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A review by girlaboutlibrary
The Boy Who Escaped Paradise: A Novel by J. M. Lee
2.0
This review, and many more like it, can be found on my blog Girl About Library
Flipping through channels or scrolling through Netflix, few things stop me faster than a documentary or news story about North Korea. I'm not sure when I first became so intrigued by North Korea, but this frightening, mysterious, and fascinating place captures both my attention and imagination. I was immediately intrigued after reading the description for "The Boy Who Escaped Paradise" by Chi J.M. Lee...
"The Boy Who Escaped Paradise" reminded me of Slumdog Millionaire meets Forrest Gump, two excellent stories, with an intriguing setting in North Korea. As a reader, it was easy to see what the author was trying to do and I was really rooting for him because the concept for the story is incredibly interesting.
The main character, Gilmo, understands the world around him through mathematical principals- personally, I understand the world through anything but math, so following the main character's principals and logic was tough, even with sound explanations. More confusing than the math itself, was how the main character even obtained all of this knowledge. Gilmo's formal education would obviously have been a huge part of his life, but little of it is mentioned in the book. While it is easy to agree that Gilmo is brilliant, it was incredibly difficult as I read to just accept that someone in Gilmo's position would know the names of all of these mathematical principals.
There were several moments where I really enjoyed the author's use of math to understand his surroundings. I was particularly struck by his use of math to determine how long he and his fellow workers had been at the prison camp:
" I started to think of a formula that calculated the length of someone's stay at a prison camp from the number of remaining joints on his hands."
I really wanted to like this book, the plot and characters seemed so intriguing and I have a deep interest in the setting - but I just didn't enjoy it. I think there were several reasons why "The Boy Who Escaped Paradise" wasn't very enjoyable for me- but the bulk of it I am crediting to the translation. There were many awkwardly worded moments that just fell flat for me. I was taken completely out of the story by this, and when I look back on my notes that feeling appears again and again. In this same vein, huge plot points were dropped with no build up or explanation for the reader. These moments that should have been so important to the book, left me confused and disappointed.
North Korea is still fascinating to me and, for that alone if you are interested in that location as well, this a good read. The author included many details about life in North Korea and the dangers after leaving North Korea as a refuge in Asia and America.
Flipping through channels or scrolling through Netflix, few things stop me faster than a documentary or news story about North Korea. I'm not sure when I first became so intrigued by North Korea, but this frightening, mysterious, and fascinating place captures both my attention and imagination. I was immediately intrigued after reading the description for "The Boy Who Escaped Paradise" by Chi J.M. Lee...
"The Boy Who Escaped Paradise" reminded me of Slumdog Millionaire meets Forrest Gump, two excellent stories, with an intriguing setting in North Korea. As a reader, it was easy to see what the author was trying to do and I was really rooting for him because the concept for the story is incredibly interesting.
The main character, Gilmo, understands the world around him through mathematical principals- personally, I understand the world through anything but math, so following the main character's principals and logic was tough, even with sound explanations. More confusing than the math itself, was how the main character even obtained all of this knowledge. Gilmo's formal education would obviously have been a huge part of his life, but little of it is mentioned in the book. While it is easy to agree that Gilmo is brilliant, it was incredibly difficult as I read to just accept that someone in Gilmo's position would know the names of all of these mathematical principals.
There were several moments where I really enjoyed the author's use of math to understand his surroundings. I was particularly struck by his use of math to determine how long he and his fellow workers had been at the prison camp:
" I started to think of a formula that calculated the length of someone's stay at a prison camp from the number of remaining joints on his hands."
I really wanted to like this book, the plot and characters seemed so intriguing and I have a deep interest in the setting - but I just didn't enjoy it. I think there were several reasons why "The Boy Who Escaped Paradise" wasn't very enjoyable for me- but the bulk of it I am crediting to the translation. There were many awkwardly worded moments that just fell flat for me. I was taken completely out of the story by this, and when I look back on my notes that feeling appears again and again. In this same vein, huge plot points were dropped with no build up or explanation for the reader. These moments that should have been so important to the book, left me confused and disappointed.
North Korea is still fascinating to me and, for that alone if you are interested in that location as well, this a good read. The author included many details about life in North Korea and the dangers after leaving North Korea as a refuge in Asia and America.