Reviews - Není co závidět: obyčejné životy v Severní Koreji

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Není co závidět: obyčejné životy v Severní Koreji

I hung on every word of this book. I really enjoy reading nonfiction by journalists from the 90's. I think that was the golden age of journalistic integrity and story capture. This is so personal and devastating. Every chapter left me feeling ill but wanting to know more. The ending chapters about defecting had me on the edge of my seat the stories were so perilous and intense.

I read somewhere that for Westerners life in North Korea seems like another planet. That is certainly my experience reading this. As the last bastion of true communism it's sad to read that North Korea somehow persists generation after generation.

cebperry's review against another edition

5.0

Great book. Fascinating study of starvation and oppression.

gshreya26's review against another edition

5.0

dark emotional informative inspiring sad tense medium-paced

chrysemys's review against another edition

4.0

Well-written stories about everyday life in North Korea. Westerners have some idea of the poverty and totalitarian control over every aspect of life there, but don't necessarily know what it looks like in detail; this book helped fill that gap. It is interesting that the DPRK still bothers to put on a show of opulence for foreign visitors when the rest of the world is aware of its poverty. By contrast, citizens of North Korea have had very little idea what is going on beyond their borders, although this appears to be changing. It is amazing to me that this backward and ill-conceived society has persisted for so long; amazing that the government has managed to keep the populace so ignorant of the outside world. The book is bit out of date at this point, I'd be interested in a follow-up detailing the current situation under Kim Jong-Un.