cmilnes634097

We're used to hearing about North Korea mainly in blurbs about its nuclear program, potential threat to the world, and its insane dictator. But we never hear about its people, about the ordinary lives that take place in a country that shows up on Google Maps as a blank green space between China and South Korea. This book is highly readable and accessible; Demick writes for the layperson who has very little knowledge about North Korea but doesn't alienate those readers who might already have a fair amount of knowledge. She focuses on the people whose stories she tells, interweaving them with information about the country's history and strange Orwellian approach to government without losing sight of the narratives that form the backbone of the book. She tells the heartbreaking stories of starvation and deprivation detached enough to avoid being maudlin or overemotional, but with enough compassion to connect the reader to the people who had to live through that nightmare, of their struggles to escape North Korea and their struggles to build some kind of life in the outer world. Despite its heartbreaking tone and serious subject matter, this is a vitally important book to help the reader gain an understanding of North Korea and how it is much much more than some tinpot secretive society desperately clinging to the Cold War.

2020-08-16 17:03