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March 12, 2013

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick.

Barbara Demick is currently the Beijing bureau chief for the L.A. Times. In 2001 the Times posted her in Seoul where she began to interview defectors from North Korea. Her book focuses on six individuals who managed to get to South Korea, but also traces the stories of their families, co-workers and acquaintances. First published in 2005, the book covers the period from the late 1980s through early 2000s and, therefore, includes the death of Kim Il Sung and the famine of the '90s. Calling it "the famine of the '90s" is actually understating it. It was the regression and collapse of the economy to almost zero. Without subsidized fuel from China and the USSR, the electrical system came to a stop. Factories stopped. The health care system completely collapsed. Trains could only run sporadically, if at all. 10% to 20% of the population died.

This well written book gives you a very close and personal view of those who sat and watched helplessly as their families died around them and who still (some of them at least) continued to believe Kim Jong Il's socialism was the best economic system in the world.

The book has a website.

Filed under Books | permalink | March 12, 2013 at 01:37 PM

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