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4.47 AVERAGE
4.47 AVERAGE
informative
After reading "Eat the Buddha," I knew I wanted to read Barbara Demick's other work, so I picked this up—and I was not disappointed. What an intense, fascinating read. Demick has a pattern, and it works. She gets to know and extensively interviews people who are from the same area and who were there during the same period of time, and she then has her subjects corroborate each other's stories to the greatest extent possible. That way, her nonfiction creates a compelling narrative that is also as reliable as she can make it.
And nowhere is it harder to find the truth than in a place like North Korea. Nothing to Envy is full of stories of true belief, of secret denial, of looking at the blank faces around you and wondering what everyone is thinking. The level of thought policing that North Koreans go through is absolutely unreal. Not only that, but Demick's subjects for this book had to suppress a lot of their emotions, including the natural desire to help starving children, in order to survive during the famine of the late '90s. Despite living in a "prosperous" communist society, private markets eventually had to be allowed on the low because the government was no longer able to feed anyone. Demick's descriptions of malnutrition and death by starvation are so horrific that you will wonder how we can let kids anywhere—especially here in the United States—miss even a single meal. Then, when North Koreans defect to South Korea, they are so deeply affected by the lives they left behind that they often find it difficult to assimilate.
One of the things that comes through in this work is that while there may have been many who truly bought into Kim il-Sung's depiction of himself as a divine father, the bloom is very much off the rose under his grandson, Kim Jong-un. And yet, government and military power remain so strong that everyone grits their teeth and keeps on pretending anyway. It is absolutely horrifying to think about. At the same time, South Korea and other nations who shake their heads in dismay over North Korea are quietly horrified by the humanitarian crisis that would result from the regime's collapse.
Reading this book also made me look around at the United States as it is now and feel genuine fear. Americans are now living in an age of misinformation campaigns, and a large portion of our population is interested in domination of everyone else. Donald Trump's desire to control the media and to have his own military parade, as well as the open affection he showed for Kim Jong-un and other tyrants during his presidency, should worry you, regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum. The level of polarization we are experiencing as a society, and the fact that we had an actual uprising on January 6, should weigh on all of us. Freedom to think what you want, read what you want, live how you want, is an incredible gift. And it really can be taken from you.
And nowhere is it harder to find the truth than in a place like North Korea. Nothing to Envy is full of stories of true belief, of secret denial, of looking at the blank faces around you and wondering what everyone is thinking. The level of thought policing that North Koreans go through is absolutely unreal. Not only that, but Demick's subjects for this book had to suppress a lot of their emotions, including the natural desire to help starving children, in order to survive during the famine of the late '90s. Despite living in a "prosperous" communist society, private markets eventually had to be allowed on the low because the government was no longer able to feed anyone. Demick's descriptions of malnutrition and death by starvation are so horrific that you will wonder how we can let kids anywhere—especially here in the United States—miss even a single meal. Then, when North Koreans defect to South Korea, they are so deeply affected by the lives they left behind that they often find it difficult to assimilate.
One of the things that comes through in this work is that while there may have been many who truly bought into Kim il-Sung's depiction of himself as a divine father, the bloom is very much off the rose under his grandson, Kim Jong-un. And yet, government and military power remain so strong that everyone grits their teeth and keeps on pretending anyway. It is absolutely horrifying to think about. At the same time, South Korea and other nations who shake their heads in dismay over North Korea are quietly horrified by the humanitarian crisis that would result from the regime's collapse.
Reading this book also made me look around at the United States as it is now and feel genuine fear. Americans are now living in an age of misinformation campaigns, and a large portion of our population is interested in domination of everyone else. Donald Trump's desire to control the media and to have his own military parade, as well as the open affection he showed for Kim Jong-un and other tyrants during his presidency, should worry you, regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum. The level of polarization we are experiencing as a society, and the fact that we had an actual uprising on January 6, should weigh on all of us. Freedom to think what you want, read what you want, live how you want, is an incredible gift. And it really can be taken from you.
This book is exceptional. It's a book I'd advise everyone to read, becuase it's still so current and so well written. This is a non-fiction look at the lives of 6 ordinary North Koreans and their lives within North Korea before they defected into South Korea. This is brutal, raw, devastating and eye-opening all at once, and I have to say I found myself both disgusted, outraged, and emotionally moved to tears at various points within this. It's just exceptional.
Barbara Demick has a way of weaving her stories together so that you almost think you're reading fiction and then she brings you crashing back to reality with her frank, but sincere analysis of the 'facts' of North Korea and the Regime there. I have to say there are so many moments where I wished I was reading fiction becuase it's so baffling and hard to imagine that the problems and stresses and life-threatening dire situations these people went through were not only real in our history, but are still affecting people in North Korea today. I wish that there was more I could do, and I think that even if there's not a lot to do to help from outside, reading about the topic and learning about it means you're at least aware and if an opportunity arises to help, maybe you'll be more inclined to do so.
This is beautifully interwoven with each person's storyline being focused on for a section and then recounting the same period of time in another's pov. I loved that the structure was this way as it meant we saw the difference and similarities between these 6 North Koreans and their lives.
I have nothing but admiration for any North Korean who manages to defect into any other country, I also have nothing but remorse and sadness for those who get caught time and time again. The tragedy of a country which is rooted in the past and stuck under a dictator sickens me, and I can only hope that things do one day improve and North Korea catches up to the rest of the world so that the problems of the citizen's are the same problems faced by those in South Korea and other developed capitalist countries.
Whatever happens, this is a must-read book and I would urge as many of you as who read this review to go and buy a copy of this asap. I gave this 5*s as it would be a disservice to give it anything less and although a heavy topic I felt Demick handled it with compassion and clarity.
Barbara Demick has a way of weaving her stories together so that you almost think you're reading fiction and then she brings you crashing back to reality with her frank, but sincere analysis of the 'facts' of North Korea and the Regime there. I have to say there are so many moments where I wished I was reading fiction becuase it's so baffling and hard to imagine that the problems and stresses and life-threatening dire situations these people went through were not only real in our history, but are still affecting people in North Korea today. I wish that there was more I could do, and I think that even if there's not a lot to do to help from outside, reading about the topic and learning about it means you're at least aware and if an opportunity arises to help, maybe you'll be more inclined to do so.
This is beautifully interwoven with each person's storyline being focused on for a section and then recounting the same period of time in another's pov. I loved that the structure was this way as it meant we saw the difference and similarities between these 6 North Koreans and their lives.
I have nothing but admiration for any North Korean who manages to defect into any other country, I also have nothing but remorse and sadness for those who get caught time and time again. The tragedy of a country which is rooted in the past and stuck under a dictator sickens me, and I can only hope that things do one day improve and North Korea catches up to the rest of the world so that the problems of the citizen's are the same problems faced by those in South Korea and other developed capitalist countries.
Whatever happens, this is a must-read book and I would urge as many of you as who read this review to go and buy a copy of this asap. I gave this 5*s as it would be a disservice to give it anything less and although a heavy topic I felt Demick handled it with compassion and clarity.
Mieltä avaava teos. Miten tänä päivänä voikin olla tuollainen valtio?
(Kesän lukulistan ensimmäinen)
(Kesän lukulistan ensimmäinen)
Excellent book. A complete eye opener to a part of the world I know so little about.
It goes without saying that this is informative about the day-to-day of being a North Korean citizen, but the writing is so descriptive and engrossing. Mi-ran's love story should be a movie tbh.
This was fascinating and the writing style was amazing. I love non-fiction that isn't dry and this definitely was not! It was so twrrible to hear how people live in North Korea though.
emotional
informative
sad
fast-paced
Barbara Demick’s writing style is fantastic.