This comic is really really good! (Sorry, my review skills don't go further than this, but needed to share at least this!) ( )

I have been thinking about reading this graphic novel ever since it was published in English two years ago. I finally took the plunge and took it out of my public library. Moms is a humorous look at the way middle aged women think. Taking place in South Korea, there are three main characters. Lee Soyeon, Myeong-ok, and Yeonjeong are mothers in their mid-fifties. They’ve had it with their dead-weight partners and the grind of the menial jobs they have. Their overbearing bosses control everything, down to how much water they can drink while they are working. Lee Soyeon divorced her husband years ago after his gambling debts forced them to file bankruptcy. She finds herself in another decade-long relationship with Jongseok, a waiter at a nightclub whom she has grown tired of. Myeong-ok is having an illicit affair with a younger man, and Yeonjeong, whose husband suffers from erectile dysfunction, has her eye on an acquaintance from the gym. All three of these ladies have become bored with conventional romantic dalliances and are embracing outrageous sexual adventures in nightclubs, motels, and even the occasional back-alley. I think they are giving twentysomething women a run for their money.

It is refreshing to read a book about the emotional and sexual needs of middle aged women. This is not something you find very often. The author, Yeong-shin Ma based the story on his divorced 50 year old mother. He asked his mother keep a journal where she would write about her dating experiences. He also asked her to write about her girlfriends, who were also on the dating scene. What Ma discovered was that older women do not put aside their desires just because they are no longer young. I wonder if he was shocked to find this out. I am betting that he was. ( )

A graphic novel about Soyeun and her friends. They are 50-something mothers, working crappy jobs, several are divorced and dating (or trying to). They work together for a cleaning company that is treating them badly. The author says, in the back, that it is based off of his mother's life.

This was OK. It's mostly people my age complaining--about their boyfriends, jobs, adult children. I think it's supposed to be funny, but middle-aged women physically fighting over a man is not something I find funny. So much complaining. ( )

It's "Real Housewives of Seoul!" All the infighting, infidelity, and invective, but with none of the glamour, glitz or gold.

The author asked his divorced fiftysomething mom to write up daily notes about her dating life and that of her similarly aged friends and co-workers, and then he adapted it into this graphic novel. So Soyeon works a dead-end cleaning job, let's her musician son live in her apartment rent-free so he can play video games all day, and dates a guy who cheats on her just like her ex-husband used to. Her big dream is to marry a rich guy who she can maybe cheat on.

The storyline meanders slice-of-life style a bit too long, but I slowly became vested in the sad sack main character even as I resented her for making so many wrong choices in her life. ( )