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4.48 AVERAGE
4.48 AVERAGE
Halfway through the book, I had to stop. The anguish it was producing in me was unsustainable. The author's writing and narrative skills are excellent, contributing to this feeling by the way she manages to bring to life the descriptions of the six people she accompanied and with whom she makes us empathise.
I don't think my problem with the book lay in the atrocities that were committed. I've read much worse descriptions of the Holocaust, Sarajevo or the Gulags. The difference is that all these descriptions, when read, are of a past. It happened; it was bad, but we, as a species, managed to turn it around, and we managed to restore some harmony. Not here.
Reading about what was done to an entire country over decades - annihilation, torture, famine - knowing that those same people, their descendants, are still under that same system is emotionally unsustainable.
As I read, I found myself continually thinking about the ways in which this state of affairs could be brought to an end, namely how the decapitation of the regime would be something within the reach of a small group of special troops, only to then bang my head against the wall of the geopolitical forces - the US, Russia and China - who have the power to act, but because of the differences between them do not. Or to recall the absurd, deeply perverse words of a leader of a party with a seat in the Portuguese Parliament who unashamedly defended the existence of democracy in North Korea.
After a few weeks, I managed to finish the book, which ended up working better since the second part tells the story of how each of the six people described managed to flee, with or without family, from North Korea to South Korea and rebuild their lives, their psychological identities. With that, the book offers a glimmer of hope. Even so, the numbers fleeing, compared, for example, to those from East Germany to West Germany at the time of the Wall, are practically negligible, and here we have once again discovered the hand of China, which has done everything it can to prevent Koreans from escaping via China.
While an entire nation languishes, decade after decade, all of us, the entire planet, continue our lives pretending that nothing is happening there. It's emotionally unsustainable.
I don't think my problem with the book lay in the atrocities that were committed. I've read much worse descriptions of the Holocaust, Sarajevo or the Gulags. The difference is that all these descriptions, when read, are of a past. It happened; it was bad, but we, as a species, managed to turn it around, and we managed to restore some harmony. Not here.
Reading about what was done to an entire country over decades - annihilation, torture, famine - knowing that those same people, their descendants, are still under that same system is emotionally unsustainable.
As I read, I found myself continually thinking about the ways in which this state of affairs could be brought to an end, namely how the decapitation of the regime would be something within the reach of a small group of special troops, only to then bang my head against the wall of the geopolitical forces - the US, Russia and China - who have the power to act, but because of the differences between them do not. Or to recall the absurd, deeply perverse words of a leader of a party with a seat in the Portuguese Parliament who unashamedly defended the existence of democracy in North Korea.
After a few weeks, I managed to finish the book, which ended up working better since the second part tells the story of how each of the six people described managed to flee, with or without family, from North Korea to South Korea and rebuild their lives, their psychological identities. With that, the book offers a glimmer of hope. Even so, the numbers fleeing, compared, for example, to those from East Germany to West Germany at the time of the Wall, are practically negligible, and here we have once again discovered the hand of China, which has done everything it can to prevent Koreans from escaping via China.
While an entire nation languishes, decade after decade, all of us, the entire planet, continue our lives pretending that nothing is happening there. It's emotionally unsustainable.
Nothing to Envy was one of the most remarkable tales I’ve ever read. I know next to nothing about Asian cultures, history, etc. This was a real eye opener to me for one small, isolated country.
This book totally took over my life. Every night my husband and I walk our dogs for about an hour, and I couldn’t even help but tell him everything I had learned that day from the book. “And can you even imagine the lights going out in your country? Westerners are constantly writing these *scifi dystopian* works, but there is nothing fiction about it, it’s happened, people had to watch it happen!” and “The names for these things just SOUND HORRIBLE: ideological training, The People’s Community Standards Brigade.” And “Can you believe that you have to get permission from your work group to get a watch, or anything? They have to stay late on Fridays to confess their *sins* type of thing, they say how they aren’t being a good communist and stuff.” We would spend the whole hour on these sorts of topics- why isn’t America doing anything? Why did we allow countries to be split in the first place? How could we ever successfully join the countries back together if the regime fell? We talked about literature, 1984, modern retellings of dystopias and how they compared, how indoctrination worked and the different ways people do it, and whether Kim Il-Sung knew he was killing his people. Sometimes our conversations would get entirely side-tracked and it would start with North Korea and land on whether or not we would willingly go to colonize Mars and what sort of culture another planet would create, even if it was humans. Or, we would talk about how the average North Korean is five inches shorter than the average South Korean due to constant and persistent malnourishment, we’d talk about the Romans confronting the Germans for the first time, and how many generations in space it would take for humans to look different. If nothing else, you should read this book for the amazing conversation starter it is.
And then, after reading books like this, I have to wonder why this isn’t read in high schools? It’s written by a journalist, and so the method of storytelling is simple, but it is compelling. Its succinct, it’s not verbose, it might be repetitive, but it’s never dry. I think she did an amazing job weaving these stories together, fairly, with a look at all different walks of life in North Korea. This book would be perfect for high schools because it raises thought provoking questions about political use of the media, WWII imperialist ideologies, a look at the cold war, there is just so much you could do with this book.
I don’t want to give too much away, because these people’s stories need to be experienced . I can’t imagine that you would regret reading this book. Your head will most likely be splitting afterwards with more facts than you’ve ever even thought you could know about this mysterious little country. I know that I will never think or look at that country the same way again and now, any times NK is in the news, I know my attention will pick up.
This book totally took over my life. Every night my husband and I walk our dogs for about an hour, and I couldn’t even help but tell him everything I had learned that day from the book. “And can you even imagine the lights going out in your country? Westerners are constantly writing these *scifi dystopian* works, but there is nothing fiction about it, it’s happened, people had to watch it happen!” and “The names for these things just SOUND HORRIBLE: ideological training, The People’s Community Standards Brigade.” And “Can you believe that you have to get permission from your work group to get a watch, or anything? They have to stay late on Fridays to confess their *sins* type of thing, they say how they aren’t being a good communist and stuff.” We would spend the whole hour on these sorts of topics- why isn’t America doing anything? Why did we allow countries to be split in the first place? How could we ever successfully join the countries back together if the regime fell? We talked about literature, 1984, modern retellings of dystopias and how they compared, how indoctrination worked and the different ways people do it, and whether Kim Il-Sung knew he was killing his people. Sometimes our conversations would get entirely side-tracked and it would start with North Korea and land on whether or not we would willingly go to colonize Mars and what sort of culture another planet would create, even if it was humans. Or, we would talk about how the average North Korean is five inches shorter than the average South Korean due to constant and persistent malnourishment, we’d talk about the Romans confronting the Germans for the first time, and how many generations in space it would take for humans to look different. If nothing else, you should read this book for the amazing conversation starter it is.
And then, after reading books like this, I have to wonder why this isn’t read in high schools? It’s written by a journalist, and so the method of storytelling is simple, but it is compelling. Its succinct, it’s not verbose, it might be repetitive, but it’s never dry. I think she did an amazing job weaving these stories together, fairly, with a look at all different walks of life in North Korea. This book would be perfect for high schools because it raises thought provoking questions about political use of the media, WWII imperialist ideologies, a look at the cold war, there is just so much you could do with this book.
I don’t want to give too much away, because these people’s stories need to be experienced . I can’t imagine that you would regret reading this book. Your head will most likely be splitting afterwards with more facts than you’ve ever even thought you could know about this mysterious little country. I know that I will never think or look at that country the same way again and now, any times NK is in the news, I know my attention will pick up.
Absolutely amazing. It is tragic, beautiful and a true testament to the human spirit.
This was a powerful and moving portrait of some unbelievable circumstances in North Korea. I wasn’t necessarily a fan of the narrative/character-based telling of things but that’s really all there was to go off of at the time. The horror or the starvation and famine was palpable and it completely changed my perspective about the awful extent that some governments have gone to control their people. In all this was worth the read but I was hoping for more macrosystematic analysis rather than stories. One day I hope North Korea will fall and we can really see everything that has been going on. Until then, this telling will serve to adequately portray a bulk of what has been happening.
What an amazing book! Written by a journalist living in South Korea, it follows the lives of six North Korean defectors from childhood to present day. It weaves a story of loyalty, honor and personal conviction while tossing in some rebellion and acceptance. It's not a happy story and at parts can be hard to stomach (reality often is), but it is definitely worth reading!
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
dark
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
Spennende innblikk i Nord-Korea fra en rekke nordkoreanske flyktninger. Gir et langt mer menneskelig blikk på situasjonen i landet enn det vi er vandt til å få servert i mediene. Også en god påminnelse om å sjekke privilegiet sitt.
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
“One can leave, but one can never completely escape the terror that is North Korea.”
Barbara Demick has taken the study of North Korea - the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to a new level. If typical books on North Korea put emphasis more on the society according to the political situations, then “Nothing to Envy” try to explore the human sides of the North Korean people. How even in a tightly controlled society like North Korea, people can still fall in love, work hard to survive in an economic system that doesn’t work, and many other interesting things.
To write this book, Barbara Demick has interviewed specifically 6 North Korean defectors who are originally from Chongjin. Chongjin as the third largest city in North Korea after Pyongyang and Hamhung is an interesting subject for the story. Not only because it tells the story outside of heavily fabricated area of Pyongyang, but also because it has been heavily affected by the famine in the 1990s. The history of Chongjin as a town to dispose “unwanted people” since the feudal era in Korea (and even now) also made it more interesting. Which means that the story in this book could be told in an objective way to describe well how the daily lives are in North Korea.
Demick has focused particularly in describing the situation in North Korea during 1990s. A period which could be remembered in North Korea as a time when Kim Il Sung, the founding father of the nation, passed away at the age of 82. The crisis which has christened him as the eternal president of the nation, leading the country in his death. It also tells the story of the great famine in North Korea. As a result of the natural disasters and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 which would mean that North Korea has to support her own people apart from the continuous helps which have been provided generously by the Soviet Union and other countries in the communist bloc.
By putting historical events and facts as the background of each chapter, Demick has provided the readers with a clear portrayal of life in North Korea in the 1990s. While at the same time, she also put her gift in storytelling to tell the stories of the 6 people from Chongjin. It’s an interesting way to describe the people’s life there, so that the readers could understand well the historical context while also get to explore the emotional aspects of the stories. I find myself welling tears in several parts of the story, something rarely happens to me as I’m not by default an emotional person.
This book would be a great introduction for anyone who want to start to get a “North Korean experience”. As the information is well written, concise, and interesting, I think everyone will enjoy this book, apart from whether they have extensively read about North Korea or just recently began to grow some interests in the country’s affairs. Highly recommended!
Barbara Demick has taken the study of North Korea - the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to a new level. If typical books on North Korea put emphasis more on the society according to the political situations, then “Nothing to Envy” try to explore the human sides of the North Korean people. How even in a tightly controlled society like North Korea, people can still fall in love, work hard to survive in an economic system that doesn’t work, and many other interesting things.
To write this book, Barbara Demick has interviewed specifically 6 North Korean defectors who are originally from Chongjin. Chongjin as the third largest city in North Korea after Pyongyang and Hamhung is an interesting subject for the story. Not only because it tells the story outside of heavily fabricated area of Pyongyang, but also because it has been heavily affected by the famine in the 1990s. The history of Chongjin as a town to dispose “unwanted people” since the feudal era in Korea (and even now) also made it more interesting. Which means that the story in this book could be told in an objective way to describe well how the daily lives are in North Korea.
Demick has focused particularly in describing the situation in North Korea during 1990s. A period which could be remembered in North Korea as a time when Kim Il Sung, the founding father of the nation, passed away at the age of 82. The crisis which has christened him as the eternal president of the nation, leading the country in his death. It also tells the story of the great famine in North Korea. As a result of the natural disasters and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 which would mean that North Korea has to support her own people apart from the continuous helps which have been provided generously by the Soviet Union and other countries in the communist bloc.
By putting historical events and facts as the background of each chapter, Demick has provided the readers with a clear portrayal of life in North Korea in the 1990s. While at the same time, she also put her gift in storytelling to tell the stories of the 6 people from Chongjin. It’s an interesting way to describe the people’s life there, so that the readers could understand well the historical context while also get to explore the emotional aspects of the stories. I find myself welling tears in several parts of the story, something rarely happens to me as I’m not by default an emotional person.
This book would be a great introduction for anyone who want to start to get a “North Korean experience”. As the information is well written, concise, and interesting, I think everyone will enjoy this book, apart from whether they have extensively read about North Korea or just recently began to grow some interests in the country’s affairs. Highly recommended!