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A review by klauern
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick
4.0
This book is a pretty good read. To get the bad out of the way first, I had trouble swallowing all of the detail that the author put in, mostly because I had a hard time believing that when she interviewed these people, they gave her even 10% of the vivid detail of thought and visual behind the stories. For instance, I could believe that when she interviewed one person, they told her they used to take walks and would often sit by a tree with the moon being the only light. I can't believe that they provided her a page and a half of detail regarding the rich beauty of the mountainside, tree, etc.
All that being said, this is still a great set of stories, likely helped by the vivid detail. The author has spent years in South Korea, visited North Korea several times and interviewed hundreds of North Korean defectors. I take her embellishments with a grain of salt in that I know they're likely based on reality. You can feel how real these stories are, and how far behind this country is from the rest of the world. Numerous times in this book I'd be caught up in the story and realize that this was set in 1990's-2000's, and not 1950's.
The author recounted her reality of this up to Sep. 2009, so don't expect there to be anything related to NK's recent troubles and Kim Jong-il's death. I can appreciate why Asian markets had a tumultuous week following his death. The North Korean country falling would be pretty dramatic, and while I would think it would be a net good for the world, I feel nervous for South Korea's future and concerns they currently have dealing with the number of defections, reintegration of those people into a modern society, and potential upheaval of a North Korean collapse requiring the same at scale.
It's worth a read if you like a story backed with a lot of history and most likely, facts.
This book does one thing by consequence of reading it which I hope others recognize, too: an appreciation for technology and the amount of wealth that most first-world countries have. I don't presume to know your reality, income, or lifestyle, but even with the difficulties that you may have in your day-to-day dealings (as I do) that there should be times we can all sit down and marvel at the awesomeness of it all and how far we've gone in such a small amount of time.
All that being said, this is still a great set of stories, likely helped by the vivid detail. The author has spent years in South Korea, visited North Korea several times and interviewed hundreds of North Korean defectors. I take her embellishments with a grain of salt in that I know they're likely based on reality. You can feel how real these stories are, and how far behind this country is from the rest of the world. Numerous times in this book I'd be caught up in the story and realize that this was set in 1990's-2000's, and not 1950's.
The author recounted her reality of this up to Sep. 2009, so don't expect there to be anything related to NK's recent troubles and Kim Jong-il's death. I can appreciate why Asian markets had a tumultuous week following his death. The North Korean country falling would be pretty dramatic, and while I would think it would be a net good for the world, I feel nervous for South Korea's future and concerns they currently have dealing with the number of defections, reintegration of those people into a modern society, and potential upheaval of a North Korean collapse requiring the same at scale.
It's worth a read if you like a story backed with a lot of history and most likely, facts.
This book does one thing by consequence of reading it which I hope others recognize, too: an appreciation for technology and the amount of wealth that most first-world countries have. I don't presume to know your reality, income, or lifestyle, but even with the difficulties that you may have in your day-to-day dealings (as I do) that there should be times we can all sit down and marvel at the awesomeness of it all and how far we've gone in such a small amount of time.