tribune7 's review for:

The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Pierre Rigoulot, Chol-Hwan Kang

4.0

---

This is a great memoir and I loved Kang’s voice throughout. Despite terrifying circumstances, Kang remains hopeful, poetic and even funny in the retelling of his tribulations in North Korea. One interesting part about the book, which some might not like, is that Kang mostly tells the story through specifics anecdotes with sweeping explanations in between. I found this captivating, but it also makes Kang seem somehow distant from the reader at times.