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A review by helpfulsnowman
The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Chol-Hwan Kang, Pierre Rigoulot
2.0
Okay, this is overall a pretty amazing story.
Basically this dude spent his whole childhood in a prison camp for a decade for no real reason. The story takes a while to get started, but if you make it about halfway through you're bound to finish.
At one point the story takes us out of the prison camp, and this part was probably the most hair-raising.
The real strength of this book is the fact that the prison camp in which the author was held STILL EXISTS and there are people being held there this very second. I'm not a big humanitarian or anything, but the fact that these horrible things are still happening is pretty hard to dismiss.
The low rating is pretty much because the book is a little tough to read. Tough to get into, and maybe it's the double translation, but it's a little awkward in places. But if you're able to look past that, I say Go for it.
Basically this dude spent his whole childhood in a prison camp for a decade for no real reason. The story takes a while to get started, but if you make it about halfway through you're bound to finish.
At one point the story takes us out of the prison camp, and this part was probably the most hair-raising.
The real strength of this book is the fact that the prison camp in which the author was held STILL EXISTS and there are people being held there this very second. I'm not a big humanitarian or anything, but the fact that these horrible things are still happening is pretty hard to dismiss.
The low rating is pretty much because the book is a little tough to read. Tough to get into, and maybe it's the double translation, but it's a little awkward in places. But if you're able to look past that, I say Go for it.