shannonellis 's review for:

While Time Remains: A North Korean Defector's Search for Freedom in America by Yeonmi Park

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I am honestly not sure how to rate this book. On one hand, I feel for her and what she went through, obviously. But when you get to the end and she talks about her political views and her opinions and her stance on America, that’s where she lost me. It this book was very much a love letter to America. It felt like she was saying that she thinks that America is somehow on its way to becoming like North Korea. I did not like the way that she felt about oppression that still very much lives in America today. I understand where she’s coming from where she was incredibly oppressed but her extreme oppression does not mean that oppression here does not exist. I didn’t like how she made it seem like racism isn’t a problem when it very much is. I just I think that I have to sit with this book a little longer before I can really really give it a review.

Update: looked up to author and realized she’s a conservative republican. 🤢 things make so much more sense now. I’m still not going to rate it because I think rating nonfiction lowly simply because of a difference in opinion if the book it technically well written isn’t fair.