할머니의 비밀 일기

One morning, a family wakes up to find the grandmother gone. It's uncharacteristic for her to leave without telling anyone, as as the day goes on, the family becomes more worried about what could have happened. One of the children stumbles across the grandmother's diary, and each chapter opens with a short entry, followed by a flashback to the incident it describes.

We learn that after the death of her husband, the grandmother comes to live with her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren. She seemingly takes on all the household chores and childcare responsibilities without being asked, and performs all her duties with care and devotion. The family, which used to be chaotic and prone to arguing, becomes peaceful and harmonious. But they don't appreciate the grandmother's efforts; in fact, they complain that she isn't doing more, and blame her for things that aren't her fault.

I started the story with the expectation of the narrative unraveling the mystery of the grandmother's disappearance; disappointingly, it became evident that there was no mystery. This is a family drama, and the majority of the story depicts domestic scenes of discord, which frankly are quite frustrating: the kind, patient, and loving grandmother is taken for granted, while the rest of the family complains and behave in a selfish and entitled manner.

In the end, having read her diary, the family realise they haven't treated the grandmother well, and they are so worried that they decide to contact the police. Just then, the grandmother returns, saying she got lost on the way to the fish market. In reality, it was the anniversary of the day she met her husband, so she had spent time visiting places they had gone together. All's well that ends well, I suppose...

Perhaps my misapprehension about the genre coloured my opinion of the story slightly, but I can't say I particularly enjoyed this book. The only character the reader really learns about is the grandmother; all we see of the other family members is how selfish and ungrateful they are in the flashbacks, until the last few pages where they cry a little (there's not even much of an admonition of guilt), feel relief that grandma's back, and everyone's happy. I felt a mixture of frustration and disappointment upon finishing, as it felt as though the ending was rushed and there wasn't a satisfying conclusion.

Having said that, I think this is a great book for language learners - the everyday vocabulary and relatively simple grammar make it an easy read, but there are still interesting bits and pieces to satisfy the learner's curiosity along the way.

While the story is lacklustre, if you can overlook it, this provides great reading practice for those that are beyond graded readers and picture books, but not quite at the level of reading novels.