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katiescho741 's review for:
A River in Darkness: One Man's Escape from North Korea
by Masaji Ishikawa
This book is relentlessly sad. His story has this intense melancholy about it...that feeling that no matter how hard you work, or what you do, things won't get better.
I've never read anything about life in North Korea so this was eye opening. I thought it was more about general control and oppression, I had no idea about the desolation and starvation the population experienced in the second half of the 20th Century. Just as you think that things have got as bad as they could get, things get worse. Ishikawa is faced with the choice of sating with his family and watching them waste away, or leaving and surviving on his own.
Ishikawa's story is intimate and personal but he is also telling us the story of the millions who went over to North Korea with the promises of paradise and wonderful, care free life.
What's interesting, is that the subtitle makes you think there's a happy ending, but there really isn't. Yes, he escapes the horrors of North Korea, but things don't work out like he expected and the ending is more about hope than happiness. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in life in North Korea.
I've never read anything about life in North Korea so this was eye opening. I thought it was more about general control and oppression, I had no idea about the desolation and starvation the population experienced in the second half of the 20th Century. Just as you think that things have got as bad as they could get, things get worse. Ishikawa is faced with the choice of sating with his family and watching them waste away, or leaving and surviving on his own.
Ishikawa's story is intimate and personal but he is also telling us the story of the millions who went over to North Korea with the promises of paradise and wonderful, care free life.
What's interesting, is that the subtitle makes you think there's a happy ending, but there really isn't. Yes, he escapes the horrors of North Korea, but things don't work out like he expected and the ending is more about hope than happiness. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in life in North Korea.