From the category archives:

Book reviews: DPRK

Nothing to envy: it brought tears to the eyes of a jaded cynic

Post image for Nothing to envy: it brought tears to the eyes of a jaded cynic

by Philip Gowman on 20 February, 2010

in Book reviews: DPRK, DPRK, Event reports and reviews

LKL reports from the book launch of Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy – Real Lives in North Korea
It was a well-informed audience attending Barbara Demick’s book launch at the Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday, many of whom had been to North Korea. As the strains of a Mozart Symphony wafted upstairs from the concert hall [...]

{ 0 comments }

Hwang Sun-won: The Descendants of Cain

17 February 2010 Book reviews: DPRK
Thumbnail image for Hwang Sun-won: The Descendants of Cain

Hwang Sun-won: The Descendants of Cain
Translated by Suh Ji-moon and Julie Pickering
East Gate / UNESCO, 1997. Originally published 1954

Novels set in post-liberation Korea, or during the Korean war, often make uncomfortable reading, particularly those set in the Soviet sphere of influence, and where the story is set in the countryside. The historical context of freeing [...]

Read the full article →

Bamboo and Blood: Inspector O is back on form

11 November 2009 Book reviews: DPRK
Thumbnail image for Bamboo and Blood: Inspector O is back on form

James Church: Bamboo and Blood
St Martin’s Press, 2008

After Inspector O’s slightly disappointing second outing, James Church is back on form with the third novel in the series, Bamboo and Blood. In another fast-paced story, set against the backdrop of the North Korean 1997 famine and the US-DPRK talks in Geneva, Inspector O is given his [...]

Read the full article →

Book review: The Reluctant Communist

9 November 2009 Book reviews: DPRK
Thumbnail image for Book review: The Reluctant Communist

Charles Robert Jenkins: The Reluctant Communist: My Desertion, Court-Martial, and Forty-Year Imprisonment in North Korea
University of California Press, 2008

“Our choices are what makes us who we are. Nobody knows that better than me.”
So ends the autobiography of Charles Robert Jenkins, the only American to spend most of his life in North Korea and get out [...]

Read the full article →

LKL Weekly Tweets, 2009-08-24

24 August 2009 Bong Joon-ho
Thumbnail image for LKL Weekly Tweets, 2009-08-24

Congratulations to Yang Yong-eun on winning the US PGA golf championship http://bit.ly/2Jw6M #. “It’s not like you’re in an octagon where you’re fighting against Tiger and he’s going to bite you, or swing at you with his 9-iron,” Yang said through an interpreter. “The worst that I could do was just lose to Tiger. So [...]

Read the full article →

Escaping North Korea book launch

17 March 2009 Book reviews: DPRK
Thumbnail image for Escaping North Korea book launch

An account of the book launch of Mike Kim’s “Escaping North Korea” held at SOAS in March 2009

Read the full article →

Korea Yearbook 2008

14 March 2009 Book reviews: Business & economy
Thumbnail image for Korea Yearbook 2008

A review of the 2008 Korea Yearbook

Read the full article →

A border-crosser’s tale

22 June 2008 Book reviews: DPRK
Thumbnail image for A border-crosser’s tale

Hyejin Kim: Jia – a novel of North Korea
(Cleis Press, 2007)

A novel about a talented dancer from the wrong family background who finds she needs to escape across the border to China.
Those who have shown an interest in the reports from Amnesty International and Christian Solidarity Worldwide will not be surprised at some of the [...]

Read the full article →

Pyongyang – the view from Europe

13 February 2008 Book reviews: DPRK
Thumbnail image for Pyongyang – the view from Europe

Glyn Ford (with Kwon Soyoung): North Korea on the Brink
(Pluto Press, 2008)

Books on North Korea tend to blur in to one another. There are seemingly countless volumes either describing life under the Kims or analysing the history of diplomatic and undiplomatic engagement between the DPRK and the rest of the world, particularly the USA and [...]

Read the full article →

James Church: A Corpse in the Koryo

6 May 2007 Book reviews: DPRK
Thumbnail image for James Church: A Corpse in the Koryo

(Thomas Dunne Books, 2006)

Inspector O is a maverick. No respecter of authority, he answers back to his boss, he drives the departmental car without permission, and even, horror of horrors, refuses to wear his Kim Il-sung badge. Not another cliché cop, you might groan. Well, he doesn’t have a drink problem, doesn’t get his girl, [...]

Read the full article →

Charlie Crane: Welcome to Pyongyang

5 May 2007 Book reviews: DPRK
Thumbnail image for Charlie Crane: Welcome to Pyongyang

Chris Boot, 2007

The new photo book on Pyongyang can be appreciated on a number of levels. Firstly, there’s the literal level: it’s a collection of well-taken photos, with captions provided by the North Korean Tourist Board.
But like it or not, whenever you see anything in which the North Koreans have had a hand, you do [...]

Read the full article →

Guy Delisle: Pyongyang – A Journey in North Korea

17 November 2006 Book reviews: DPRK
Thumbnail image for Guy Delisle: Pyongyang – A Journey in North Korea

(Jonathan Cape, 2006)

An account of a three-month work stint in Pyongyang at around the start of the Bush presidency, this book is neither particularly topical (it’s taken some time to be translated from the original French) nor well-titled. But it sure is original. We’ve read travel accounts of North Korea before; we’ve heard about the [...]

Read the full article →

Andrew Holloway: A Year in Pyongyang

10 May 2006 Book reviews: DPRK
Thumbnail image for Andrew Holloway: A Year in Pyongyang

(Aidan FC’s website, 1988)

Amid the pile of available reading material on the DPRK, is there room for an unpublished memoir, getting on for 20 years old, recording the experiences of a lowly “raiser” — someone who converts Konglish into English — in late 1980s Pyongyang? Definitely yes.
Though obviously not state of the art, it’s [...]

Read the full article →

Jane Portal: Art under control in North Korea

17 April 2006 Book reviews: Art
Thumbnail image for Jane Portal: Art under control in North Korea

(Reaction Books / British Museum Press, 2005)

An interesting, easy to read book cataloguing the different art forms in North Korea. Some of the works, particularly poster art, are on display in the Korean room in the British Museum. The book carefully avoids making judgements about the quality of the work.
Link:

Review by Ken Vos at [...]

Read the full article →

Don Oberdorfer: The Two Koreas

17 April 2006 Book reviews: DPRK

(Warner, 1998)

Very readable account of post-war history, giving a blow-by-blow account of some of the diplomatic overtures and failures between the two Koreas and the US.
Links:

Buy The Two Koreas at Amazon

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries