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A review by katemc
Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite by Suki Kim
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
3.5! This felt like a good entry point to the subject and there were a lot of beautiful passages. I especially appreciated the author’s discussion and reflection on the links and severances between North and South Korea. That added a layer I hadn’t previously considered or been exposed to, and added a personal investment from the author that deepened the emotional resonance and impact of her experience/narrative.
The main difficulty (and mentioned in a few other reviews I think) was she often flipped back and forth between her own conviction in the role she played in the lives of her students. Sometimes she’d be pushing further to expose them to ideas and try to “break” their brainwashing by alluding to the advances in the world outside NK and other times she’d say it was too dangerous and it was meaningless and she shouldn’t even bother. I can understand that she did experience ambivalence on the subject but how quickly she’d go back and forth (and how determined she was each time that it was the only way) became a little tiresome. This being positioned as a memoir also meant she was centered pretty heavily (some aspects being compelling and others less so) so I think that played a role in how interactions were presented.
Overall I was very engaged by it and it made me interested in reading more about NK/the Korean War.
The main difficulty (and mentioned in a few other reviews I think) was she often flipped back and forth between her own conviction in the role she played in the lives of her students. Sometimes she’d be pushing further to expose them to ideas and try to “break” their brainwashing by alluding to the advances in the world outside NK and other times she’d say it was too dangerous and it was meaningless and she shouldn’t even bother. I can understand that she did experience ambivalence on the subject but how quickly she’d go back and forth (and how determined she was each time that it was the only way) became a little tiresome. This being positioned as a memoir also meant she was centered pretty heavily (some aspects being compelling and others less so) so I think that played a role in how interactions were presented.
Overall I was very engaged by it and it made me interested in reading more about NK/the Korean War.