Just finished reading another book about North Koreans, written by Barbara Demick, a Los Angeles Times reporter. The book, entitled Nothing to Envy: the Lives of Ordinary North Koreans, focuses on the stories of six defectors from the same North Korean city, Chongjin, the 3rd largest city in North Korea. It's based on her interviews with these six defectors as well as supporting material from about 100 other defectors she interviewed in Seoul, while based there, for a series of Los Angeles Times articles.
What a book. I don't want to wander over into hyperbole, but I've rarely read any piece of reportage that impressed and moved me as much as this one. I feel that I've gotten a very truthful glimpse into an extraordinarily closed, dangerous, completely Orwellian world. And more than is the case with In Order to Live, the book has uplifting moments, as the defectors find various ingenious ways to improve their lives within that horribly repressive regime, then shift gears completely and attempt to thrive in ultra-modern, ultra-capitalist South Korea.
I can't recommend the book highly enough.
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