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An eye-opening account of life inside North Korea—a closed world of increasing global importance—hailed as a “tour de force of meticulous reporting” (The New York Review of Books)
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST • NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FINALIST
In this landmark addition to the literature of totalitarianism, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick follows the lives of six North Korean citizens over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the rise to power of his son Kim Jong-il (the father of Kim Jong-un), and a devastating famine that killed one-fifth of the population.
Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, where displays of affection are punished, informants are rewarded, and an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life. She takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors, and through meticulous and sensitive reporting we see her subjects fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we witness their profound, life-altering disillusionment with the government and their realization that, rather than providing them with lives of abundance, their country has betrayed them.
Praise for Nothing to Envy
“Provocative . . . offers extensive evidence of the author’s deep knowledge of this country while keeping its sights firmly on individual stories and human details.”—The New York Times
“Deeply moving . . . The personal stories are related with novelistic detail.”—The Wall Street Journal
“A tour de force of meticulous reporting.”—The New York Review of Books
“Excellent . . . humanizes a downtrodden, long-suffering people whose individual lives, hopes and dreams are so little known abroad.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“The narrow boundaries of our knowledge have expanded radically with the publication of Nothing to Envy. . . . Elegantly structured and written, [it] is a groundbreaking work of literary nonfiction.”—John Delury, Slate
“At times a page-turner, at others an intimate study in totalitarian psychology.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
- Sales Rank: #113746 in Books
- Brand: Barbara Demick
- Published on: 2009-12-29
- Released on: 2009-12-29
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.40" h x 1.10" w x 6.30" l, 1.31 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 336 pages
Features
- Nothing to Envy Ordinary Lives in North Korea
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. A fascinating and deeply personal look at the lives of six defectors from the repressive totalitarian regime of the Republic of North Korea, in which Demick, an L.A. Times staffer and former Seoul bureau chief, draws out details of daily life that would not otherwise be known to Western eyes because of the near-complete media censorship north of the arbitrary border drawn after Japan's surrender ending WWII. As she reveals, ordinary life in North Korea by the 1990s became a parade of horrors, where famine killed millions, manufacturing and trade virtually ceased, salaries went unpaid, medical care failed, and people became accustomed to stepping over dead bodies lying in the streets. Her terrifying depiction of North Korea from the night sky, where the entire area is blacked out from failure of the electrical grid, contrasts vividly with the propaganda on the ground below urging the country's worker-citizens to believe that they are the envy of the world. Thorough interviews recall the tremendous difficulty of daily life under the regime, as these six characters reveal the emotional and cultural turmoil that finally caused each to make the dangerous choice to leave. As Demick weaves their stories together with the hidden history of the country's descent into chaos, she skillfully re-creates these captivating and moving personal journeys. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* In spite of the strict restrictions on foreign press, award-winning journalist Demick caught telling glimpses of just how surreal and mournful life is in North Korea. Her chilling impressions of a dreary, muffled, and depleted land are juxtaposed with a uniquely to-the-point history of how North Korea became an industrialized Communist nation supported by the Soviet Union and China and ruled by Kim Il Sung, then collapsed catastrophically into poverty, darkness, and starvation under the dictator’s son, Kim Jong Il. Demick’s bracing chronicle of the horrific consequences of decades of brutality provide the context for the wrenching life stories of North Korean defectors who confided in Demick. Mi-ran explains that even though her “tainted blood” (her father was a South Korean POW) kept her apart from the man she loved, she managed to become a teacher, only to watch her starving students waste away. Dr. Kim Ki-eum could do nothing to help her dying patients. Mrs. Song, a model citizen, was finally forced to face cruel facts. Strongly written and gracefully structured, Demick’s potent blend of personal narratives and piercing journalism vividly and evocatively portrays courageous individuals and a tyrannized state within a saga of unfathomable suffering punctuated by faint glimmers of hope. --Donna Seaman
Review
“The narrow boundaries of our knowledge have expanded radically with the publication of Los Angeles Times correspondent Barbara Demick’s Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea….Elegantly structured and written, Nothing To Envy is a groundbreaking work of literary nonfiction.”–Slate
“Excellent… lovely work of narrative nonfiction….a book that offers extensive evidence of the author’s deep knowledge of this country while keeping its sights firmly on individual stories and human details.”–New York Times
“A deeply moving book.”–Wall Street Journal
“Superbly reported account of life in North Korea.’’–Bloomberg
“There’s a simple way to determine how well a journalist has reported a story, internalized the details, seized control of the narrative and produced good work. When you read the result, you forget the journalist is there. Barbara Demick, the Los Angeles Times’ Beijing bureau chief, has aced that test in “Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea,” a clear-eyed and deeply reported look at one of the world’s most dismal places.’’–Cleveland Plain Dealer
“The ring of authority as well as the suspense of a novel.’’–Washington Times
“Excellent new book is one of only a few that have made full use of the testimony of North Korean refugees and defectors. A delightful, easy-to-read work of literary nonfiction, it humanizes a downtrodden, long-suffering people whose individual lives, hopes and dreams are so little known abroad that North Koreans are often compared to robots… The tale of the star-crossed lovers, Jun-sang and Mi-ran, is so charming as to have inspired reports that Hollywood might be interested.”—San Francisco Chronicle
“In a stunning work of investigation, Barbara Demick removes North Korea’s mask to reveal what lies beneath its media censorship and repressive dictatorship.”–Daily Beast
“In spite of the strict restrictions on foreign press, awardwinning journalist Demick caught telling glimpses of just how surreal and mournful life is in North Korea… Strongly written and gracefully structured, Demick’s potent blend of personal narratives and piercing journalism vividly and evocatively portrays courageous individuals and a tyrannized state.”–Booklist
“A fascinating and deeply personal look at the lives of six defectors from the repressive totalitarian regime of the Republic of North Korea… As Demick weaves their stories together with the hidden history of the country’s descent into chaos, she skillfully re-creates these captivating and moving personal journeys.”–Publishers Weekly
“These are the stories you’ll never hear from North Korea’s state news agency.”–New York Post
“At times a page-turner, at others an intimate study in totalitarian psychology. Demick… takes us inside the minds of her subjects, rendering them as complex, often compelling characters – not the brainwashed parodies we see marching in unison in TV reports.”–Philadelphia Inquirer
“The last time I read a book with something truly harrowing or pitiful or sad on every page it was Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and those characters had the good fortune to not be real.”–St. Louis Magazine
Most helpful customer reviews
34 of 34 people found the following review helpful.
Poignant, True Stories of North Koreans Who Escaped
By T-Rex 5
This book has a different format compared to many North Korea books. In this book, the author starts with telling the story of the lives of several North Koreans in various walks of life. Of course, we know from the beginning, that regardless of how unlikely it seems, at some point all of these people are going to escape North Korea in order to be able to tell their story. We learn the story of how these individuals grew up and lived in North Korea, their thoughts about their government and now Eternal Leader Kim, how they lived through the starvation years of the 90's, and the long road leading to why they decided to defect (or in 1 case, was tricked by a family member into defection, and how they finally were able to defect to South Korea. We learn what happened to some of their family members left behind, about their attempts to rescue family members trapped in North Korea (some successful and some not), and the sometimes harsh adjustment to the freedom and capitalism of South Korea. The author details the difficulty and perils involved for North Koreans to defect and safely make it sanctity in South Korea. We learn about a young man left an orphan whose father had been Party member, a pediatrician whose greatest dream was to be allowed to join the Party, a housewife with 2 young children and an abusive husband, a young woman and her "forbidden" boyfriend, a factory worker who had absolute loyalty to the regime, and several more. The stories are poignant and heartwarming, showing vividly the humanity of people trapped in North Korea. This book also covers the operation of the government and its regimentation over people's lives from a historical viewpoint, how this all changed (slightly for the better) during the starvation years of the 90's, and the newer changes (for the worse) under Kim Jong-un. Also covered are the issues and problems involved as former North Koreans adjust to a life of capitalism and freedom in South Korea. I recommend this book for anyone who wants to go beyond the history of and current living situation in North Korea, to hear the stories of real people surviving in and then escaping from North Korea.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Bleak and Frightening Look Behind the North Korean Curtain
By William Capodanno
While eight years have passed since this book was published, little has changed with North Korea in terms of their isolation from the rest of the world. Told through stories of defectors, Demick's book is a gripping account of what life is like behind a repressive, totalitarian state, built upon the cult of personality where the citizens of North Korea live in a country that resembles 1957 not 2017.
There are so many unforgettable stories in this book, the one of Mi-Ran and Jun-Sang, read like a Shakespearean tragedy. As these two young teens carry on a secret romantic (and non-sexual relationship) violating societal and class norms, the reader understands the true personal loneliness that a totalitarian society exerts not on the individual, the inability to trust even those closest to them. As Jun-Sang's schooling leaves him far away from Mi-Ran, we understand the extent to which a famine consumes the country, killing even the healthiest, and causing citizens like Mi-Ran to consider the unthinkable, fleeing the country through China in order to make it to South Korea to survive the catastrophe unfolding before their eyes to the family and neighbors.
"Nothing to Envy" is a brilliant book in how deeply it humanizes the people of North Korea, pawns of a corrupt, maniacal family that has exerted absolute control over 20+million people for nothing more than power. Outside of the ruling family, everyone else is a dispensable pawn, only valuable in so far as they further the ends of Kim Il-sung and his heirs. Demick gives voice to the untold stories that represent the millions unfortunate to be born into a repressive totalitarian society, virtually all with little hope and no control on their ultimate destiny, most fortunate to have food to eat to live for another day. This book is just as important a read today given how little conditions have changed for North Koreans.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Yes, it was and is this bad
By Ron L
I can claim little knowledge regarding North Korea, and a point made late in the book is worth attention: Those who defect are likely misfits and they may well be misfits regardless of the regime under which they live. But it's hard to be a 'fit' when the regime under which you live imposes starvation upon its 'citizens' (read 'slaves'; if you wish to claim otherwise, I'll ask for evidence). Ms. Demick's research and follow-up seem top-notch; if someone wishes to claim conditions were other that what she states, they are going to have to lay it on the line and prove Ms. Demick wrong.
I want to make this clear: North Korea's slaves (the population) were purposely starved by North Korean commie dictators. It is amazing that some still defend North Korea (and to some degree Stalin, Mao, Lenin) in the face of such evidence. But then the left has probably more than a hundred million of deaths to justify under the claim of 'helping the common man'; the irrational distaste for the profit motive remains strong.
The book lost a star only in missing an editor. It is a compilation of reporting, but an editor should have caught the repetitions, some only separated by a paragraph.
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