Reviews - Není co závidět: obyčejné životy v Severní Koreji

2.45k reviews for:

Není co závidět: obyčejné životy v Severní Koreji

Barbara Demick

4.48 AVERAGE

cricca's review against another edition

3.5

informative slow-paced

teresatumminello's review against another edition

4.0

It’s one thing to read dystopias like [b:1984|5470|1984|George Orwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348990566s/5470.jpg|153313] and theoretically visualize an authoritarian government; it’s another thing entirely to read of real people who actually live under totalitarian rule. If the reading of a classic like the former is perhaps a more powerful reading experience, this nonfiction work proves a more empathetic one.

Demick writes in an ‘easy’ style, making this a work anyone can (and perhaps should) consume. The details of the rough lives of her six subjects and their resourcefulness in the face of utter hopelessness (and danger) are novelistic; the book is a page-turner. I became invested in these lives and wished I knew even more of them.

One of the defectors is a former university student, a voracious reader, and is given by Demick a copy of 1984. The young man is amazed that [a:George Orwell|3706|George Orwell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1450573063p2/3706.jpg] understood so well North Korea’s “brand” of totalitarianism.