|
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea |  | Author: Barbara Demick
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $17.04
as of 3/10/2010 19:46 CST details
You Save: $8.96 (34%)
New (22) Used (6) from $17.04
Seller: bookrackrh
Rating:  49 reviews
Sales Rank: 1247
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0385523904
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.095193090511
EAN: 9780385523905
ASIN: 0385523904
Publication Date: December 29, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A remarkable view into North Korea, as seen through the lives of six ordinary citizens
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.
Taking us into a landscape most of us have never before seen, award-winning journalist Barbara Demick brings to life what it means to be living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet, in which radio and television dials are welded to the one government station, and where displays of affection are punished; a police state where informants are rewarded and where an offhand remark can send a person to the gulag for life.
Demick takes us deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors. Through meticulous and sensitive reporting, we see her six subjects—average North Korean citizens—fall in love, raise families, nurture ambitions, and struggle for survival. One by one, we experience the moments when they realize that their government has betrayed them.
Nothing to Envy is a groundbreaking addition to the literature of totalitarianism and an eye-opening look at a closed world that is of increasing global importance.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 49
The Defectors' Stories! December 27, 2009
Kevin Currie-Knight (Newark, Delaware)
50 out of 53 found this review helpful
As Barbara Demick says in her epilogue, North Korea is something of a mystery. How has it avoided the collapse that experts have been predicting for 15 or more years? How has it been so successful at keeping citizens ignorant of the outside world and the outside world ignorant of its machinations? And, because of these successes at insulation, is it even possible to understand what life is like in North Korea?
Fortunately, Nohing to Envy gives us a "yes" answer to this last question; here is a book where we hear the stories of six North Korean defectors. In interweaving chapters, Demick reconstructs these tales of struggle with the skill of a novelist (and anyone not told that this is a work of journalism may be forgiven for thinking it a dystopian novel a la 1984 (Signet Classics) or We (Modern Library Classics)).
Dr. Kim is a medical doctor, devoted to the Workers party; Mrs. Song is a wife forced to find any way she can to feed her family, including daughter Oak-Hee in increasingly dismal times; Kim Hyuck is a boy whose father gave him to a state orphanage rather than have a son he couldn't support; Jun-Sang and Mi-Ran are secretly boyfriend and girlfriend, each with private reservations about, and struggles with, North Korea that remain private for fear of governmental repurcussions. Through these tales, we are able to glimpse life in a nation gone horribly wrong, where selling anything privately or insulting the Workers Psrty can land you years of time in prison or a labor camp, where emaciated children sing songs extolling North Korea, and one's station in life is dictated by how loyal one's family has been to "the Party." The stories are wonderfully told and, at times, I found myself putting the book down out of disbelief, outrage, and thankfulness for my own circumstances. I don't think anyone could read these stories and not feel very strongly.
Of course, Demick is also telling stories of defectors - by definition, stories about the strength of human spirit and tenacity. Nothing to Envy not only tells of economic collapse, but people's initiative in bringing about (illegal) markets to buy and sell goods. She not only tells of spirits being broken, but spirits persevering. And just as readers will certainly feel heartbreaks in these pages, so will they also feel joy in reading about some really brave people who broke the rules and thought for themeslves.
I cannot reccomend this book strongly enough! Readers of fiction (and biography) will get lost in the stories; readers of foreign affairs and political science will relish the descriptions of life under a most secret regime. Nothing to Envy is as captivating as a human story as it is informative as a political description.
Orwell's "1984" meets McCarthy's "The Road" December 30, 2009
Gaetan Lion
33 out of 35 found this review helpful
This is a gripping book. The six defectors interviewed by Demick describe North Korea as a totalitarian state in a post-apocalypse condition. That's why the visions of Orwell and McCarthy come to mind.
North Korea suffered two tragedies. The first one was the split of the Korean peninsula at the end of WWII and Stalin installing a like-minded dictator at its helm, Kim Il-sung. The latter eradicates religion and replaces it by his own cult of personality. In achieving a God status in his country, he bests Stalin, Hitler and Fidel Castro. Upon his death in the early nineties, many North Koreans will commit suicides. And, North Koreans will believe (through intense political propaganda) that if they cry enough Kim Il-sung will come back from the dead. The son of Kim Il-sung, Kim Jong-il will succeed him as a son of God.
North Korea's second tragedy was the collapse of the Soviet Union. When the latter collapsed it interrupted its assistance in food and oil. North Korea did not have enough fuel on its own to maintain its electrical grid. On the first page of the first chapter you see a picture of the Korean peninsula at night. South Korea is full of bright spots (urban areas lit by electricity). But, North Korea is pitch dark! In the post Soviet Union era, North Korea suffers shortages of electricity, running water, and food. Millions have already died of starvation. People are not paid. They are compensated by food rations. But, if you don't work you don't eat. The ones who don't receive food attempt to survive by milling bark, grasses, shrubs, leaves.
The majority of the country still suffers from malnutrition. Millions more would die if not for foreign assistance. But, the government misallocates food assistance by giving it to the ones who need it the least such as the army and the Pyongyang residents. Meanwhile, rural areas are starving. Within the book, a defecting doctor describes it best as she crossed the border in China and finds a full bowl of rice served to a dog and stated "dogs in China eat better than doctors in North Korea."
While Koreans were part of the same gene pool until 1945, they have since diverged dramatically. The North Koreans are half a foot shorter and tens of pounds lighter because of malnutrition. North Koreans born in the late eighties to early nineties are recognizable as they are shorter with heads disproportionately large relative to their bodies with overly thin and frail limbs.
In the early nineties before foreign aid rallied after the collapse of Soviet Union subsidies, society took a McCarthy's turn with many crimes, suicides, and even cannibalism (homeless orphans overtaken by starving adults in remote areas).
Only a totalitarian State could prevent such a society to fall into chaos. Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il have created a cult of personality supported by an obsessive self-surveillance society. North Koreans main activity is reporting on each other. The surveillance starts from the bottom up with "people's group" were everyone reports on everyone else. At dinner if you expressed a mild criticism of the current regime, you could be reported by a neighbor. Soon, after you could be abducted by the police and disappear in a camp forever. Many surveilling police forces are very specialized. If you sleep with your lover, a specialized police force can barge in the middle of the night and ask your lover for its travel permit. If the adequate documents are not produced the person can end up in prison. Another specialized police force watches that people wear the correct garments with the buttons showing support for the regime. Another one checks in that your TV or radio (a few people have electricity for a few moments a day) is set on the proper North Korean program. If you tweaked this equipment to listen to South Korean programs, you can incur severe punishment including death. Another police force makes sure that the portraits of the dictators are clean. If not you are in trouble.
Society is categorized in three classes: 1) the core class representing the professionals and government leaders; 2) the wavering class representing some sort of middle class; and 3) the hostile class representing entertainers, artists, nonproductive elements, and everyone of foreign origins. The hostile class is the one most intensely spied upon by others. Thus, it is most vulnerable to be imprisoned in camps and gulags for no obvious reason.
Propaganda is relentless. The dictator is the benevolent father of the nation. Without his hard work and superior intelligence you would be dying of starvation twice as fast as you are. Everybody else is the enemy. This includes Americans, Chinese, South Koreans, and even Russians and East-Europeans who failed at communism because of their genetic weakness. Capitalism is rotten. In other words, you have "Nothing to Envy."
Meanwhile, reality is stunningly bad. Chapter 7 describes the decrepit health care system. Hospitals lack all basic supplies and remedies. Many operations are conducted without anesthetic by tying the patient to boards. Children come in the hospitals and die because their weakening bodies from starvation can't fend off mild colds or flues that escalate into pneumonia. Chapter 8 describes the conditions in school that are equally horrible. Given that schools are broke, children are required to bring a ration of wood for heating and their own lunch. A teacher/defector observed a tragic pattern. At first, the children stop bringing their ration of wood. Next, the children don't bring their own lunch (and therefore don't eat during the day). And, soon after children do not even attend school.
Details of life in North Korea December 28, 2009
John K. (Riverside, CA United States)
22 out of 23 found this review helpful
I find myself fascinated by the lives of North Koreans: So completely different from ours in the first world. What is most fascinating is that they don't even know what they're missing, indoctrinated virtually from birth that the U.S. is evil and their Dear Leader is a god. This book is for people like me, that want to know more about what it's really like to live there, day by day. The book is full of little details like the very modest housing, the lack of heat in the wintertime everywhere, and how rations worked before they were cut off; to say nothing of the many ways to avoid starvation or watching what you say all the time for fear of being reported to the authorities for the North Korean equivalent of blasphemy.
The book follows six people through their lives in the DPRK in the 1990's, including the huge famine which occurred at that time; and, ultimately, their decisions to defect (a foregone conclusion since otherwise their stories would not be told). I found myself fascinated by them, especially how each figures out that their country's leadership has let them down. The author even managed to fit in a love story which, far from being hokey, is especially riveting due to the circumstances. The book is well-written and easy to read, the only mar being occasional repeated information which is easy to overlook.
I feel like I'm barely scratching the surface with this review. If reading this makes you want to know more, you won't be disappointed by the book.
Humbling and one book you MUST try and read!!!!! December 23, 2009
MotherLodeBeth (Sierras of California)
14 out of 17 found this review helpful
It's 1 am December 22nd as I write this, and I doubt I will even be able to sleep tonight, because this book is one that is haunting my every thought.
Loving books as much as I do, I force myself to read books which I know will make me feel sad, and even mad. This is one of those books. Started reading it a few days before Christmas and am glad I did, since its a book that kicks you in the gut and makes to verbally acknowledge just how blessed one is, here in the states, where for the most part, even the poor at least have some plain, healthy food to eat at least daily. Now I tend to be one of those people who when I lay in bed, ready for sleep, and I go over the days activities, I pause to give thanks for clean water, simple food, indoor plumbing, a bed to sleep in and while not well off by any standards, I am nonetheless lacking for none of the basics of life.
This book literally made me cry, which is good. How one could read of North Koreans living in such horrid conditions, cutting grass and weeds to make some awful soup, because they are so hungry. Or parents bringing children to fifth world medical clinics because they have no milk, not even rice. On page 112 we read of a young female doctor who is trying against all odds to help her people. 'The problem was with the food. Housewives started to pick weeds and wild grasses to add to their soups to create the illusion of vegetables. Corn was increasingly the staple again instead of rice but people were adding leaves, husks, stems, and cobs to make it go further. That was okay for adults, but it couldn't be digested by the young stomachs of children. In the hospital doctors discussed this problem among themselves, and gave the mothers what amounted to cooking advise. 'If you use grass or bark, you have to grind it very fine, then cook it a very long time so it is soft a d easy to eat.' Dr. Kim told them.' One reads how the doctors harvest herbs in the surrounding areas and try to make their own medicines and herbal treatments, because they have no other choice.
Another problem one reads about is pellagra which is caused by lack of niacin in the diet and often seen in people who only eat corn. The hospitals which may have had antibiotics years ago had none now. Mothers didn't eat enough to produce breast milk so baby and toddlers died. And if they could have afforded rice they would have tried to make rice milk, but there was no rice. Think of any horrid situation a country who doesn't care about her citizens can have and this is North Korea. Only a small are of North Korea is open to visitors and then they have a 'minder' who takes them around and only allows them to see certain things and speak to certain people.
Dr. Kim who had begun medical school at age 16, finally is able to escape with the help of the underground and she ends up in China and then South Korea where in her forties she has to start medical school all over again, but succeeds. And the book also covers the story of others who at great risk, did what they had to in order to escape North Korea. Since returning to North Korea if caught would have meant either a hard labor camp or even death. Visualize for a moment someone in their thirties who because of malnutrition looks like they are twelve years old. Or if a child survives to adult hood they may not be over five feet tall, even if male.
This is a book that will stay with me the rest of my life.
Astonishing, captivating non-fiction . . . January 4, 2010
aliled (Shawnee, Kansas United States)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Examining what goes on in North Korea - on any level - poses monumental challenges for today's journalist. Access is rarely given to any part of the country. When it is, it's severely restricted to certain areas. "Minders" make it impossible to approach "real" North Koreans, and - as Barbara Demick's book shows - many "real" North Koreans aren't even allowed in cities which are (occasionally) visited, such as the capital city of Pyongyang.
So it's a small miracle that Demick's Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea was even conceived. Although Demick made it into North Korea on multiple occasions, the vast bulk of this book comes from interviews with North Koreans who managed to make it out of the country successfully. Many of these escapees were from the northern city of Chongjin, a city near enough to North Korea's border with China to make fleeing a slightly easier task than it would be from other points. Without having seen it herself, Demick paints a portrait of Chongjin - the daily rhythm of life there, the changes brought over the course of a few years and the personality of its residents - that manages to feel absolutely dead-on, without sensationalism or distortion. Demick herself admits that it's likely that she's gotten some of the details wrong, but the "reality" she creates is believable.
The book is nothing more than a series of interwoven character sketches alongside some relevant political and socio-economic context. But the intersections of the lives and events she portrays are masterfully depicted. Although Demick has a journalist's eye for detail and a documentarian's desire for truth, she deftly transcends what would be, in lesser hands, simple fodder for the dailies. The book has no great arc. Although drama drips from every page, and the current fates of the warmest characters are detailed, Nothing To Envy feels, much like the fate of the millions of North Koreans stuck in a despotic wasteland, ever-so-slightly unfinished. This isn't criticism, rather its high praise for an author sensible enough to let time tell the rest of the story.
Most parts of the world, in most important eras, are marked by a piece of literature or documentation that superbly convey that time and place. For understanding North Korea's people at the start of the 21st century, I can't imagine a better book than this. Very, very highly recommended, and timely.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 49
|
|
|
Copyright © 2009 Southeast Asian Culture and Education Foundation
| |
