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4.46 AVERAGE
4.46 AVERAGE
This book comes with some major trigger warnings ( R*pe, s*x trafficing, abortion, and death of a loved one ) but I really appreciated Yeonmi's honesty in sharing her experience. These accounts of people's lives in North Korea and the struggle to escape must be told. Wishing this lovely lady all the joy in the world after knowing her heartbreaking childhood and youth.
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
No hay forma de hacerle justicia a este libro con una reseña. Simplemente decir que me duele el corazón por todas aquellas personas que siguen viviendo bajo ese regimen autoritario en Corea del Norte, deseo de corazón que algún día puedan conocer la libertad y una vida digna.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Wow, what a harrowing tale of escaping North Korea and the path that took her to China where she was sex trafficked and eventually escaped to South Korea. At times it was unbelievable that someone could endure all of this and unnerving that this story could be happening today.
This book had me smiling, crying and on the edge of my seat. Such a remarkable story; a simple review cannot do it justice. Any amazingly honest account of an amazing life.
just wow
I was driven through tears and anger and just so many emotions reading Yeonmi Parks story on her escape from North Korea. This book is just…wow
I was driven through tears and anger and just so many emotions reading Yeonmi Parks story on her escape from North Korea. This book is just…wow
This book was fascinating and has started me on a quest to learn more and more about North Korea. You kinda already think you know what it's like but this book is a harrowing tale about the human spirit to survive and fly free. Loved it.
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
An astonishing story of survival of a young woman’s escape from North Korea. She loses her sister in this and is herself sold across the Chinese border. The human trafficking element was unknown to me. Fascinating and well told.
Rating only so I remember my thoughts for book club. I found the writing style and story engaging and horrifying, but not too graphic. I finished in two days which is not usual for autobiographies. It definitely wasn't boring.
However ... early on I got the sense of inconsistencies and a certain unreality to the account as presented. I had not researched anything about this author or story previously, so it wasn't anything I'd been told to look out for. I'm also familiar with modern-day oppression and trafficking, so the story wasn't shocking to me from that perspective. From the beginning I was all in, but a vague unease / skepticism grew throughout. There were some clear examples of inconsistencies within the book that raised questions, but I told myself I was just being cynical. I continued on, giving the benefit of doubt, and was satisfied with the ending.
After finishing I googled to see whether the NK boyfriend ever did get in touch. I was disappointed but not surprised to read of the widespread critique and controversy around Yeonmi's account. It gelled with things I had picked up on my own within the book (even without having seen any of her other interviews or accounts that differ from this one), and that gut feeling something was off.
That's not to say Yeonmi's story is an outright fabrication. No doubt there's elements of truth, perhaps even most of it. For all of us memory is more unreliable than we are comfortable with acknowledging. Facts get lost in time and changed with the colours we lay over the memory every time we revisit it. There are some excellent - and disconcerting - articles on how subjective and changeable memory and "facts" can actually be.
Hence differences in accounts, and over time, especially with trauma, secrecy and the need to say and do whatever it takes to survive added to the mix, should be expected. And yet ... there are enough questions in my mind to rate this as a 2.5 as an autobiography. I have no idea what events actually happened, in what order and what life is actually like for those in NK and those defecting - the very reason why I picked this book in the first place.
A person, traumatized and stunted in development as a child, with the instinct first only to survive, and then developing a secondary "save the world" complex as an adult, will never be a wholly honest narrator. Yeonmi to her credit admits as much when she talks about doublethink, and gives many instances of saying whatever she thinks others want to hear, or whatever will help her live, even when at odds with the truth. Truth didn't matter and moreover was dangerous, and beyond that you could also hold two contradictory positions fully and unrelentingly and it not be a problem for you. I suspect those patterns, formed in childhood and "trackerjacked" with trauma, are not easily broken and are on display in Yeonmi's public life and her writings.
Add that to what I know of the groups intersecting with Yeonmi, particularly YWAM (I was screaming at her to run away!), the eyes and pressure of the world on her at a young age, and the sheer difference in perspectives and understandings between cultures and languages - in essence this book for me can only be a fictionalized narrative rather than a biographical story. It likely contains broad truths, for we know life in NK for many is a disaster, and human trafficking is a very real and present evil. We can learn from Yeonmi's story as it is told. However, to position it as a coherent and accurate account of one girl's experience and escape undermines these lessons. The fact we know details are changed (admitted by Yeonmi, for ostensibly understandable reasons) but not which parts, is disorienting. Ultimately this story as presented historic fact / memoir reads as unreliable, and I'm not sure what we're left with.
However ... early on I got the sense of inconsistencies and a certain unreality to the account as presented. I had not researched anything about this author or story previously, so it wasn't anything I'd been told to look out for. I'm also familiar with modern-day oppression and trafficking, so the story wasn't shocking to me from that perspective. From the beginning I was all in, but a vague unease / skepticism grew throughout. There were some clear examples of inconsistencies within the book that raised questions, but I told myself I was just being cynical. I continued on, giving the benefit of doubt, and was satisfied with the ending.
After finishing I googled to see whether the NK boyfriend ever did get in touch. I was disappointed but not surprised to read of the widespread critique and controversy around Yeonmi's account. It gelled with things I had picked up on my own within the book (even without having seen any of her other interviews or accounts that differ from this one), and that gut feeling something was off.
That's not to say Yeonmi's story is an outright fabrication. No doubt there's elements of truth, perhaps even most of it. For all of us memory is more unreliable than we are comfortable with acknowledging. Facts get lost in time and changed with the colours we lay over the memory every time we revisit it. There are some excellent - and disconcerting - articles on how subjective and changeable memory and "facts" can actually be.
Hence differences in accounts, and over time, especially with trauma, secrecy and the need to say and do whatever it takes to survive added to the mix, should be expected. And yet ... there are enough questions in my mind to rate this as a 2.5 as an autobiography. I have no idea what events actually happened, in what order and what life is actually like for those in NK and those defecting - the very reason why I picked this book in the first place.
A person, traumatized and stunted in development as a child, with the instinct first only to survive, and then developing a secondary "save the world" complex as an adult, will never be a wholly honest narrator. Yeonmi to her credit admits as much when she talks about doublethink, and gives many instances of saying whatever she thinks others want to hear, or whatever will help her live, even when at odds with the truth. Truth didn't matter and moreover was dangerous, and beyond that you could also hold two contradictory positions fully and unrelentingly and it not be a problem for you. I suspect those patterns, formed in childhood and "trackerjacked" with trauma, are not easily broken and are on display in Yeonmi's public life and her writings.
Add that to what I know of the groups intersecting with Yeonmi, particularly YWAM (I was screaming at her to run away!), the eyes and pressure of the world on her at a young age, and the sheer difference in perspectives and understandings between cultures and languages - in essence this book for me can only be a fictionalized narrative rather than a biographical story. It likely contains broad truths, for we know life in NK for many is a disaster, and human trafficking is a very real and present evil. We can learn from Yeonmi's story as it is told. However, to position it as a coherent and accurate account of one girl's experience and escape undermines these lessons. The fact we know details are changed (admitted by Yeonmi, for ostensibly understandable reasons) but not which parts, is disorienting. Ultimately this story as presented historic fact / memoir reads as unreliable, and I'm not sure what we're left with.