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Category Archives: Book reviews: DPRK

A border-crosser’s tale

22-Jun-08

A border-crosser’s tale

Hyejin Kim: Jia - a novel of North Korea (Cleis Press, 2007) Stern(7,g) 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 material described in this book, which is the outcome of the author's human rights work with North Korean refugees in Northern China. Apart from the (relatively) happy ending, this short, well-written novel has a ring of authenticity. Links: Buy Jia at amazon.co.uk or amazon.com
Also filed in Book reviews: Foreign literature | | Comments (0) »

Pyongyang - the view from Europe

13-Feb-08
Glyn Ford (with Kwon Soyoung): North Korea on the Brink (Pluto Press, 2008) Stern(8,g) 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 ROK. Each book shares much ground with many of the others, but maybe contributes additional material derived from a personal encounter here or a hitherto overlooked or unpublished document there. Most of the books are worth a read in their own right, but once you've read Book A you only need to be told which few pages in Book B contains the new stuff to ...
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James Church: A Corpse in the Koryo

06-May-07
(Thomas Dunne Books, 2006) Stern(9,g) 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, keeps getting hit on the head, and travels the length and breadth of the country totally failing to find a nice cup of tea. All in all, pretty useless as maverick cops go. But he is efficient in picking up on the clues and putting them together, which is what matters, and he has an interesting family history, which hopefully will be explored further in future ...
Also filed in Book reviews: Foreign literature | | Comments (0) »

Charlie Crane: Welcome to Pyongyang

05-May-07
Chris Boot, 2007 Stern(8,g) 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 not take it at face value. Their propaganda, their rhetoric, is something which is so at odds with our own world view that we immediately discount what they say. And dare I say it, we are tempted to take a superior, condescending attitude towards what they view as their major achievements in constructing their Juche paradise. So, on this level, enjoy the picture of the ...
Also filed in Book reviews: Travel | | Comments (0) »

Guy Delisle: Pyongyang - A Journey in North Korea

17-Nov-06
(Jonathan Cape, 2006) Stern(9,g) 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 bleakness, the depression ... but maybe we've never seen it. That's where this book scores, because it's rather a unique concept: a travel account in the form of a graphic novel. You can attempt to capture in words the gloominess of Restaurant Number One in one of Pyongyang's few hotels, but to have a picture of it is something else. The graphic nature of the book, ...
Also filed in Book reviews: Travel, Book reviews: memoirs | | Comments (0) »

Andrew Holloway: A Year in Pyongyang

10-May-06
(Aidan FC's website, 1988) Stern(7,g) 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.
Also filed in Book reviews: History, Book reviews: memoirs, DPRK | | Comments (0) »

Jane Portal: Art under control in North Korea

17-Apr-06

Jane Portal: Art under control in North Korea

(Reaction Books / British Museum Press, 2005) Stern(8,g) 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 the Museum Anthropology Review site Buy at Amazon
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Don Oberdorfer: The Two Koreas

17-Apr-06
(Warner, 1998) Stern(8,g) 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
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Paul French: North Korea - the paranoid peninsula

17-Apr-06
(Zed, 2005) Stern(8,g) Highly readable and wide-ranging book on North Korea. Describes clearly some of the eccentricities of the regime, such as the Sinuiju economic zone, and describes clearly for the benefit of non-economists how it is that a rigid centrally-planned economy is doomed to fail. Links: Buy North Korea: The Paranoid Peninsula at Amazon
Also filed in Book reviews: History | | Comments (0) »

Hwang Sok-yong: The Guest

07-Apr-06
(Seven Stories, 2005) Stern(10,g) The Guest of the title is an unwelcome foreigner: originally applied to smallpox, it is used by extension to cover the cultural imports of communism and Christianity. The theme of the book is that until the ghosts of the past are allowed to tell their story they cannot be laid to rest. The story centres on an incident during the Korean war, in the north, where the divisions in time of civil strife led to atrocities: and the atrocities, blamed in the official narrative on the Americans in order to conceal the real truth and thus make the memories more bearable, are in fact all the more horrific because they are committed by Korean on Korean, neighbour on ...
Also filed in Book reviews: Literature in Korean | | Comments (0) »

Kang Chol-hwan: Aquariums of Pyongyang

16-Feb-06
(Basic Books 2001) Stern(9,g) A harrowing autobiographical account of a young boy's experience in a North Korean concentration camp. Essential reading. Links: Buy Aquariums of Pyongyang at Amazon
Also filed in Book reviews: memoirs, DPRK | | Comments (0) »