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4.47 AVERAGE
4.47 AVERAGE
Earlier this years I watched the documentary A State of Mind on Netflix. A British journalist spends time with two North Korean girls as they prepare for the Mass Games, the large spectacle that North Korea puts on each year. I found it fascinating. There were so many things I didn't know about the country. But the makers of that film had minders, and were only shown carefully edited things and were only allowed to talk to citizens who would spout the propaganda. I found myself wondering: What do the citizens of North Korea actually think? What lies underneath the carefully scripted visits of foreign journalists? If you've ever wished for a glimpse into that world, this book will take you there.
Barbara Demick spends the book tracing the lives of five North Korean defectors. We see the famine of the 1990s through there eyes, as it claims victims with no regard to status. It is impossible to read this book without an emotional reaction. It does the best job of humanizing the North Korean citizens that I have seen. It's easy to see the official propaganda, or watch citizens crying at the mention of the dear leader, and laugh at them. Nothing to Envy allows you to empathize with those people. What would you think, if you had been raised only ever knowing this world? What would you say, if even the slightest mis-step might be reported by your neighbors to the police?
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It's written in the manner of a novel, and is compulsively easy to read. I rarely stay up late to finish non-fiction, but I found myself reading the last page this morning as the sun started to appear. Highly recommended!
Barbara Demick spends the book tracing the lives of five North Korean defectors. We see the famine of the 1990s through there eyes, as it claims victims with no regard to status. It is impossible to read this book without an emotional reaction. It does the best job of humanizing the North Korean citizens that I have seen. It's easy to see the official propaganda, or watch citizens crying at the mention of the dear leader, and laugh at them. Nothing to Envy allows you to empathize with those people. What would you think, if you had been raised only ever knowing this world? What would you say, if even the slightest mis-step might be reported by your neighbors to the police?
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It's written in the manner of a novel, and is compulsively easy to read. I rarely stay up late to finish non-fiction, but I found myself reading the last page this morning as the sun started to appear. Highly recommended!
I kind of wish I could give this book three and a half stars, and that's kind of rare for me. I thought this book included a ton of really solid information and that it was all presented well. But I didn't find it as gripping as I wanted to. I appreciated the range of voices and experiences we heard from here, thought the reporting was amazing on the level of gathering this information. I learned a ton. But for whatever reason-- and it might just me being distracted by the start of school-- I was unmoved, as much as I was educated.
I had read an excerpt in The Paris Review earlier this year and couldn't get it out of my head. And once I started reading the book, I couldn't stop. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion - horrific. But at the same time, there is always hope that things have to change, the country can't possibly continue under this regime. At least that is what I hope. The individual stories are heartbreaking but compelling and it lingers long after I read the last page. Barbara Demick does a wonderful job of writing objectively yet compassionately.
Heartbreaking and shocking. A really good, well paced read. If you are looking for real stories about real people, this is a great book.
Fascinating journey into the personal lives and challenges of this closed society. Written in a way that kept my attention from beginning to end.
Best nonfiction I've read in a long time. Highly recommend as an accessible way to learn about North Korea regardless of previous knowledge on the subject. I especially appreciated Demick's use of oral histories to illustrate the broader realities of life for North Koreans.
This is one of the best books I've ever read. It is absolutely impossible to put down.
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
This is an absolutely fascinating book, if a rather grim read at times. And one of the many mind-boggling parts is this is still going on. The stories in this book are about people my age and my parent's age, and when I compare their experiences of growing up and working and being adults, to my own and what you can expect in this country... it just doesn't do to compare. I'm also slowly reading a book about the regime in Romania (far more academic style book than this), and that's awful, but at least you can say to yourself, it's over now. But this is still going on in North Korea. It's nuts. It's mad to think that people can be so brainwashed into thinking they have nothing to envy, they have the best life in the world etc - although if you're starving and overworked, you are easily brainwashed. But it's also reassuring that despite all of this, some are questioning it all, even if they "know no better" and are defecting. Human nature and human rights will try to get out no matter what. And whilst its a massive insane exercise in collectivism over individualism, isn't it also the biggest experiment in individualism gone completely wrong. Where does one person come from morally to build an entire country and thought system to revolve around them as if they are a god and that people will accept eating weeds out of the garden as there is nothing else, because this one person has brought the country to its knees, supposedly protecting the citizens.
The journalist who wrote this lived in South Korea for several years. She did actually get to visit the north a few times, although always travelling about with "minders". But the bulk of her research is from talking to defectors now living in South Korea, all from one particular city in the north. They are of varying ages and beliefs, from the rebellious types who never fit in, to those who were model workers who would never have dreamed of defecting.
The journalist who wrote this lived in South Korea for several years. She did actually get to visit the north a few times, although always travelling about with "minders". But the bulk of her research is from talking to defectors now living in South Korea, all from one particular city in the north. They are of varying ages and beliefs, from the rebellious types who never fit in, to those who were model workers who would never have dreamed of defecting.