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4.47 AVERAGE
4.47 AVERAGE
Knowing nothing about the history of consequences to North Korea after the Korean War I thought this was a thought provoking book.
dark
informative
tense
slow-paced
Super interesting book about what daily life is like/was like for North Koreans. Didn’t finish because it was just too sad and too long for what I needed right now.
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Picked up a lot in the back half, really enjoyed and told a lot more of the human side of NK. Would recommend as a non fiction read.
informative
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I wish I could give it 4.5. It was great, and I really enjoyed it whenever I was able to listen, but it didn't have that pull that I really need to give it 5 stars.
What really hit me was that I had to keep reminding myself that this was in MY lifetime. I've gotten used to reading about harsh circumstances like this in the Great Depression, the Polish Ghettos, or German Occupied France (or Panem...) But the fact that people were starving to death a couple hundred miles from one of the wealthiest nations in the world is mind blowing.
One of the things that saddens me the most is that most North Koreans genuinely didn't think it would be much better anywhere else. Their government had cut them off from the world to the point that they didn't know that most of the world considers rice to be the cheap food for poor people.
What really hit me was that I had to keep reminding myself that this was in MY lifetime. I've gotten used to reading about harsh circumstances like this in the Great Depression, the Polish Ghettos, or German Occupied France (or Panem...) But the fact that people were starving to death a couple hundred miles from one of the wealthiest nations in the world is mind blowing.
One of the things that saddens me the most is that most North Koreans genuinely didn't think it would be much better anywhere else. Their government had cut them off from the world to the point that they didn't know that most of the world considers rice to be the cheap food for poor people.
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Stunning and compelling, Barbara Demick interweaves the lives of six North Koreans and their individual journeys to the west. She manages to capture both the harsh realities of the regime, and the famine of the 90s, and the hope and optimism that her subjects now have.
It's both harrowing and uplifting, and a testament to both the the human spirit and human suffering and stupidity.
And the paralells between the NK regime and Orwell's 1984 are shocking - it's like they mistook a piece of fiction for an instruction manual...
It's both harrowing and uplifting, and a testament to both the the human spirit and human suffering and stupidity.
And the paralells between the NK regime and Orwell's 1984 are shocking - it's like they mistook a piece of fiction for an instruction manual...
Fact-filled yet horrific, human and heart-wrenching(alliteration!) nonfiction. I can't believe how little I knew about what has been/is going on in North Korea, and this book was eye-opening on many levels. It isn't a book you curl up with and read in an afternoon. It's a book you read a chapter of, set down, and go appreciate your life and your country. It isn't for the faint of heart reader. Demick portrays starvation, hardship and loss, but it isn't a one-sided picture. She shows how those who have left their country still have love for it and its people. Moving, intelligent and informative.