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Nothing to Envy
- Ordinary Lives in North Korea
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
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Publisher's summary
Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy follows the lives of six North Koreans over 15 years - a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung and 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 never before seen, Demick brings to life what it means to be an average Korean citizen, living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today - an Orwellian world in which radio and television dials are welded to the one government station, a country that is by choice not connected to the Internet, a society in which outward displays of affection are punished, and a police state that rewards informants and where an offhanded remark can send a citizen to the gulag for life. Demick's subjects - a middle-aged party loyalist and her rebellious daughter, an idealistic female doctor, an orphan, and two young lovers - all hail from the same provincial city in the farthest-flung northern reaches of the country. One by one, we witness the moments of revelation, when each realizes that they have been betrayed by the Fatherland and that their suffering is not a global condition but is uniquely theirs.
Nothing to Envy is the first book about North Korea to go deep inside the country, beyond the reach of government censors, and penetrate the mind-set of the average citizen. It is a groundbreaking and essential addition to the literature of totalitarianism.
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Eunsun Kim was born in North Korea, one of the most secretive and oppressive countries in the modern world. As a child, Eunsun loved her country...despite her school field trips to public executions, daily self-criticism sessions, and the increasing gnaw of hunger as the countrywide famine escalated. By the time she was 11 years old, Eunsun's father and grandparents had died of starvation, and Eunsun too was in danger of starving. Finally her mother decided to escape North Korea with Eunsun and her sister.
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Behind the Beautiful Forevers
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Story
In this breathtaking book by Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. As India starts to prosper, the residents of Annawadi are electric with hope. Abdul, an enterprising teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away.
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An Antidote for Shantaram
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By: Katherine Boo
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Under the Same Sky
- From Starvation in North Korea to Salvation in America
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- Narrated by: Raymond Lee
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A searing story of starvation and survival in North Korea, followed by a dramatic escape, rescue by activists and Christian missionaries, and success in the United States thanks to newfound faith and courage.
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Tugs at the heart strings
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On Hitler's Mountain
- Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood
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- Narrated by: Christa Lewis
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Growing up in the beautiful mountains of Berchtesgaden - just steps from Adolf Hitler's alpine retreat - Irmgard Hunt had a seemingly happy, simple childhood. In her powerful, illuminating, and sometimes frightening memoir, Hunt recounts a youth lived under an evil but persuasive leader. As she grew older, the harsh reality of war - and a few brave adults who opposed the Nazi regime - aroused in her skepticism of National Socialist ideology and the Nazi propaganda she was taught to believe in.
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A rare and very much appreciated perspective.
- By tabounds on 12-28-17
By: Irmgard A. Hunt
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The Train to Crystal City
- FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's Only Family Internment Camp During World War II
- By: Jan Jarboe Russell
- Narrated by: Andrea Gallo
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The dramatic and never-before-told story of a secret FDR-approved American internment camp in Texas during World War II, where thousands of families - many US citizens - were incarcerated.
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I didn't know...
- By Graham Emslie on 02-27-17
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In Manchuria
- A Village Called Wasteland and the Transformation of Rural China
- By: Michael Meyer
- Narrated by: George Backman
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
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For three years Meyer rented a home in the rice-farming community of Wasteland, hometown of his wife's family, and their personal saga mirrors the tremendous change most of rural China is undergoing in the form of a privately held rice company that has built new roads, introduced organic farming, and constructed high-rise apartments into which farmers can move in exchange for their land rights.
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If you liked the Wonder Years...?
- By Judas Mallory on 05-19-15
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The Girl Who Smiled Beads
- A Story of War and What Comes After
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- Narrated by: Robin Miles
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Clemantine Wamariya was six years old when her mother and father began to speak in whispers, when neighbors began to disappear, and when she heard the loud, ugly sounds her brother said were thunder. In 1994, she and her fifteen-year-old sister, Claire, fled the Rwandan massacre and spent the next six years migrating through seven African countries, searching for safety—perpetually hungry, imprisoned and abused, enduring and escaping refugee camps, finding unexpected kindness, witnessing inhuman cruelty. They did not know whether their parents were dead or alive.
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Narrator detracts from story
- By Laura on 01-16-19
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Claiming My Place: Coming of Age in the Shadow of the Holocaust
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Meet Barbara Reichmann, once known as Gucia Gomolinska: smart, determined, independent, and steadfast in the face of injustice. A Jew growing up in predominantly Catholic Poland during the 1920s and ’30s, Gucia studies hard, makes friends, falls in love, and dreams of a bright future. Her world is turned upside down when Nazis invade Poland and establish the first Jewish ghetto of World War II in her town of Piotrko´w Trybunalski.
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Amazing
- By Nordic Artisan on 07-09-18
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Street Without a Name
- Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria
- By: Kapka Kassabova
- Narrated by: Emily Gray
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
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Kassabova was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and grew up under the drab, muddy, gray mantle of one of communism’s most mindlessly authoritarian regimes. Escaping with her family as soon as possible after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, she lived in Britain, New Zealand, and Argentina, and several other places. But when Bulgaria was formally inducted to the European Union she decided it was time to return to the home she had spent most of her life trying to escape. What she found was a country languishing under the strain of transition. This two-part memoir of Kapka’s childhood and return explains life on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
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Good start, but ended up not liking the author
- By Giselle on 11-02-21
By: Kapka Kassabova
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City of Thorns
- Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp
- By: Ben Rawlence
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
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Situated hundreds of miles from any other settlement, deep within the inhospitable desert of Northern Kenya, Dadaab is a city like no other. Its buildings are made from mud, sticks, or plastic; its entire economy is gray; and its citizens survive on rations and luck. Over the course of four years, Ben Rawlence became a firsthand witness to a strange and desperate limbo-land, getting to know many of those who have come there seeking sanctuary.
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Compelling but dry
- By Megan on 09-16-16
By: Ben Rawlence
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Mighty Be Our Powers
- How Sisterhood, Prayer, and Sex Changed a Nation at War; a Memoir
- By: Leymah Gbowee, Carol Mithers
- Narrated by: Kimberly Scott
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As a young woman growing up in Africa, 17-year-old Leymah Gbowee was crushed by a savage war when violence reached her native Monrovia, depriving her of the education she yearned for and claiming the lives of relatives and friends. As war continued to ravage Liberia, Gbowee’s bitterness turned to rage-fueled action as she realized that women bear the greatest burden in prolonged conflicts.
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Mighty Be Our Powers: How Sisterhood, Prayer, and
- By Kathy on 10-07-11
By: Leymah Gbowee, and others
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Broad and nuanced account of North Korea
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A gripping portrait of modern Tibet told through the lives of its people, from the best-selling author of Nothing to Envy.
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Every day, three times a day, the students march in two straight lines, singing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: Without you, there is no motherland. Without you, there is no us. It is a chilling scene, but gradually Suki Kim, too, learns the tune and, without noticing, begins to hum it. It is 2011, and all universities in North Korea have been shut down for an entire year, the students sent to construction fields - except for the 270 students at the all-male Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST).
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The King and I meets Mary Poppins
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The Reluctant Communist
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In January of 1965, 24-year-old US Army sergeant Charles Robert Jenkins abandoned his post in South Korea, walked across the DMZ, and surrendered to communist North Korean soldiers standing sentry along the world's most heavily militarized border. He believed his action would get him back to the States and a short jail sentence. Instead he found himself in another sort of prison, where for 40 years he suffered under one of the most brutal and repressive regimes the world has known. This fast-paced, harrowing tale, told plainly and simply by Jenkins (with journalist Jim Frederick).
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Excellent history and human story
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Outstanding! A life-changing listen.
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Escape from Camp 14
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North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have escaped. But Shin Donghyuk did. In Escape from Camp 14, acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk and through the lens of Shin's life unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state.
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A gripping portrait of modern Tibet told through the lives of its people, from the best-selling author of Nothing to Envy.
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Every day, three times a day, the students march in two straight lines, singing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: Without you, there is no motherland. Without you, there is no us. It is a chilling scene, but gradually Suki Kim, too, learns the tune and, without noticing, begins to hum it. It is 2011, and all universities in North Korea have been shut down for an entire year, the students sent to construction fields - except for the 270 students at the all-male Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST).
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Did not like narrator
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North Korea is one of the most troubled societies on earth. The country's 24 million people live under a violent dictatorship led by a single family, which relentlessly pursues the development of nuclear arms, which periodically incites risky military clashes with the larger, richer, liberal South, and which forces each and every person to play a role in the "theater state" even as it pays little more than lip service to the wellbeing of the overwhelming majority.
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Interesting portrait of North Korea marred by awful pronunciation
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Pulitzer Prize finalist Michael Shelden illuminates Mark Twain’s twilight years in this brilliant account of the legendary author’s life. Drawing heavily on Twain’s own letters and journals, Mark Twain: Man in White recounts both Twain’s private family experiences and his larger-than-life public image.
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Accessible, enjoyable history
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A River in Darkness
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Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian.
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Awful! And I don't mean the book . . .
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A Thousand Miles to Freedom
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Eunsun Kim was born in North Korea, one of the most secretive and oppressive countries in the modern world. As a child, Eunsun loved her country...despite her school field trips to public executions, daily self-criticism sessions, and the increasing gnaw of hunger as the countrywide famine escalated. By the time she was 11 years old, Eunsun's father and grandparents had died of starvation, and Eunsun too was in danger of starving. Finally her mother decided to escape North Korea with Eunsun and her sister.
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Great book
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The Aquariums of Pyongyang
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Amid escalating nuclear tensions, Kim Jong-un and North Korea's other leaders have kept a tight grasp on their one-party state, quashing any nascent opposition movements and sending all suspected dissidents to its brutal concentration camps for "re-education". Kang Chol-Hwan is the first survivor of one of these camps to escape and tell his story to the world, documenting the extreme conditions in these gulags and providing a personal insight into life in North Korea.
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Riveting!!
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The Accusation
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The Accusation is a deeply moving and eye-opening work of fiction that paints a powerful portrait of life under the North Korean regime. Set during the period of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il's leadership, the seven stories that make up The Accusation give voice to people living under this most bizarre and horrifying of dictatorships. The characters of these compelling stories come from a wide variety of backgrounds.
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Incredibly powerful
- By Margaret on 09-30-19
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The Hard Road Out
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
North Korea is an open-air prison from which there is no escape. Only a handful of men and women have succeeded. Jihyun Park is one of these rare survivors. Twice she left the land of the ‘socialist miracle’ to flee famine and dictatorship. By the age of 29, she had already witnessed a lifetime of suffering. Family members had died of starvation; her brother was beaten nearly to death by soldiers. Even smiling and laughing was discouraged.
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Excellent
- By Monica Daigle on 08-15-24
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Hank and Jim
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Henry Fonda and James Stewart were two of the biggest stars in Hollywood for 40 years. They became friends and then roommates as stage actors in New York, and when they began making films in Hollywood, they roomed together again. Between them they made such memorable films as The Grapes of Wrath, Mister Roberts, Twelve Angry Men, and On Golden Pond; and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Destry Rides Again, The Philadelphia Story, It's a Wonderful Life, Vertigo, and Rear Window.
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Fascinating look into these two actors' lives
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By: Scott Eyman
What listeners say about Nothing to Envy
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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- Kevin Proffitt 2
- 05-25-23
Review for book
A fascinating yet somber book about daily life in North Korea. A good story for anyone looking to learn about the country and the people who ultimately choose to escape to freedom.
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Overall
- norton
- 08-31-10
Yes Five stars
Not for the faint of heart. This book is like ice cold water pored into your warm morning bed. Like smelling salt to the nose. The inhumanity is so palpable it's like watching a holocaust film. You can only feel so deep then you go into the realm of the numb. The shameless irony of the North Korean regime feels like a kind of insanity. Like an insane class is running the country. If this were fiction it wouldn't be worth reading as it would be too fantastical. I have to recover from the first listening before listening again but listen again I must. Get a box of Kleenex and keep handy. Ironically, this may be the antidote for personal depression.
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37 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Tim
- 09-18-10
Grandma Always Told Us
My family is from South Korea. I am the first generation from the States. My grandma was from the Korea War era and she always told us story about North Korea. This book was very interesting. I learned so much. Thank you for the good rating for making me read this book.
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27 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Heather
- 04-08-11
Outstanding read; poor narrator
These stories simply take your breath away. Such insight into a country we know so little about; sad, dreary, shocking compelling. Read it! Drawback is how s-l-o-w-l-y the narrator reads it.
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11 people found this helpful
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Overall
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- Eric
- 01-07-11
One of the best audiobooks I've come across
I could devote paragraphs to gushing on the particulars but won't; this audiobook was excellent in every way that matters. The narrator is excellent, clear and compelling without being distracting. The subject itself is horrifyingly surreal and absolutely gripping.
This book really drove home how sophisticated social control and propaganda systems can be, and how effective they can be in controlling entire populations. It also drove home how important free speech and critical thinking really are to democracies. A must for understanding the humanity of the North Koreans and how an entire people could be held so firmly under the thumb of someone who shouldn't even rate as a plausible cartoon super-villain.
Absolute must listen.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Dennis
- 08-22-13
Amazing journey inside
This book is extremely well done, it follows the paths, from early life until escape from one of the hardest countries to escape from, or death in some instances, of people who lived the horror that is North Korea. This is not just a story revolving around hardship and privation, it is a peek into the society, a sick and twisted world of leftists dreams and control and the tortured world it creates. I would recommend this book wholeheartedly, it is important on many levels and answers the question of 'what do those who live inside that country think?'. If you think you would not be interested in this book because it would not be relevant to you think again, the echo of what you read in this book will come back to you at interesting times in your own life, especially if you pay attention to current events.
Highly recommended
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amy
- 08-21-10
Rivating and Enjoyable
The characters become real family members as you read this book. I was afraid the subject would be too graphic but the author balances personal stories with realistic accounts. It really does give you a personal account of what life must be like in North Korea. I recommend it to anyone who wants to expand their world view.
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- Sally B.
- 10-13-11
Great Book--Terrible Narration
I've listened to hundreds of audible.com books and this is the first time I've felt compelled to write a review to comment on the absolutely terrible narration which it's a shame because the book is very good. The narrator takes huge gasps for air between almost every phrase. Much of the narration also came across as very condescending which I felt was disrespectful of the people whose stories are told. The only way I could continue listening was to double the narration speed.
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- vickie
- 08-26-11
Fabulous Read - History I never kneew
I found this book haunting. Whoever knew? This book is gripping. Makes you feel so grateful for freedom. I love America. I am so grateful I was born in a free country. Want to be appreciative of your lifestyle. Listen to this book. A great historical novel
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- Wisconsin
- 07-16-11
Eye-opening, jaw-dropping
This is a very well told story of an admirable and proud people who are being sacrificed at the behest of a brutal, uncaring, solipsist regime that early on classified the bulk of its population as "hostiles."
The book is organized around a number of family accounts, based on interviews with "defectors" (escapees would be a more accurate term), and the author's limited and strictly monitored visits to North Korea. These accounts are illuminating, many are touching, revealing story the humanity of the oppressed.
The Kim dynasty is simply another cult of personality which has long outlived whatever credibility it once had, and it survives simply through a vast repressive apparatus of spies, informants, agents provocateur, and brute force. This story, rooted in the political catastrophes of the 20th century, shows once again that even in the most "total" of totalitarian societies, the human spirit always survives. The regime will inevitably collapse, sooner rather than later; but the question is how many more must starve to death or die in detention camps before that happens.
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