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addenoir 's review for:
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
by Barbara Demick
Here is an outstanding piece of Journalism, extensively researched and thoughtfully laid out to illustrate a corrupt regime in a human capacity. That Demick can recreate the day to day routine in North Korea behind the veneer constructed for tourists and foreign journalists is a true show of her interviewing and writing talent. I was gripped to this book as one might be to [i] 1984[/i], and perhaps I was expecting a conclusion of some sort for the country as well as the defectors, but we know it doesn't quite work like that.
An interesting, and saddening, point is made towards the end about modern communication, that could situate this piece of non-fiction in an alternative polemic. Jun-sang and Mi-ran's relationship is unable to function once they have defected, not least because the immediacy of communication reveals unflattering realities to each of them. It is moments like this that this book surprises you.
An interesting, and saddening, point is made towards the end about modern communication, that could situate this piece of non-fiction in an alternative polemic. Jun-sang and Mi-ran's relationship is unable to function once they have defected, not least because the immediacy of communication reveals unflattering realities to each of them. It is moments like this that this book surprises you.