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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
A very neatly executed story about a country that seems to be modeled on George Orwell's Airstrip One or perhaps Lewis Carroll's Wonderland if it was run by Satan. It's full of dark, surreal humour although the slightly off-kilter atmosphere of impossibility undermined the real sense of what it's like to live there. Or did it. Maybe I need to think about it for a while.
A tough read on so many levels but well worth the effort. I have to go now.... I feel the need to kiss the American soil on which I was born. :)
This was a strange, but beautiful and heartbreaking novel. Adam Johnson built his career on short stories and you can really tell because of the poignancy and immediacy of the plot and its characters. Even though the passages were incredibly well thought out and the intricacy of Jun Do's character development was beautifully realized, I found myself getting very impatient starting at around page 300. I feel like I knew how it was going to end and I was starting to become desensitized to the brutal nature of the plot, even though it is based off of Johnson's real observations of North Korean people. The last 150 pages continued to astound me with the depth of the human condition that Johnson excels in portraying, but I was still impatient to finish and didn't really feel that "lost in a great book" feeling that I usually do. Maybe it was just my mood this week but overall this is a worthwhile read, it's incredibly powerful and makes you think a lot about what it means to survive and/or live in a world as built on falsehoods as North Korea is.
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Incredible story set in North Korea. Johnson's approach in telling the story, both in terms of structure and language, really pulls you right into a world that could otherwise be really difficult to understand. Both incredibly humanizing and fantastical.
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
emotional
medium-paced
An incredible narrative about the power of truth, reality, survival, storytelling, and love. I especially love the perspective shift in Part 2 with the additional voices of The Interrogator (who gives us insight into the normality of the citizens in the capitol) and the Loudspeaker propaganda version of the story. I loved the blurred edge to the realities of all the stories, especially Jun Do's.
challenging
dark
slow-paced
adventurous
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Abortion