10 Aug / Moms by Yeong-shin Ma, translated by Janet Hong [in Booklist]
*STARRED REVIEW
Experiencing the tedious difficulty of household chores, Yeong-shin Ma writes in his must-not-skip author’s note, is what made him “think more deeply about [his mother] and her life.” That empathic appreciation inspired him to present her with an expensive notebook, requesting, “If you want your son to find success, write honestly about you and your friends, about your love life and theirs.”
Ma transformed that notebook, filled in less than a month by his mother, into Moms, his first title to appear in English, adroitly translated by award-winning Korean Canadian Janet Hong.
Long divorced from her gambling husband, Soyeon lives in a small apartment with her musician son. Her on-and-off-again boyfriend visits in the wee hours when he’s drunk – he’s a financial and emotional sinkhole, but she can’t let him go. Her corporate cleaning job is tedious, but she has good (enough) friends with whom she regularly gossips, complains, drinks, laughs, and cries.
Presented in stark black-and-white panels, these aging moms have nothing to hide: they’re raucous, demanding, and sexual middle-aged women finding enjoyment despite useless partners, disappointing careers, unfulfilled dreams. They text at all hours, use dating apps, swear indiscriminately, steal other women’s boyfriends, occasionally pummel one another with bare fists. Their greatest challenge, like people everywhere at every age, is loneliness – but even that can’t stop Ma’s fearsome mothers from living their best possible lives.
Review: “Graphic Novels,” Booklist, July 2020
Readers: Adult
Published: 2015 (Korea), 2020 (United States)