My gosh, I got so engrossed reading another book about Korea that I only opened my WordPress blog for a few minutes this morning.
It’s North Korea this time. It’s entitled Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives In North Korea by Barbara Demick.
Nothing To Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the unchallenged rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il, and the devastation of a far-ranging famine that killed one-fifth of the population.
By the way, Kim Jong-un became the supreme leader of North Korea in 2011, succeeding his father Kim Jong-il.
The book speaks from the eyes of defectors who are now living in South Korea or China. Getting a look inside this closed country, seeing the outside world though the eyes of those who escaped. If Pachinko was a riveting tale of how Korea was before the country’s division and during the Japanese Occupation, in this book you get to see how people lived in North Korea when it was finally divided. It’s like a continuation of where Pachinko left off.
Here’s how the author described a world of those who were indoctrinated since birth.
“North Korea invites parody. We laugh at the excesses of the propaganda and the gullibility of the people. But consider that their indoctrination began in infancy, during the fourteen-hour days spent in factory day-care centers; that for the subsequent fifty years, every song, film, newspaper article, and billboard was designed to deify Kim Il-sung; that the country was hermetically sealed to keep out anything that might cast doubt on Kim Il-sung’s divinity. Who could possibly resist?”
I haven’t actually finished the book yet but it is even more interesting and riveting than the previous book I read about the country.
Sounds good, Arlene, though we have to remember it is written by defectors who obviously have a one-sided opinion of like in the DPRK. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Well, the author is an American and a journalist. Her writing “represents a well researched body of work about lives from such a secretive country, with enough personal details of daily life in North Korea”. It was not just about the defectors. Thanks Pete.
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Thanks for clearing that up, Arlene.
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You’re welcome Pete 🙂
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That sounds like a fascinating read! The thought of living in a society like that is frightening to me!
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It actually reminds me of what is happening in our country right now. It’s bordering on dictatorship, Plunderers, drug lords, corrupt officials, they are everywhere.
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You do have a point, Arlene! It seems like this kind of corruption is increasing all around the world. Sadly we are seeing more problems like that here in the US as well. I sure hope things get better for the next generations!
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It is getting worse here. There is even a talk that they will set free a rapist and a murderer who was meted with seven life sentences who has only spent more than twenty years in jail for his crimes. His previous lawyer is the present spokesman of the president. It seems money talks always.
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It’s often like that here too! Money is nice to have, but too many in power abuse and misuse their influence in all sorts of ways.
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Money is not bad in itself, it is the wrong use of it.
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Very true!
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Thanks for the title. I will look for it.
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You’re welcome Elizabeth 🙂
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It sounds like a fascinating book. Thanks for the glimpse into its pages.
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You’re welcome Kathy! Hope you’ll have the chance to read it too.
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I’m surprised I haven’t come across this one before. I’ll be looking it up!
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Go ahead, you’ll learn a lot about their lives.
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