Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

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Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

4.41 of 5 stars 4.41 · rating details · 13,571 ratings · 2,358 reviews

A National Book Award finalist and National Book Critics Circle finalist, Barbara Demick’s Nothing to Envy is a remarkable view into North Korea, as seen through the lives of six ordinary citizens

Award-winning journalist Barbara Demick follows the lives of six North Korean citizens over fifteen years—a chaotic period that saw the death of Kim Il-sung, the rise to power of...more

Paperback, National Book Award Finalist Edition, 296 pages

Published September 21st 2010 by Spiegel & Grau (first published December 29th 2009)

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Dec 29, 2011 Shirley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Shirley by: Sarah Bookbinder

Shelves: 2010, nonfiction, wishlist, recently-read-faves, favorites, korea, to-reread

An amazing, unforgettable book about North Korea. Barbara Demick explores the most closed-off society in the world through the stories of six "ordinary" North Koreans who defect to South Korea beginning in the late 1990s. Through their stories, Demick covers a bit of everything (the pathological weirdness that was/is Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-Il and the cult of worship - and fear of reprisal - that made people cry harder at the former's death than they ever had in their lives, the role of a total...more An amazing, unforgettable book about North Korea. Barbara Demick explores the most closed-off society in the world through the stories of six "ordinary" North Koreans who defect to South Korea beginning in the late 1990s. Through their stories, Demick covers a bit of everything (the pathological weirdness that was/is Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-Il and the cult of worship - and fear of reprisal - that made people cry harder at the former's death than they ever had in their lives, the role of a totalitarian government in the everyday lives of people, the deterioration of North Korea into blackouts/famine/starvation, South Korea's/China's reception of North Korean defectors) very skillfully without sensationalizing; the subject matter speaks for itself.

Here are both moments of beauty (the reminiscences of two of the profiled North Koreans about how the blackouts at night allowed them to chastely walk and talk outside their village for hours at a time) and, more frequently, moments of horror (families deliberately winnowing down their members, i.e., starving everyone else to spare the children, who as the only surviving members of their families then became homeless begging kotjebi - 꽃제비 - literally swallows). As a new mother, I could not imagine being in a position where I could not provide enough food for my young toddler - thinking about all the orphaned kotjebi made me have to put down the book, pause, and collect myself before I could proceed. Not the only such moment.

Demick also discusses the guilt and shame that many defectors have. One woman who left her children and ex-husband in North Korea mourns, "I sacrified my babies for myself." A mother who defects with one daughter is never able to forgive herself because, following their defections, her other two daughters who were still in North Korea were arrested and presumably sent to a labor camp. Another woman, now in South Korea with its plenties and excesses, is haunted by her husband's last words before he died during the famine, "Let's go to a good restaurant and order a nice bottle of wine."

I was especially moved by this book. It is completely heartbreaking in many places. I, already a sentimental reader (in case you, dear Goodreads readers, haven't already ascertained as much), tend to get even more sentimental when I read about Korea. Moreover, and more relevantly, my dad is from North Korea, and I can't help but wonder about the fates of relatives I don't even know about. This book should have great appeal beyond my myopically sentimental lens, fortunately, as it is extremely well-written and compulsively readable and deserves to be widely read and discussed.

(less)

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Sep 20, 2012 Michael Gerald rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you thought that George Orwell's satires Animal Farm and 1984 are just works of fiction, think again. Look at a map and find North Korea. That's a present-day, real-life Animal Farm.

Barbara Demick's book, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, gives us a peek of a spot of hell here on Earth. Based mostly on interviews with 6 North Koreans who defected to South Korea and from the author's own experience, this book takes the reader into an often difficult read of how North Koreans are...more If you thought that George Orwell's satires Animal Farm and 1984 are just works of fiction, think again. Look at a map and find North Korea. That's a present-day, real-life Animal Farm.

Barbara Demick's book, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, gives us a peek of a spot of hell here on Earth. Based mostly on interviews with 6 North Koreans who defected to South Korea and from the author's own experience, this book takes the reader into an often difficult read of how North Koreans are being lied to, brainwashed, imprisoned, starved, and killed by their own Communist government, while their dynastic dictators, the murderous Kims and their cronies continue to live in the lap of luxury. And yet, Communists and other leftists around the world continue to turn a blind eye to this evil. Well, maybe, not surprisingly.

A mother scrounging for edible weeds and tree bark to augment her family's meager diet. A teacher without a salary still being forced to work, just to see her students drop out one by one and never seeing them again, wiped out by starvation. People with stunted bodies and minds begging or even dropping dead on the streets. And the most perverse part of it is that the dictatorship tells them that they owe their lives to the "loving generosity" of Kim il Sung, Kim Jong il, Kimchi, Kim this, Kim that. And to even speak something bad about your situation or against the Kims can earn you a one trip ticket to the numerous gulags or prison camps scattered across the countryside. Paradise on earth, indeed.

What is common about the defectors' testimonies is the degree of resourcefulness that most North Koreans display just to survive. To survive, they have to break North Korean law. To survive, they sometimes steal. In North Korea's case, breaking the "law" to survive cannot be considered a crime anymore. With the North Korean Communist dictatorship itself deliberately starving its people so they don't have the physical strength to resist, breaking the "law" is not just imperative to survive; it is the right thing to do. The Communists will eventually kill you through starvation or execution. The ordinary North Korean citizens are not the criminals; it is the dictatorship that is criminal, a gang of liars, thieves, and murderers.

The silver lining in this darkness is the stories of escape of North Korean defectors and their eventual resettlement in South Korea. The world which their government forcibly covered before from their eyes and their lives is now there to see and live in, with all the freedoms, opportunities, and lives that they were denied in the North.

I now include in my prayers people in countries which do not have basic freedoms like what we have, like freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, etc. Freedoms that some people in free societies tend to take for granted, abuse, or even denigrate. Democratic societies are not perfect, but I am sure oppressed peoples around the world would glady trade their lot for one like ours.

I just hope that the world can come to an agreement and take action to help save North Koreans and take collective action not just to contain the illegitimate, lying, and murderous North Korean dictatorship, but actually put an end to it. The civilized world has a responsibility to protect. The regime will eventually fall. It is not a question of if; it is a matter of when.(less)

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Nov 15, 2012 Mariel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: sometimes I feel the rats got a better deal than I do

Recommended to Mariel by: the skid marks are replies

"Some see the truth the proof only when the liar dies." - rapper C Ray Walz

"If you kill the head vampire then all half vampires return to normal." - Corey Haim in The Lost Boys. If only that were true, my brother.

"Why doesn't the government just leave us alone to live our lives?" (Women at the market were said to grumble this. They were bad ass women because they were illegally making money on the black market AND criticizing the government. In public, no less!)

Korea was free from thirty-five y...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Maciek rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, read-in-2011, ebook, politics, history

On December seventeenth in 2011, Kim Jong-il has died. Known to the world as the supreme leader of the world's most closed society, the "hermit kingdom" which encompasses the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, he has received the posthumous titles of the Eternal General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and Eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission. His death has been mourned by the population in a dramatic and uncontrolled way, with people crying helplessly and expressing t...more On December seventeenth in 2011, Kim Jong-il has died. Known to the world as the supreme leader of the world's most closed society, the "hermit kingdom" which encompasses the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, he has received the posthumous titles of the Eternal General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and Eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission. His death has been mourned by the population in a dramatic and uncontrolled way, with people crying helplessly and expressing their despair. One might wonder how much of it was real. Kim's father, Kim Il-sung is well known for being the country's Eternal President. Both are treated with great reverence. Will Kim Jong-un, the current leader of North Korea, complete the Trinity?

There is a video on YouTube titled "Good Morning Pyongyang" (which you can see if you click here) that can serve as a good illustration of what North Korea is about. It opens with a Pyongyang sunset, slowly revealing tall concrete buildings and some cranes. One immediately notices the complete lack of automobiles of any sort; if a person appears, he or she is walking. However, what immediately captures the attention is an image of a female traffic controller. Dressed up in full regalia, she is standing at a traffic control post in the middle of the street, under a big umbrella . Although there are no cars and the streets are basically empty, she performs her job: turning around, ordering throngs of invisible cars to pass, stop, pass again, stop again, from left to right and right to left, from all sides, never stopping, never resting, forever busy managing the nonexistent traffic. I think that this image better than any other raises the question of how democratic the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea really is, and is it really a kind of society which takes good care of its citizens?

North Korea seems to be the country which fell out of the world, as you can see if you'll take a look at an satellite photograph of the Far East taken at nighttime, you'll see Japan and South Korea, and even China; but you'll also see a black spot. That's DRPK. It's literally a black hole, where 23 million of people have to manage their daily lives, often living without what we take for granted: running water, heating...media, entertainment, freedom.

Nothing to Envy is a record of six refugees from DRPK who fled to the South and their experiences of living in both countries. Althought the book is completely gripping, it is also very hard to read at times - remember that this is non fiction, and all of this actually happened - the stories of the defectors are very moving, like the story of two young North Koreans who fell in love, and thanks to the complete blackout were able to take long walks, and very tragic - stories of people dying from starvation (can you believe that during the time from 1994 to 1998 as much as 80,000 (that's eighty thousand) to 3,500,000 (that's three and a half million) people died in a famine? Through the individual lives of these defectors we are able to see a broader picture of life inside the DRPK, and although the society is a collective one the theme of individuality is the one which carries the book: each defector has a separate and fascinating story to tell, shocking and gripping. They're escape to the South is not the end of their problems, as one of the defectors mourns that she has left her children behind; some North Koreans find themselves unable to exist in a society which we would call "normal"; two soldiers from the North who accidentally crossed the border have asked to be send back to the DRPK. The book shows how an individual is affected by an opressive regime, and how a whole nation can be brainwashed to accept an ideology. A nation where people die from hunger, but which is among the world's most militarized nations; which disappears from sight during the night, but has active nuclear and space programs. A nation where ordinary lives have been turned into a grim horror story or a macabre joke; where stories like these take place every day.

This is a book I can't recommend enough for people interested in North Korea, because of the unique individual perspective it gives. It's never maudlin, sentimental or manipulative. It is honest, and brutally so. It is heartbreaking when one thinks at how many lives are still trapped, and moreover don't even know that they are trapped. Nothing to Envy shows how people believed in their country, only to discover that they have been told lies. One might call them naive, but in what position are we to make this judgement, in our conditioned apartments with broadband internet connections? In a world where we are able to talk about this? Imagine being born and brought up in a subterranean bunker, where the outside world is barely mentioned or brought down with negativity. This is the world that North Koreans live in today, at this moment, and this is a book which deserves to be read for people to understant it.(less)

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Dec 01, 2012 The Holy Terror marked it as to-read

Shelves: asian-history, asian-culture, non-fiction, color-white, bought-03-11, owned, korea, asia, history, memoirs, korean-history, korean-culture, on-hold, not-in-the-mood

Some links I've come across that are helping me understand and digest this book better:

Vice on Youtube:
Inside North Korea
North Korea Film Madness
North Korean Labor Camps

Photos/Commentary:
The Big Picture - A Glimpse of North Korea - August/September, 2011
Seeing, Hearing and Speaking No Evil: On the Propaganda Tour in North Korea - July, 2012
"North Korea Experts Can See a Lot in a Hemline" - July, 2012
The Big Picture - Revealing More of North Korea - September, 2012
Photostream on Flickr I discover...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Zöe Zhai rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: korean

This is an incredible book! I rarely cry for books though am a greedy reader. "Nothing to Envy" makes me cry many times. I can't stop reading it.

I never try to understand North Korea, for Chinese people like me, North Korea is ignored. We are proud of our market and economy, meanwhile making jokes of North Korea partner. But I don't know North Korea people live in such a condition in 1990s, when I was a troubled teenager.

Some of the stories sound familiar, yes, it happened in China and CCCP bef...more This is an incredible book! I rarely cry for books though am a greedy reader. "Nothing to Envy" makes me cry many times. I can't stop reading it.

I never try to understand North Korea, for Chinese people like me, North Korea is ignored. We are proud of our market and economy, meanwhile making jokes of North Korea partner. But I don't know North Korea people live in such a condition in 1990s, when I was a troubled teenager.

Some of the stories sound familiar, yes, it happened in China and CCCP before, and I can't believe it is still happening. I can't believe there is still a life without electricity, or a smart phone.

I am addicted to East Germany and West Germany stories. I thought that's not the worst version, but close enough. Because you've got people escaping even with blimps. Barbara told me, no. German people are lucky, they put the Berlin Mauer down. How could a country like this still exist??? HOW? When I was reading, a Caterpillar dragging half of Lenin's bronze sculpture across the sky -- a scene from Goodbye Lenin keeps hitting my mind, will North Korean people be able to see that? Previously I don't feel too much from that scene, only get a little bit angry because a writer from HongKong depicts that scene by mistake, and calls the movie "Goodbye Lemon". Well, a person from Hong Kong, who is always shouting to the authorities, is understandable. He may have little sense of CCCP or Lemon, he was allowed to make that mistake, but still funny. Like a kid in US ask "do African kids use Facebook?"

From the book, I am reassured again that people could be touched by the most subtle happenings in their lives, even those who are brainwashed. People change because of small things. People change their minds completely not because of huge event, but trivia. A meal of a dog, a wandering swallow singing a song, an electronic pot for cooking rice, etc. Small things are triggers for them to make their decisions to leave North Korea, even the true believers of the regime. Small things touch the deepest feeling in their hearts, and give the strongest echoes.

My attitude towards DPRK and South Korea changed. CCCP, China, Germany, Korea, four countries, 3 nations, full of stories, tragic enough to tear you apart, but strong enough to pull you together. (less)

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Feb 26, 2012 Stephanie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, favorites

This book was simultaneously a page-turner and hard as hell to read. I had trouble falling asleep last night because of it, and when I did I had some unsettling nightmares. This isn't a book I can read, write an "oh that's nice, that definitely added to my life" type of review and go about my day. This is some seriously skillful nonfiction. It calls to mind being fourteen and reading Wild Swans. There's a similar structure to both works; history of a country to get the big picture, and memoirs o...more This book was simultaneously a page-turner and hard as hell to read. I had trouble falling asleep last night because of it, and when I did I had some unsettling nightmares. This isn't a book I can read, write an "oh that's nice, that definitely added to my life" type of review and go about my day. This is some seriously skillful nonfiction. It calls to mind being fourteen and reading Wild Swans. There's a similar structure to both works; history of a country to get the big picture, and memoirs of individual experiences to personalize statistics and news bulletins. And, this is harder to quantify or describe, both books gave me a sick, horrified feeling, even as I felt like parts of my brain were lighting up with brand new information. Some of the best non-fiction makes a reader feel like they can connect seemingly disparate facts together, and history makes a little more sense, and you can't remain distant any longer.

Straight off, I need to say that this is not tragedy porn. That's not why I felt so overwhelmed by this. Demick is respectful of the North Korean defectors that she interviews, and never ventures into the realm of the maudlin. The individual lives take center stage, illuminated by what we know of North Korean history. The reader isn't allowed to rest on their laurels. Capitalism doesn't make their lives 100% better when they escape, and pretty much right off the bat Demick clarifies that Nothing To Envy is not about "oh those wacky North Koreans!" Much of this book demonstrates how to brainwash an entire country into an entire ideology... as well as how, and when, the North Koreans discussed here realized they had been deceived. I was astonished by the ingenuity of every single one of the people profiled, both when it came to surviving the famine and when they had to escape. This book bring back individuality to a nation that's so often reduced to a horror story or a joke.

And, yeah, to circle back to my opening paragraph... The sense of individuality in this book will stick with me. I'm completely overwhelmed by just how many lives have been snuffed out in the North Korean famine. So many people with stories akin to those featured in Nothing To Envy. Gone.(less)

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Dec 19, 2010 Stuart rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are few books like this written today: concise, well-researched, plainly yet effectively written, and free of hyperbole. This book is a very personal account of six lives in the failed state of North Korea. The level of deprivation and humiliation these people endure is heartbreaking. The book reads more like an outstanding piece of social anthropology than it does cut and dried journalism. The author is to be commended for her ability to get inside both the hearts and minds of the people...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Stacey (prettybooks) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-after-university, read-in-my-twenties, non-fiction

I'm not too sure how it started, but my mother is on a North Korea kick at the moment, reading books such as Escape from Camp 14. She asked me to find her a new one to read and after some research, I came across Nothing to Envy. After reading a few reviews saying that interviews were written as a narrative, and that it was a compelling account of 'what it means to be living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet' and...more I'm not too sure how it started, but my mother is on a North Korea kick at the moment, reading books such as Escape from Camp 14. She asked me to find her a new one to read and after some research, I came across Nothing to Envy. After reading a few reviews saying that interviews were written as a narrative, and that it was a compelling account of 'what it means to be living under the most repressive totalitarian regime today—an Orwellian world that is by choice not connected to the Internet' and of one of the most reclusive societies in the world (citizens are rarely allowed out, and visitors, if allowed in, see the country only under a strict veneer), I had to read it.

The title is taken from a popular song taught to schoolchildren at an early age, and is familiar to them as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star is to us:

Our father, we have nothing to envy in the world. / Our house is within the embrace of the Workers’ Party. / We are all brothers and sisters. / Even if a sea of fire comes toward us, sweet children do not need to be afraid. / Our father is here. / We have nothing to envy in this world.

Dystopian fiction is a favourite mine, so why should a book about North Korea shock me? I read about societies where severe social control is exerted, and lack of individual freedom is widespread, often. But honestly? I never really thought about this country, a country that fits into the definition of 'dystopian society' so well. And what is most shocking is that it isn't just 'history' – people are still murdered or sent to labour camps for attempting to leave the country, or for making a joke about the 'Eternal President', today.

Nothing to Envy follows the enthralling lives of six people who we know eventually defected from North Korea, such as Jun-sang, the son of a wealthy family destined to join the Worker's Party; his girlfriend Mi-ran, from a family ranked much lower in society meaning they must keep their relationship a secret; and Mrs Song, who always followed the teachings of Kim Il-sung so strictly, despite never having enough food to eat, and would never dare to step out of line. I was desperate to know what made these people leave the country they've always been told they're privileged to be born in, and how they escaped. I instead got much more out of the book than this. It is utterly compelling; a fascinating, incredible, brilliant read. I hated having to put it down.(less)

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May 07, 2013 Vera rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, favorites

Barbara Demick has based her book on many years of conversations with North Korean defectors, while working as a correspondent in Seoul. The stories of six North Koreans of different backgrounds and ages include information about the separation of both Koreas, the brainwashing propaganda in the North and the gradual disillusionment with the regime. The collapse of the communism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union contributed to the rapid downfall of the economy. Food was scarce and rationed a...more

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Jun 07, 2012 Deb rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The author compiled stories from North Korean defectors and used their experiences to create a picture of life in the most closed country in the world. The stories were heartbreaking as people lived with extreme hunger and desperation while a broke government had no resources to change course in a post-Cold War world without dismantling the vision of North Korea as an all-powerful country. The result is that tens of thousands of people died of hunger. The government continued to feed the populat...more

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Oct 05, 2010 Shivesh rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: political

A physician, possessing numerous years of education and selfless service to her people, comes upon a isolated farm in a dark field at twilight. The doctor is starving, malnourished and ravenous. She seeks crumbs, maybe a scrap of corn to eat. Slowly, she makes her way into a barn, musty with the odor of hay and equipment. She has not seen more than a handful worth of white rice in years. Indeed, white rice is a rare luxury in the world she comes from.

Suddenly, she sees in the dark of the barn a...more A physician, possessing numerous years of education and selfless service to her people, comes upon a isolated farm in a dark field at twilight. The doctor is starving, malnourished and ravenous. She seeks crumbs, maybe a scrap of corn to eat. Slowly, she makes her way into a barn, musty with the odor of hay and equipment. She has not seen more than a handful worth of white rice in years. Indeed, white rice is a rare luxury in the world she comes from.

Suddenly, she sees in the dark of the barn a gleam of a beaten metal bowl with cold lumps of glistening meat, surrounded by heaps of bright white grains. Could it be rice? Dear God, is that fatty pork? How could this be possible? Why would all this rich food be just lying here, in the middle of the floor of a dirty cold barn?

Just then, she hears the dog.

As Barbara Demick icily observes at this moment in the book, "Dr. Kim now realized the truth: in China, dogs ate better than doctors did back in North Korea."

It is a moment of epiphany, and one of six realizations that separate six defectors' lives from their existence in North Korea from their subsequent lives in the free world. It is almost ridiculous to think of China as a truly open and free society, but the constant suppression and fear of the North Korean regime makes it so for the residents that flee to the border. An interesting observation from this book and its collection of defectors' stories is that it wasn't the lack of freedom, or the lack of money, or even the lack of status that propelled people to defect from this state, but the wholesale lack of food. Without food rations, there simply was not any reason for people to stay at their assigned posts or cities - they simply drifted away, or plucked the surrounding hillsides clean of any grass or edible root, or with their last bit of strength, dared the dangerous borders to relative freedom.

If you need something to refocus your appreciation for your life, no matter how flawed or unsatisfactory it may be right now: read this book. It will change the way you think about North Korea, and definitely the way you might look at your own problems. Your life isn't so bad after all, huh?(less)

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Oct 19, 2012 Renée Doiron rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: asia, historical-non-fiction, my-5-stars

Far be it from me to quote George W, who labeled North Korea as part of an "axis of evil" but I think, after reading this book, it may be one of the few accurate statements that he made during his presidency. This book was a haunting introduction into the totalitarianism country of North Korea. The author detailed the real life experiences of 6 refugees who fled poverty, famine, persecution, rape, and probable death, crossing the border into either China or South Korea. The most striking and ups...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Karen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, north-korea, current-affairs-politics-etc

Are you interested in one or more of the following?
- Crazy stories?
- Stories about life under a totalitarian regime?
- Information about the special case of North Korea?

Then this book is for you. By far the most elaborate tale I've read, or seen, about North Korea. No matter if you know nothing, a little, or "some", about the country, I'm sure you'll get something out of it. In short, the book tells the life stories of six North Koreans who, walking different paths to it, end up in South Kore...more Are you interested in one or more of the following?
- Crazy stories?
- Stories about life under a totalitarian regime?
- Information about the special case of North Korea?

Then this book is for you. By far the most elaborate tale I've read, or seen, about North Korea. No matter if you know nothing, a little, or "some", about the country, I'm sure you'll get something out of it. In short, the book tells the life stories of six North Koreans who, walking different paths to it, end up in South Korea. The oldest is born in 1945 and the youngest must be born some time in the 80ies. We are told about the relatively good days in the 60ies and 70ies, and how things deteriorate and collapse into the famine of the 90ies, which allegedly killed about 10% of the country's citizens.

NOT ABOUT THE BOOK, REALLY, MORE A NAIVE-ISH "HOW CAN I HELP" STORY:

I got interested in North Korea out of shock. I knew it wasn't a normal country, but that knowledge was very passive, I knew it was a dictatorship and I had heard about famine. But I had no idea about the level of oppression. When I first heard, I had an almost strange reaction, one of relief: Finally something in this world which was *easy* to know what to make of. I soon thought that "whatever takes down this regime, must be good, and whatever aids it, is bad". A case of (almost?) black and white! How often does that happen? I tried to find out ways to make even the smallest amount of difference, find someone to support in their efforts to help people in North Korea change their situation for the better. I know there are several illegal activities in the country, which to me seem to be the best options, as most aid seem to end up in the hands of the army, or sold at the black market. This book does very little, if anything, to change that impression. Now, maybe donating to the Red Cross or a similar organization does help a few people. But the dilemma is that one also helps the regime out, unintended, but still.

This dilemma is voiced by a mother and daughter in the book, the mother says that aid might save "even just a few lives" - to which the daughter replies angrily that she'll be supporting the oppressors, who the defectors can only think of as thieves, liars and cheats (I'd say we could add "slavers and murderers" to that list). I guess there is no right or wrong there. Aid might save a few. Which is good. But it'll help the regime. Which is bad, very bad.

If you read this book and feel you want to "do something", no matter how naive that may sound, I'd recommend either contacting some large NGOs like Red Cross or Save the Children, if you don't mind organizations which work through the official channels, and thus also unfortunately end up indirectly aiding the authorities. If you want to support someone who works outside the official channels, they exist, but are more difficult to find. The bulk of them seem to be missionary organizations, which I'm sure do a lot of good for refugees, but for me personally, working with religious organizations is problematic. There's an American organization called LINK (Liberty in North Korea), who gets some attention for the cause, but I'm not sure how much practical work they do: http://libertyinnorthkorea.org/

I found an underground organization which smuggles cameras into NK and photos and film material out. My best bet was with them, but I'm not sure how active they are. I really like and admire their initiative, though: http://www.asiapress.org/rimjingang/e...

One small group sends up warm socks per balloon from South Korea. https://www.facebook.com/NorthKoreaPeace

Sadly, the above was the best I could find. It's telling enough of the nature of that country how difficult it is to get any real information, and how difficult it is to find anyone who works within the country. Which again goes to show that it is necessary.
(less)

1 like · like · see review

Daniel Very good review Karen.

Radio-Canada recently showed a short documentary showing how terrible living conditions have deteriorated in North Korea. Looki...more
Mar 12, 2013 08:09pm

Karen Thank you, Daniel.

Yes, there's been more news about NK for the last year or so, after Kim Jong-il died. Or at least so it seems to me. Sadly, the son...more
updated Mar 12, 2013 08:58pm

May 09, 2012 Patty rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Riveting nonfiction account about daily life in a totalitarian state - it reads almost like post-apocalyptic or alternate history fiction. I cannot recommend this enough if you like nonfiction journalism or social science. The author follows six people in North Korea through their lives and eventual defections (the only North Koreans journalists have unfettered access to are defectors.) This chronicle spans a really interesting period of North Korean history - the collapse of Korea's ally the US...more

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Nov 29, 2011 Greg rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: beyond-the-headlines, best-of-the-best

This is an incredible work of narrative reporting. It’s also a vital document that gives voice to the citizens of a nation that’s committed probably the worst repression of free will in modern history--a nation that keeps its people believing they have “nothing to envy” and that things are much worse in the rest of the world. It’s assembled from a series of interviews with a handful of North Koreans who defected to South Korea at enormous risk, and their stories give a deeply human dimension to...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Daisy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Daisy by: on Irene's shelf

Shelves: korea-south-and-north, out-of-towners, around-the-world-challenge-2012, north-korea

She delivered all her children by herself without even the help of a midwife. One was born on the side of the road--Mrs, Song had been walking home with a basket of laundry. With the first birth, her mother-in-law cooked her a soup with slimy ribbons of seaweed, a traditional Korean recipe to help a new mother recover her iron. The next time her mother-in-law--disappointed by the birth of another girl--threw the seaweed at Mrs. Song to make the soup herself. After the third girl, she stopped spe...more She delivered all her children by herself without even the help of a midwife. One was born on the side of the road--Mrs, Song had been walking home with a basket of laundry. With the first birth, her mother-in-law cooked her a soup with slimy ribbons of seaweed, a traditional Korean recipe to help a new mother recover her iron. The next time her mother-in-law--disappointed by the birth of another girl--threw the seaweed at Mrs. Song to make the soup herself. After the third girl, she stopped speaking to her. p. 42

The darkness of North Korea by night has an absoluteness that people from the electrified world have never experienced. p. 82

A propaganda film released shortly after his death claimed that Kim Il-sung might come back to life if people grieved hard enough for him. p. 100

But lately the letters that once took weeks to arrive now took months or would not arrive at all. People suspected that railroad employees burned mail to keep warm during the bitingly cold winter. p. 124--mid 1990s, correspondence between Pyongyang and a nearby village

What she didn't realize is that her indifference was an acquired survival skill. In order to get through the 1990s alive, one had to suppress any impulse to share food. To avoid going insane, one had to learn to stop caring... If she wasn't going to share her food with her favorite pupil, she certainly wasn't going to help a perfect stranger. p. 132

Yet another gratuitous cruelty: the killer targets the most innocent, the people who would never steal food, lie, cheat, break the law, or betray a friend. It was a phenomenon that the Italian writer Primo Levi identified after emerging from Auschwitz, when he wrote that he and his fellow survivors never wanted to see one another again after the war because they had all done something of which they were ashamed.
As Mrs. Song would observe, ... it was the "simple and kindhearted people who did what they were told--they were the first to die." p. 141

By the end of 1998, the worst of the famine was over, not necessarily because anything had improved but, as Mrs. Song later surmised, because there were fewer mouths to feed. p. 148

As in many Communist countries, North Korea's orphanages weren't strictly for orphans, but for children whose parents could no longer care for them. Like boarding schools, the orphanages were supposed to provide education, room, and board. It was a privilege to be accepted. p. 163

Guilt and shame are the common denominators among North Korean defectors; many hate themselves for what they had to do in order to survive. p. 271

Chosun=N
Hanguk=S

song-bun: rating, family status
juche: self-reliance
inminban: neighborhood watchdogs
kochebi: homeless children, "wandering swallows"

(less)

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Apr 25, 2010 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Everyone

Recommended to Jessica by: BC3- Jason

I really enjoyed this book. I was suprised at how much I didn't know about the history of North Korea. Reading about the famine and kindergardeners that were dying from hunger was very hard...sobering. And I thought it was very interesting that even when the main people portrayed in the book made it to South Korea, their lives were still hard. Transitioning to a modern society and leaving behind their loved ones. The author did an amazing job at capturing all the emotions as their lives progress...more

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Dec 01, 2012 Hugo Rodrigues rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cheguei a sonhar que estava inserido na história deste livro durante a sua leitura, é assim tão poderoso, tem um valor humano surreal que nos arrebata e arrepia enquanto vamos desbravando páginas querendo saber mais e mais sobre a vida das pessoas que acompanha-mos.
Esta obra é um relato real, segue a vida de dois adolescentes apaixonados na Koreia do Norte o regime mais totalitarista do mundo e de todos os seus irmão pais e avós numa jornada ao longo de 50 anos, até aos dias de hoje a salvo na K...more

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Apr 27, 2011 Jessica rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: all

Shelves: nonfiction-geography

I am grateful to my local librarian who keeps stocking the new fiction and nonfiction shelves with exactly the books I've been wanting to read...

This is as eye-opening, amazing, as I'd thought it would be: a fascinating window into a little-known regime...Demick follows six individuals, each of whom eventually escapes, and we see them from childhood on into adulthood and defection. The horrors of the 'most repressive regime in the world' are legion and the chronic undernourishment of its citizen...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, non-fiction

Well then ... wow ... and seriously ... there is really a land like North Korea that really really exists yet today? Really? Nothing to Envy is most certainly THE most captivating read I have ever read. My biggest question has to be, "where have I been?" especially during the North Korean famine of the 1990s. It truly can be mind boggling realizing that there is a whole country full of people who are the most oppressed of oppressed. What a day it will be when Korea is Korea.

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Apr 29, 2013 Allison rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-non-fiction

What a moving book. I wouldn't have started this if not for all the reviews claiming it was very readable non-fiction. Those reviews were right. I'd read the Pyongyang graphic novel at the urging of a friend. That was really my first view into how remarkably different North Korea is from the rest of the world. This book by Demick allows an outsider to see North Korea from the perspective of native people who eventually found their way out of the country. North Korea as it continues to exist toda...more

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Jul 07, 2011 Rachel Ireland rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club-selection

Another book that makes me wish I listened more in History class. Throughout this book I had to keep reminding myself this is happening in the 90's not 70 years ago. The writer did an amazing job at allowing you to empathize with each character and see this troubled Country through their eyes. I was amazed to learn about South Koreas laws allowing the North Koreans citizenship, with money, & a program to help them transition. Sad to hear of the struggles they still had adapting in such a dif...more

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Apr 30, 2013 Christian Fredrickson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone curious about North Korea.

I've always been curious about North Korea. I find it fascinating that anything like it can exist in the modern world, yet there it is. It refuses fuel relief, its language and technology is 50 years old, it lies to itself and everyone else about any news going on within and outside of its borders. When Google Maps finally released its satellite information on the nation, I had to pore over it to discover what could be seen.

But I still knew nothing about the people. I had theories that they must...more I've always been curious about North Korea. I find it fascinating that anything like it can exist in the modern world, yet there it is. It refuses fuel relief, its language and technology is 50 years old, it lies to itself and everyone else about any news going on within and outside of its borders. When Google Maps finally released its satellite information on the nation, I had to pore over it to discover what could be seen.

But I still knew nothing about the people. I had theories that they must be intelligent enough to question the propaganda, that the reality of their existence must create a cognitive dissonance with the lines they were being fed that was impossible to ignore.

All of this and much more were illuminated with this remarkable book. Barbara Demick tracked down and interviewed a great number of defectors from North Korea, living their new lives in China and South Korea. She then serialized their stories into a chronological saga, running from life-as-usual to the desperate flight from destruction and Where They Are Today. The comprehensive detail truly brings the reader into another world, one shielded by weaponry and shrouded within insanity. Absolutely, the reader is left with the conviction that (as with so many nations) the people bear little to no resemblance to the government. Pyongyang will collapse in upon itself, but the people hunger for information and freedom and, with the passage of time, they are increasingly savvy to the rest of the world, despite their Dear Leader's best efforts.

The only detraction to this book is technical: the editor did not pick up on several passages that were cut-n-pasted a few times, not always paraphrased, so the telling felt repetitive in places. I don't fault the writer for moving text around in the formation of the book, but the editor really should have called that out and fixed it. Otherwise, this is valuable information presented in a readily accessible format: anyone could pick this up and few could put it down.(less)

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Apr 29, 2013 L.K. Jay rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

Having studied taekwondo - a Korean martial art - for several years it has been with great interest that I've been following the current events that are happening in North Korea in the news. I wanted to know more about this mysterious country and so I found this book and boy am I glad that I did.

We are told the stories of several people who managed to defect from this country. We learn about the country's regime and how they were brainwashed into thinking that they were living the best lives the...more

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Apr 26, 2013 Lilla Smee rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My attention was drawn to this book by Hugh Howey, author of Wool (and other novels). I recently attended a talk by Howey, at which was asked what dystopian fiction influenced him. He replied that he read and was influenced more by non-fiction, and mentioned Nothing to Envy.

Based on interviews with hundreds of defectors from North Korea, and years of research, this book is an edifying account of the lives of ordinary people living in a disintegrating – yet still tightly controlled and isolated –...more

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Apr 03, 2013 Lindsay rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

This book was captivating. I find true stories more intriguing than fiction. The ironic title, "Nothing to Envy" is a part of a patriotic song that all North Koreans learn as children. How much they have to envy! The overriding theme for me was HUNGER. Reading their accounts certainly made me grateful for my life and country. It was interesting to read how the "Great Leader" was a god-like figure in their lives. Although religion was banned, a religious worship and loyalty were expected towards...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Melissa Mohr rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the best narrative non-fiction I've read in a long time. It tells the story of six North Koreans--how they fell in love, how they were educated, how they worked, how they were proud of their country and passionate about their Great Leader and his son, and then how their lives fell apart. Demick interweaves Korean history with these personal narratives so skillfully that she makes it possible to understand how many North Koreans sincerely mourned the death of Kim Il-Sung even while they w...more

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Mar 21, 2013 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, nonfiction

This is one of those books that I greatly enjoyed but finished while traveling and as a result, won't be able to review to my satisfaction. Demick, a journalist, writes about conditions in North Korea through the eyes of several families of defectors who had different experiences during the 1990s famine. She shows how families living around the large but very isolated and depressed city of Chongjin, at different points on the social ladder and with diverse skills and personality traits, weathere...more

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Mar 13, 2013 Holmes rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

LOVE it! - No, nobody in the right mind would love this book, for although it is well-written, it cannot fail to inspire a sense of contempt towards North Korea, an utterly inhuman regime. In this book, we learn about all kinds of outrageous acts that are beyond comprehension. Electric rice cookers are banned because they use electricity (can't waste precious electricity). White rice is banned because the Party does not have surplus white rice to hand out (any white rice must therefore be smuggl...more

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About Barbara Demick

Barbara Demick is an American journalist. She is currently Beijing bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times. She is the author of Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood (Andrews & McMeel, 1996). Her next book, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, was published by Spiegel & Grau/Random House in December 2009 and Granta Books in 2010.

Demick was correspondent for t...more Barbara Demick is an American journalist. She is currently Beijing bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times. She is the author of Logavina Street: Life and Death in a Sarajevo Neighborhood (Andrews & McMeel, 1996). Her next book, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, was published by Spiegel & Grau/Random House in December 2009 and Granta Books in 2010.

Demick was correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer in Eastern Europe from 1993 to 1997. Along with photographer John Costello, she produced a series of articles that ran 1994-1996 following life on one Sarajevo street over the course of the war in Bosnia. The series won the George Polk Award for international reporting, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for international reporting and was a finalist for the Pulitzer in the features category. She was stationed in the Middle East for the newspaper between 1997 and 2001.

In 2001, Demick moved to the Los Angeles Times and became the newspaper's first bureau chief in Korea. Demick reported extensively on human rights in North Korea, interviewing large numbers of refugees in China and South Korea. She focused on economic and social changes inside North Korea and on the situation of North Korean women sold into marriages in China. She wrote an extensive series of articles about life inside the North Korean city of Chongjin. In 2005, Demick was a co-winner of the American Academy of Diplomacy's Arthur Ross Award for Distinguished Reporting & Analysis on Foreign Affairs. In 2006, her reports about North Korea won the Overseas Press Club's Joe and Laurie Dine Award for Human Rights Reporting and the Asia Society's Osborn Elliott Prize for Excellence in Asian Journalism. That same year, Demick was also named print journalist of the year by the Los Angeles Press Club. In 2010, she won the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction for her work, Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. The book was also nominated for the U.S.'s most prestigious literary prize, the National Book Award.

Demick was a visiting professor at Princeton University in 2006-2007 teaching Coverage of Repressive Regimes through the Ferris Fellowship at the Council of the Humanities. She moved to Beijing for the Los Angeles Times in 2007 and became Beijing bureau chief in early 2009. Demick was one of the subjects of a 2005 documentary Press Pass to the World by McCourry Films.(less)

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“North Korean defectors often find it hard to settle down. It is not easy for somebody who’s escaped a totalitarian country to live in the free world. Defectors have to rediscover who they are in a world that offers endless possibilities. Choosing where to live, what to do, even which clothes to put on in the morning is tough enough for those of us accustomed to making choices; it can be utterly paralyzing for people who’ve had decisions made for them by the state their entire lives.” — 7 people liked it

“There was the natural human survival instinct to be optimistic.” — 1 person liked it

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