Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

Beautiful writing.

잠깐만요, 제가 전에 읽지 않았나요?

Informative and, in many ways, interesting, though a bit dry and repetitive. I found myself often nodding and thinking, "Yes, this was written by a journalist." The narrative, at times intriguing, was stretched out over-long and made bland by a stilted and choppy style. That, unfortunately, took away from my enjoyment of peering into such an isolated and backwards country. I appreciated the interweaving of various viewpoints - life in small villages and life in the capitol city of Pyongyang - to give a perspective of how life was different depending on political and social standing. Ms. Demick's perceptions and insights, through these interviews with North Koreans, are insightful and at times shocking in that they demonstrates how many of these refugees of such an abusive, totalitarian, and uncaring state find it difficult to move beyond the propaganda and brainwashing. Again, enlightening and poignantly sad, its main deficiency is that it is too long for the level of editorial polish, becoming repetitive.

I can’t even begin to fathom the realities of those living in a communist, socialist state such as North Korea. Much less that the country of North Korea is still maneuvering this way. In this book a journalist gets to know 6 Korean defectors where we are taken into the depths of the nightmare they encountered living in Pyongyang. I was captivated by the immense imagery Barbara was able to execute as I could imagine all of these defectors lives and hardships in detail. Despite hearing about totalitarian regimes I failed to realize the strictness of the suppression, similar to the holocaust. It was interesting to get an insight through the eyes of those who were able to escape North Korea and be able to see their flaws in continuing to choose to turn against one another in desperation and their strengths in surviving the starvation, the beatings, and unfairness provided by the dictatorship. The inhumanity survived by these defectors was humbling to read as it reminded me of how fortunate I was to live the life I live. The control of the authoritarian regime in North Korea and the effectiveness of controlled propaganda was impressive. The “god” like status of a leader which led those to believe in the system their entire life’s while they suffered for years and many until death was heinous. To hear how these people carried shame and guilt for simply trying to survive was heartbreaking, the lack of humanity, the things done out of desperation, the lack of will to survive, I can see how these people were stripped of not just freedom but the simple things such as a meal, I look forward to brighter days and a better world for those still living in blackouts, famine and starvation.

Excellent read.