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4.21 AVERAGE
4.21 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
emotional
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
Whoa. Short, but definitely not sweet. This book was incredibly educational to me. It does a great job of depicting life of an everyday non-elite North Korean. Very eye opening to me and also, make no mistake there is an ending here but not sure if it qualifies as "happy"
i don’t want to call this amazing or excellent because i feel like i’d be calling masaji’s life that as this is a memoir after all and his life has been full of nothing but sadness and starvation… this was very well written, and masaji paints a very, very vivid and horrendous picture of north korea. i really hope that north korea will be free of the government one day. nobody should be that restricted by their government. but i have to say that i find it selfish of masaji to have had 3 children.
Most horrific disturbing heartbreakingly true story about Masaji’s life (if that’s what you want to call it) and his perseverance to protect and care for his family in a communist country he was forced to live in. This book was a hard read but a good one if you need perspective on how good you have it even if you think you don’t.
Before starting Masaji Ishikawa’s memoir, I thought I understood how brutal North Korea’s totalitarian rule was…and is. Now, I realize it is worse than I could have imagined.
This was such a sad read. Sheds light on what the author’s family has endured which is only a fraction of untold stories of North Korean natives and returnees. Felt like I was mourning the author’s loss in every chapter I read.
This was such a sad read. Sheds light on what the author’s family has endured which is only a fraction of untold stories of North Korean natives and returnees. Felt like I was mourning the author’s loss in every chapter I read.
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
𝙼𝚊𝚜𝚊𝚓𝚒 𝙸𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚔𝚊𝚠𝚊 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚗 𝚒𝚗 𝟷𝟿𝟺𝟽. 𝙷𝚒𝚜 𝚏𝚊𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝙺𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚗 𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚒𝚗 𝙹𝚊𝚙𝚊𝚗. 𝙷𝚒𝚜 𝚖𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝙹𝚊𝚙𝚊𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚎. 𝙸𝚗 𝟷𝟿𝟼𝟶, 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚛𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝚘𝚕𝚍, 𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚏𝚊𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚖𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 "𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍" 𝚘𝚏 𝙽𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚑 𝙺𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚊. 𝙸𝚗 𝟷𝟿𝟿𝟼, 𝚑𝚎 𝚖𝚊𝚍𝚎 𝚊 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚋𝚒𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚎𝚜𝚌𝚊𝚙𝚎 𝚏𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚘𝚗 𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑.
Prior to this memoir the only things I’ve read on North Korea have been journalistic/more academic political articles, so I definitely gained a more vivid picture of what life is like for the rural poor trapped in the regime. That said, none of it was a surprise as I’m well aware of what went on in the Stalinist period / China etc, from who the Kim dynasty took all the worse ideas. The biggest insights, and the biggest emotional gut punches don’t come until the very end - the supposed happy ending - when the reality outside of North Korea shows the limits of its compassion, and accountability. There might be worse things than starving to death with your family.
I’d recommend this to anyone who like me knows little about the isolated country. Do note though that the writing style isn’t great, it is dry and detached, and it is not a self reflective memoir - understandably so in my eyes - but given this is still the appalling reality for (most likely) millions it’s worth looking past.
emotional
sad