices her dreams, wants, and health to ensure that her family has everything she can possibly give. She even bears emotional trauma, breast cancer, and dementia alone, until the fateful day when her illnesses afflict her so greatly that she accidentally separates from her husband in the crowd at Seoul Station and wanders around Seoul not knowing who she is.

So-nyo reunites with her mother in death, acknowledging that she has always needed her mother’s strength.