A review by bklassen
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

4.0

 

What a fascinating account of the history of North Korea and why it has become a dictatorship with some of the worst records of human rights. It is heartbreaking to read the accounts of people just struggling to live, never being able to voice their true thoughts and opinions for fear of being arrested, and kind of being gaslit into thinking that everything in North Korea is great when it so clearly is not. 

I certainly wouldn’t call this a fun read, but it provided historical background to explain why North Korea got to the point that it is and told the much needed stories of citizens’ experiences while they lived in North Korea and afterward, having defected. I can only imagine the struggle someone must experience attempting to live life in the outside world after having been brainwashed and struggled to survive for most of their life in North Korea. The rest of the world is just as hard to live in, but for other reasons. I suppose it becomes more complicated when life doesn’t just mean “find a way to feed yourself and your family”. 

Even more tragic are the reasons other countries have for not doing more to disassemble this dictatorship abusing its citizens, although I wouldn’t exactly nominate the US for the job. We have enough history of overthrowing governments and then seeing an even worse result for the denizens of that country. 

I truly hope that we can see a better future for North Korea in my lifetime, but I wouldn’t count on it.