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The Prisoner: A Memoir
A sweeping account of imprisonment—in time, in language, and in a divided country—from Korea’s most acclaimed novelist
In 1993, writer and democracy activist Hwang Sok-yong was sentenced to five years in the Seoul Detention Center. Hwang’s imprisonment forced him to consider the many prisons to which he was subject—of thought, of writing, of Cold War nations, of the heart.
In this capacious memoir, Hwang moves between his imprisonment and his life—as a boy in Pyongyang, as a young activist protesting South Korea’s military dictatorships, as a soldier in the Vietnam War, as a dissident writer—and in so doing, narrates the dramatic revolutions and transformations of one life and of Korean society during the twentieth century.
In 1993, writer and democracy activist Hwang Sok-yong was sentenced to five years in the Seoul Detention Center. Hwang’s imprisonment forced him to consider the many prisons to which he was subject—of thought, of writing, of Cold War nations, of the heart.
In this capacious memoir, Hwang moves between his imprisonment and his life—as a boy in Pyongyang, as a young activist protesting South Korea’s military dictatorships, as a soldier in the Vietnam War, as a dissident writer—and in so doing, narrates the dramatic revolutions and transformations of one life and of Korean society during the twentieth century.
625 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2017
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About the author
Hwang Sok-yong
74 books336 followersHwang Sok-yong (황석영) was born in Hsinking (today Changchun), Manchukuo, during the period of Japanese rule. His family returned to Korea after liberation in 1945. He later obtained a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Dongguk University (동국대학교).
In 1964 he was jailed for political reasons and met labor activists. Upon his release he worked at a cigarette factory and at several construction sites around the country.
In 1966–1969 he was part of Korea's military corps during the Vietnam War, reluctantly fighting for the American cause that he saw as an attack on a liberation struggle.
In 1964 he was jailed for political reasons and met labor activists. Upon his release he worked at a cigarette factory and at several construction sites around the country.
In 1966–1969 he was part of Korea's military corps during the Vietnam War, reluctantly fighting for the American cause that he saw as an attack on a liberation struggle.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
August 4, 2021
TL;DR: If you’re interested in the Korean Peninsula, I highly recommend you read this book (not K-pop, but history, literature, and politics).
Before I picked up this book, I knew little of Hwang Sok-yong. I was aware that he had visited North Korea and that he had been a political prisoner in South Korea, but that was it. Turns out, Hwang has been involved in many aspects of South Korea’s history – he's been so involved that I am utterly confused as to why I have never stumbled upon his name when reading about inter-Korean relations. Perhaps his involvement was just an inconsequential contribution to whatever was to happen (or, not happen, as it is always the case in Korea), but it was a fascinating read.
In the Prisoner, Hwang jumps around his life and related his involvement (he is often not just a mere spectator) in many historical events in the peninsula: the pre-Korean war division of the peninsula, the Korean war, Korea’s participation in the Vietnam War, the Cold War (when South Korea went through dictatorships and everyone was on the look-out for “North Korean spies”), the inter-Korean reunification talks that happened before Kim Dae-jung's time, and even the candlelight protest in 2016. He is also very well acquainted with almost every writer and poet Korea has ever produced to a point some chapters seemed to be some sort of “address book” indicating where he had met each author (many of them, he met in prison).
The most interesting chapters to me where the ones where he recounts meeting Kim Il-sung, his exile, and his teenage years when he discovered his vocation as a writer. His reflections on the inter-Korean back-and-forth were very interesting. He mentions how ironic it is that conservative South Korean political parties strive for North Korean human rights while the liberals ignore them, or how when Koreans are okay that is when they look for another reason to pick a fight with each other. Moreover, Hwang kept mentioning places and events that I had never heard about and I would be falling in rabbit holes every three pages.
While I had read Familiar Things by Hwang Sok-yong a few years ago and I didn’t care for the book, I am looking forward to reading the works mentioned in this one (The Guest and Princess Bari, specially, though I’m curious about Jang Gilsang an whether it has been translated). In short, this is a thick memoir, which is always intimidating, and it totally paid off – I may even re-read a few bits, if not the entire thing, in the future.
I received this ARC for free from NetGalley.
Before I picked up this book, I knew little of Hwang Sok-yong. I was aware that he had visited North Korea and that he had been a political prisoner in South Korea, but that was it. Turns out, Hwang has been involved in many aspects of South Korea’s history – he's been so involved that I am utterly confused as to why I have never stumbled upon his name when reading about inter-Korean relations. Perhaps his involvement was just an inconsequential contribution to whatever was to happen (or, not happen, as it is always the case in Korea), but it was a fascinating read.
In the Prisoner, Hwang jumps around his life and related his involvement (he is often not just a mere spectator) in many historical events in the peninsula: the pre-Korean war division of the peninsula, the Korean war, Korea’s participation in the Vietnam War, the Cold War (when South Korea went through dictatorships and everyone was on the look-out for “North Korean spies”), the inter-Korean reunification talks that happened before Kim Dae-jung's time, and even the candlelight protest in 2016. He is also very well acquainted with almost every writer and poet Korea has ever produced to a point some chapters seemed to be some sort of “address book” indicating where he had met each author (many of them, he met in prison).
The most interesting chapters to me where the ones where he recounts meeting Kim Il-sung, his exile, and his teenage years when he discovered his vocation as a writer. His reflections on the inter-Korean back-and-forth were very interesting. He mentions how ironic it is that conservative South Korean political parties strive for North Korean human rights while the liberals ignore them, or how when Koreans are okay that is when they look for another reason to pick a fight with each other. Moreover, Hwang kept mentioning places and events that I had never heard about and I would be falling in rabbit holes every three pages.
While I had read Familiar Things by Hwang Sok-yong a few years ago and I didn’t care for the book, I am looking forward to reading the works mentioned in this one (The Guest and Princess Bari, specially, though I’m curious about Jang Gilsang an whether it has been translated). In short, this is a thick memoir, which is always intimidating, and it totally paid off – I may even re-read a few bits, if not the entire thing, in the future.
I received this ARC for free from NetGalley.
August 10, 2021
Before picking up this book, I knew little about Hwang Sok-yong. Hwang’s autobiography was originally published in two volumes in South Korea, namely: The Prisoner 1: Across the Border and The Prisoner 2: Into the Fire. The decision to publish this edition in its entirety in one volume with some abridgement came largely from the translators, Anton Hur and Sora Kim-Russell and the publisher of the English edition with the author's consent. But I think it’s a good decision to publish the autobiography in a single volume as this book contains expansive thoughts on the divided Korean society in the twentieth century with the struggles to establish working democracy in South Korea.
In 1993, Hwang Sok-yong was arrested upon arrival in South Korea after his long exile in Germany and the US. His crime seemed unforgivable by the government at that time, that is to visit North Korea. There is a law called the National Security Act in South Korea that has been used to persecute many citizens, especially public intellectuals and writers for any action that constitutes praising and breach of security related to North Korea. Knowing that fact, Hwang remained unwavering in his decision to visit and stay in North Korea for quite a while after the ease of travel in 1989 that gave South Koreans more freedom to travel abroad.
In the first few chapters of this book, Hwang frequently compares the political situation in South Korea before 1989 to East Germany following his observation of life in Berlin during his exile. There was little freedom of speech for writers and the constant surveillance that followed to ensure the state's security. Other than that, South Koreans were also not allowed to travel abroad before 1989, something akin to the restriction of movement that was imposed on the citizens of countries in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. However, he also mentions that if the South Korean political landscape is similar to East Germany, then the situation in North Korea is even worse.
If you are a fan of Korean culture and want to know more about the Korean history of the twentieth century, this is a book to go to. Hwang Sok-yong recounts many parts of Korean history in this book with vivid description and detailed naming or historical dates, providing readers with perspectives on the history of Korea from his own experience starting from the division of the Korean peninsula after the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945 and the Korean War that followed. There is also an interesting description of his experience participating as part of the South Korean Marine Corps during the Vietnam War in 1966-1969 and the events leading to the Gwangju Democracy Movement in 1980 the year following the death of Park Chung-hee’s dictatorship.
As both a writer and a democracy activist, Hwang Sok-yong deserves praise for composing an autobiography that proves his consistencies in improving the political landscape and freedom of expression for artists and writers in South Korea. He is not ashamed to mention his failures and shortcomings here and there in this book to provide readers with as much objectivity as possible, although I might not know if there are any omissions since I’m not familiar enough with the history of South Korea to be able to judge this book fully. However, there are two things that I particularly like about this book. First, it gives a new perspective on the nature of North Korean society. Hwang tries to provide an objective opinion on Kim Il-sung as instrumental in his resistance against Japanese occupation that is commonly downplayed in South Korea. Second, it also gives a detailed description of how living in South Korea was like for both common citizens and political activists before 1998.
In 1993, Hwang Sok-yong was arrested upon arrival in South Korea after his long exile in Germany and the US. His crime seemed unforgivable by the government at that time, that is to visit North Korea. There is a law called the National Security Act in South Korea that has been used to persecute many citizens, especially public intellectuals and writers for any action that constitutes praising and breach of security related to North Korea. Knowing that fact, Hwang remained unwavering in his decision to visit and stay in North Korea for quite a while after the ease of travel in 1989 that gave South Koreans more freedom to travel abroad.
In the first few chapters of this book, Hwang frequently compares the political situation in South Korea before 1989 to East Germany following his observation of life in Berlin during his exile. There was little freedom of speech for writers and the constant surveillance that followed to ensure the state's security. Other than that, South Koreans were also not allowed to travel abroad before 1989, something akin to the restriction of movement that was imposed on the citizens of countries in the Eastern Bloc during the Cold War. However, he also mentions that if the South Korean political landscape is similar to East Germany, then the situation in North Korea is even worse.
If you are a fan of Korean culture and want to know more about the Korean history of the twentieth century, this is a book to go to. Hwang Sok-yong recounts many parts of Korean history in this book with vivid description and detailed naming or historical dates, providing readers with perspectives on the history of Korea from his own experience starting from the division of the Korean peninsula after the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945 and the Korean War that followed. There is also an interesting description of his experience participating as part of the South Korean Marine Corps during the Vietnam War in 1966-1969 and the events leading to the Gwangju Democracy Movement in 1980 the year following the death of Park Chung-hee’s dictatorship.
As both a writer and a democracy activist, Hwang Sok-yong deserves praise for composing an autobiography that proves his consistencies in improving the political landscape and freedom of expression for artists and writers in South Korea. He is not ashamed to mention his failures and shortcomings here and there in this book to provide readers with as much objectivity as possible, although I might not know if there are any omissions since I’m not familiar enough with the history of South Korea to be able to judge this book fully. However, there are two things that I particularly like about this book. First, it gives a new perspective on the nature of North Korean society. Hwang tries to provide an objective opinion on Kim Il-sung as instrumental in his resistance against Japanese occupation that is commonly downplayed in South Korea. Second, it also gives a detailed description of how living in South Korea was like for both common citizens and political activists before 1998.
May 6, 2021
If I had to describe this book in one word, I'd say tedious. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading it and the way in which the chapters are formatted is my only major complaint. This book is over 600 pages and there were only 14 chapters and an epilogue. This makes it dense and slow to get through. Another gripe that I have is that Hwang throws so may names out at any given time and it can be confusing. That being said, I really enjoyed learning about South Korea in the aftermath of the Korean War. As an outsider looking in South Korea has always looked like a well put together country that was thriving. It was very weird to find out that it wasn't even close. Hwang's account of life is fascinating and something that I, as an American, have never seen before. I'm very glad he wrote an autobiography and shared his story with the world. Everyone should go read this. Jus be warned that it is a dense and long journey.
August 11, 2025
Taking more than three years to complete, I found that this autobiography was definitely not an easy read. The prose is dry. There is a lot of information condensed into~600 pages, spanning from the author's childhood during the Korean War to his multiple exiles and imprisonments for opposing South Korea's long authoritarian regimes.
However, it was a very informative memoir written by someone who lived through the Korean War as a child, fought in the Vietnam War as part of the South Korean troops (I learned a lot about the war crimes perpetrated by Koreans in Vietnam), and protested against dictatorship during the first couple decades of the South Korean republic. Reading a first-hand account of these many historical events was eye-opening and more immersive than a history textbook.
However, it was a very informative memoir written by someone who lived through the Korean War as a child, fought in the Vietnam War as part of the South Korean troops (I learned a lot about the war crimes perpetrated by Koreans in Vietnam), and protested against dictatorship during the first couple decades of the South Korean republic. Reading a first-hand account of these many historical events was eye-opening and more immersive than a history textbook.
August 7, 2021
There is a lot this book offers, and not just about the man who is telling the story about himself. There is a story about a country split into two, people who want it to be whole again, those who like the way it is, there are stories about literature and artists, about books and poetry and all that the man saw and experienced during his travels - both to North Korea and beyond. He was imprisoned, tortured, questioned several times.
In this book he goes through in detail about the life he led, the paths he took and the dreams he tried to materialize as an adult and sometimes failed as an older adult. Its heartbreaking in several parts with things he and his family go through. However amidst all this chaos, he has brilliantly produced multitudes of fictional material.
Thank you to Netgalley and Verso books for providing me with a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.
In this book he goes through in detail about the life he led, the paths he took and the dreams he tried to materialize as an adult and sometimes failed as an older adult. Its heartbreaking in several parts with things he and his family go through. However amidst all this chaos, he has brilliantly produced multitudes of fictional material.
Thank you to Netgalley and Verso books for providing me with a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.
April 9, 2021
This book was surprisingly informative of wars and torture I was interested in this for the expiernece, and went in almost in blind. I do not know of this part in korean history, I am not even from Asia. And I am not familiar with the author’s previous work. I knew only of the long-rising tension between South and North Korea, and that this was a memoir of a man tortured and imprisoned for getting in between.
I was astonished and educated throughout the entirety of the novel. It’s interesting how things started off innocently enough, and then began to get worse and worse for the author. It shows the true nature of censorship, how it influences artists and stunts creativity. It’s both a memoir and a warning.
I was astonished and educated throughout the entirety of the novel. It’s interesting how things started off innocently enough, and then began to get worse and worse for the author. It shows the true nature of censorship, how it influences artists and stunts creativity. It’s both a memoir and a warning.
August 10, 2025
This autobiography of an author whose works I haven’t read yet was a challenge, but worth it. It is not only the author’s life that is described here, but also the complete history of Korea (both South and North) since the author’s birth.
Many parts were fascinating: the trips to North Korea he made as part of his efforts for reunification; his subsequent time in prison during the long period of dictatorship in the South; his early life living through the Korean warn and so forth.
More tedious were his constant name dropping of otherwise unknown colleagues during his exile days in Germany and the US and during his activism days after being released from prison. There are also some odd duplications in the book that the editors could have resolved (along with further abridging this massive volume).
Nevertheless, for anyone interested in Korea this book is essential reading.
Many parts were fascinating: the trips to North Korea he made as part of his efforts for reunification; his subsequent time in prison during the long period of dictatorship in the South; his early life living through the Korean warn and so forth.
More tedious were his constant name dropping of otherwise unknown colleagues during his exile days in Germany and the US and during his activism days after being released from prison. There are also some odd duplications in the book that the editors could have resolved (along with further abridging this massive volume).
Nevertheless, for anyone interested in Korea this book is essential reading.
Read
May 24, 2025"I went through Chilseong Gate and up Moranbong, like I used to as a child. The gatehouse, old walls, stone steps were still the same. It had seemed like such a tall mountain when I was little, but now I saw that it was only a small hill. The winding stone steps led up to the base of the pavilion, and on the corner of the steps of Ulmidae itself was a small crag. My father and I would rest our legs there for a bit when we reached it. Ah! That crag was still there. There was a photograph of my father and me at this very spot, which was how I remembered it so well. I sat in that spot that had been a faint memory these past forty-odd years and had a photo taken of myself, a boy who had returned as a middle-aged man now older than his father. I turned away and cried. Not from happiness or sorrow, but maybe for the harshness of this life."
this book has an interesting relationship with time! the most obvious example of this is the non-linearity of its structure—the jumping back and forth between "prison" segments and the most formative/significant episodes of his life—but i also think there's something intentional about how time seems to linger on the details when he's in exile, or when he's trying to make it through a hunger strike in his cell. and then of course the passage of time speeds up again when we revisit his childhood and adolescence; friends and other figures (his first crush, the fisherman's wife who helped him when he ran away, Pomade and the Advisor, gombae, the kind baker's family, etc.) enter and exit as briskly as they do abruptly. that the chapters of youth would fly by—such is life! but hwang's younger years did seem to contribute to this perception by being especially eventful. whether he realized it or not at the time, i do think that his penchant for seeking adventure and rejecting conformity and generally doing very ??? things (running away from home a million times and then trying to be a monk for the food/spiritual stuff) was evidence that he has always had the sensibilities of a writer.
there's a particular story in the chapter called "lost" that has stayed with me: the brutal murder of middle schooler kim ju-yul after he had participated in a protest against rhee syngman's rigged election spurs furious student demonstrations all across seoul. one such protest makes its way past hwang's high school, and he and a couple of friends run outside to join:
"A sudden roar of the crowd came from the direction of City Hall, and we were swept toward it. Protesters started throwing rocks at a police station near the stone walls of Deoksugung Palace. That station was where the police were posted every time the Liberal Party illegally dismissed the National Assembly. We started hearing gunshots as the protesters advanced...At the sound of gunfire, the protesters ducked and scattered in all directions."
the gunfire culminates in , which "affected [him] greatly for the rest of [his] life." the violence and panic in this passage is visceral. i was captivated and perturbed by the imagery of the crowd as a wave, engulfing the people around it and sending them hurtling inexorably towards the future. taking up the mantle of activism was a deliberate choice that took tremendous consideration and sacrifice, but i also got the sense that in some ways it was an inevitable one for hwang and his generation, swept up as they were in the complications and cruelties of history. "south korea is my destiny," he recounts telling an angry audience member.
some other stuff that i also noticed/liked/had Emotions about but am too lazy to write paragraphs about:
- yun dongju's "easily written poem" translated by hur and kim-russell which i jotted down in my journal. they did such a marvelous job of translating the poem and also the whole thing!
- during the prison segments hwang recounts a few death row inmates he meets. one of these is kim ki-hwan, the leader of the notorious chijonpa (tws for literally everything if you google this). writes hwang: "while the outside world knew him as the devil incarnate, up close he only seemed like another poor boy caught up in the snare of fate." i generally appreciate hwang's attempts to view his fellow inmates with nuance but i just have to say it, i felt so weird about characterizing an insane serial rapist that way. certainly resentment towards the social order was a contributing factor to those crimes but i also just see rape as one of them most heinous and selfish things a person can do to another
i read mater 2-10 last year after i noticed it on the intl booker longlist. it was a revelation at the time because hwang's korea felt distinctly recognizable to me in a way that i had not sensed from previous works that i had read. maybe part of it has to do with the epoch he writes about—my grandparents had left korea by the 1940s or 50s so whatever stories passed on to me were frozen in that time forever—but it also has something to do with the ethos of the people that inhabit these pages, their perserverance and unwavering sense of community. i was really pleased to feel the same with the prisoner and it was genuinely very important for me to finish + write down these thoughts lest they be lost to time/some random crevice in my brain.
this book has an interesting relationship with time! the most obvious example of this is the non-linearity of its structure—the jumping back and forth between "prison" segments and the most formative/significant episodes of his life—but i also think there's something intentional about how time seems to linger on the details when he's in exile, or when he's trying to make it through a hunger strike in his cell. and then of course the passage of time speeds up again when we revisit his childhood and adolescence; friends and other figures (his first crush, the fisherman's wife who helped him when he ran away, Pomade and the Advisor, gombae, the kind baker's family, etc.) enter and exit as briskly as they do abruptly. that the chapters of youth would fly by—such is life! but hwang's younger years did seem to contribute to this perception by being especially eventful. whether he realized it or not at the time, i do think that his penchant for seeking adventure and rejecting conformity and generally doing very ??? things (running away from home a million times and then trying to be a monk for the food/spiritual stuff) was evidence that he has always had the sensibilities of a writer.
there's a particular story in the chapter called "lost" that has stayed with me: the brutal murder of middle schooler kim ju-yul after he had participated in a protest against rhee syngman's rigged election spurs furious student demonstrations all across seoul. one such protest makes its way past hwang's high school, and he and a couple of friends run outside to join:
"A sudden roar of the crowd came from the direction of City Hall, and we were swept toward it. Protesters started throwing rocks at a police station near the stone walls of Deoksugung Palace. That station was where the police were posted every time the Liberal Party illegally dismissed the National Assembly. We started hearing gunshots as the protesters advanced...At the sound of gunfire, the protesters ducked and scattered in all directions."
the gunfire culminates in , which "affected [him] greatly for the rest of [his] life." the violence and panic in this passage is visceral. i was captivated and perturbed by the imagery of the crowd as a wave, engulfing the people around it and sending them hurtling inexorably towards the future. taking up the mantle of activism was a deliberate choice that took tremendous consideration and sacrifice, but i also got the sense that in some ways it was an inevitable one for hwang and his generation, swept up as they were in the complications and cruelties of history. "south korea is my destiny," he recounts telling an angry audience member.
some other stuff that i also noticed/liked/had Emotions about but am too lazy to write paragraphs about:
- yun dongju's "easily written poem" translated by hur and kim-russell which i jotted down in my journal. they did such a marvelous job of translating the poem and also the whole thing!
- during the prison segments hwang recounts a few death row inmates he meets. one of these is kim ki-hwan, the leader of the notorious chijonpa (tws for literally everything if you google this). writes hwang: "while the outside world knew him as the devil incarnate, up close he only seemed like another poor boy caught up in the snare of fate." i generally appreciate hwang's attempts to view his fellow inmates with nuance but i just have to say it, i felt so weird about characterizing an insane serial rapist that way. certainly resentment towards the social order was a contributing factor to those crimes but i also just see rape as one of them most heinous and selfish things a person can do to another
i read mater 2-10 last year after i noticed it on the intl booker longlist. it was a revelation at the time because hwang's korea felt distinctly recognizable to me in a way that i had not sensed from previous works that i had read. maybe part of it has to do with the epoch he writes about—my grandparents had left korea by the 1940s or 50s so whatever stories passed on to me were frozen in that time forever—but it also has something to do with the ethos of the people that inhabit these pages, their perserverance and unwavering sense of community. i was really pleased to feel the same with the prisoner and it was genuinely very important for me to finish + write down these thoughts lest they be lost to time/some random crevice in my brain.
April 25, 2021
This really wasn't for me. I found the story wasn't put together well so it seemed disjointed. I am always one who loves memoirs however this just seemed off for me.
It was interesting as I learned a bit about the culture other than that it left me cold.
It was interesting as I learned a bit about the culture other than that it left me cold.
July 17, 2023
As a few other reviewers have noted this book is dense. In fact, it's a modest-to-moderate, but no more, condensation of what was a two-volume book in Korean.
It's still worth the read, even if there are a lot of people with the same surname of "Kim" running around the book, especially if you have a basic familiarity with (South) Korean history, including enough familiarity to know that what a high school history textbook or US mass media has told you isn't the full story.
I saw Bruce Cumings' blurb on the back and right there knew I had to grab it.
Hwang talks in depth about his childhood desire to be a writer, his early time in the Korean Marines (including service in the Vietnam War, and yes, South Korea did that), his early battles after that for labor rights, human rights and democracy against the US-supported South Korean dictatorship, all culminating in the Gwangju movement and his first imprisonment.
Upon release, he went to North Korean and visited its original "maximum leader," Kim Il-Sung, in Pyongyang, in support of reunification efforts during a period of mild thaw in South Korea. He then went into exile in New York and Germany, before returning to South Korea for inevitable arrest and a longer seven-year second prison term, punctuated by repeated hunger strikes and other protests.
Meanwhile, he deals with the personal side, including initial marriage and divorce, second marriage and separation, battles over book royalties and more.
Hwang has clearly lived a very full life as both a novelist and an activist. And, he's a good writer, with the back-and-forth "cuts" style of different chapters, mainly, cutting in and out of sections of his imprisonment after an opening chapter about his visit to Pyongyang, and then going largely but not totally chronographically in the non-prison chapters, works well.
Finally, in a book like this big kudos to the translators for rendering a VERY idiomatic English version.
It's still worth the read, even if there are a lot of people with the same surname of "Kim" running around the book, especially if you have a basic familiarity with (South) Korean history, including enough familiarity to know that what a high school history textbook or US mass media has told you isn't the full story.
I saw Bruce Cumings' blurb on the back and right there knew I had to grab it.
Hwang talks in depth about his childhood desire to be a writer, his early time in the Korean Marines (including service in the Vietnam War, and yes, South Korea did that), his early battles after that for labor rights, human rights and democracy against the US-supported South Korean dictatorship, all culminating in the Gwangju movement and his first imprisonment.
Upon release, he went to North Korean and visited its original "maximum leader," Kim Il-Sung, in Pyongyang, in support of reunification efforts during a period of mild thaw in South Korea. He then went into exile in New York and Germany, before returning to South Korea for inevitable arrest and a longer seven-year second prison term, punctuated by repeated hunger strikes and other protests.
Meanwhile, he deals with the personal side, including initial marriage and divorce, second marriage and separation, battles over book royalties and more.
Hwang has clearly lived a very full life as both a novelist and an activist. And, he's a good writer, with the back-and-forth "cuts" style of different chapters, mainly, cutting in and out of sections of his imprisonment after an opening chapter about his visit to Pyongyang, and then going largely but not totally chronographically in the non-prison chapters, works well.
Finally, in a book like this big kudos to the translators for rendering a VERY idiomatic English version.
March 29, 2022
Hwang Sok-yong is an acclaimed Korean novelist and political activist and in this wide-ranging and comprehensive memoir he chronicles his life and work against the often tumultuous history of the Korean peninsula. In 1993 he was imprisoned for 5 years after his return from a visit to North Korea, the country from which he had fled with his family as a child at the start of Korean War. The memoir moves between his imprisonment and reminiscences of his life first as a boy in Pyongyang and Seoul, then his later life as a soldier in the Vietnam War, a time as a Buddhist monk, and then as a committed pro-democracy activist and prolific author. It’s a long and very detailed memoir and demands a great deal of investment in time and attention from the reader. The history and politics is complicated for anyone unfamiliar with the country, it jumps about in time and place, making it sometimes difficult to follow the chronology, plus Korean names are tricky for western readers – and Hwang cites a lot of people in the book – so that with so much detail to absorb, it’s certainly not an easy read. In fact I found it sometimes was just too dense and slow, and my concentration flagged. However, that said, it’s a fascinating insight into Korea’s history and repressive political regimes, and well worth persevering with.
July 9, 2021
So, for a point of view of one of the reunification activists and one of the few outsiders to have been to North Korea and a political prisoner in South Korea, this book is incredibly choice, and a little bit over half of this book covers these topics, along with the Candlelight Protests against Park Gyun-He (look them up for what we could’ve done to get Trump out if we’d actually committed to protesting). These bits are incredibly well written, and highly recommended. The problem is that the other half of the book is a stealth memoir that is so dryly written and self centered that it came close to putting me to sleep while reading it, which almost never happens to me. I don’t know if this is the fault of the translation or if it’s just the way that the original writer wrote it. This is a low four/five because I can only really recommend half the book, but was still a fun exercise.
August 7, 2021
This is a DENSE book. A real doorstopper.
I didn't know a lot about North and South Korea, so this gave me a lot of information. The unfortunate thing is that the author throws LOADS of names at you. So at some point it becomes very confusing as to who is who.
The bits about him being in North Korea are fascinating. Same for his experiences in prison. But the amount of names, the time jumping, and the sheer volume of information makes this quite a dense book to go through.
Worth reading, but set aside your time for it. (I'd make it a 3.5 rather than a 4, but half stars aren't available)
I didn't know a lot about North and South Korea, so this gave me a lot of information. The unfortunate thing is that the author throws LOADS of names at you. So at some point it becomes very confusing as to who is who.
The bits about him being in North Korea are fascinating. Same for his experiences in prison. But the amount of names, the time jumping, and the sheer volume of information makes this quite a dense book to go through.
Worth reading, but set aside your time for it. (I'd make it a 3.5 rather than a 4, but half stars aren't available)
March 3, 2022
The author, Hwang Sok-yong, is 10 years older than me. Since I left South Korea in 1981, I have not kept up-to-date on Korean politics. This book filled me in with lots of details on modern Korean history that I missed out. Hwang is a great writer as well as a great freedom loving activist.
I liked this book so much that I ordered his novel, Jang Gil-san. I am looking forward to reading it.
I liked this book so much that I ordered his novel, Jang Gil-san. I am looking forward to reading it.
March 17, 2023
Like many other reviewers said, this book is dense. It’s packed with so much information and events that I had to really dig in and focus whenever I was reading so to be able to get a good grasp of what was going on. For this reason it took me a much longer time to complete than other non-fiction material.
Regardless, the writing skill of Hwang is truly the star of the show thanks to the beautiful translation work. Every description of an event made me feel a range of emotions and the epilogue especially is wonderfully done. Great read for those interested in the recent history of the Korean peninsula.
Regardless, the writing skill of Hwang is truly the star of the show thanks to the beautiful translation work. Every description of an event made me feel a range of emotions and the epilogue especially is wonderfully done. Great read for those interested in the recent history of the Korean peninsula.
December 5, 2021
I received an electronic ARC via NetGalley.
This is an interesting memoir. Despite the title, it's more than simply a prison memoir--which gives it most of its power. I'll admit that as a reader, I had (and have) very little familiarity with Korean history. A reader with more knowledge would understand various aspects of it better than I did, I'm sure, but I felt that I learned quite a lot.
This is an interesting memoir. Despite the title, it's more than simply a prison memoir--which gives it most of its power. I'll admit that as a reader, I had (and have) very little familiarity with Korean history. A reader with more knowledge would understand various aspects of it better than I did, I'm sure, but I felt that I learned quite a lot.
January 22, 2023
Rating: 8/10
This is a difficult autobiography to review, as I think most of its "flaws" (being often overly detailed about seemingly inconsequential things, the fact that I sometimes couldn't make sense of the timeline or shifts in setting/time, etc.) can be chalked up to the fact that it was originally published in two volumes in South Korea.
Anyway, despite being a bit of a slog to get through at times, I have to say Hwang Sok-yong's memoir taught me an enormous amount about South Korean history in the 20th century, particularly its darker episodes such as the Gwangju Massacre. It also gave me a new perspective on North Korea, its inhabitants (including, possibly, its rulers, although I did feel the author's account was clearly biased on this front), and the value of Korean reunification.
Highlights for me include his harrowing prison experiences as well as his childhood memories of the division of Korea, which are genuinely quite extraordinary.
Would recommend.
This is a difficult autobiography to review, as I think most of its "flaws" (being often overly detailed about seemingly inconsequential things, the fact that I sometimes couldn't make sense of the timeline or shifts in setting/time, etc.) can be chalked up to the fact that it was originally published in two volumes in South Korea.
Anyway, despite being a bit of a slog to get through at times, I have to say Hwang Sok-yong's memoir taught me an enormous amount about South Korean history in the 20th century, particularly its darker episodes such as the Gwangju Massacre. It also gave me a new perspective on North Korea, its inhabitants (including, possibly, its rulers, although I did feel the author's account was clearly biased on this front), and the value of Korean reunification.
Highlights for me include his harrowing prison experiences as well as his childhood memories of the division of Korea, which are genuinely quite extraordinary.
Would recommend.
February 9, 2022
Wow, now I want to read more autobiographies by novelists…great narrative and learned so much about Korean history I didn’t know!
February 1, 2025
A personal and political memoir written from the heart.
January 21, 2022
unsure how to rank this. there were parts of this that i will remember forever - really moving personal accounts of war, poverty, north korea and feeling like an exile everywhere you go. but on the other hand some sections dragged and the attitudes towards his relationships were often really frustrating to read.
but some chapters as standalones are 5/5s. i see why he had success as a short story writer i just think overall there are some weaker points in the big long narrative. still found this really interesting would highly recommend to anyone interested in 20th century history!!!
but some chapters as standalones are 5/5s. i see why he had success as a short story writer i just think overall there are some weaker points in the big long narrative. still found this really interesting would highly recommend to anyone interested in 20th century history!!!
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March 23, 2022Really interesting to read. Parts that were super evocative and parts that really dragged (I mean that’s life I guess). I really liked the translation.
I do think that this edition would have been improved with the addition of a list of like, works referenced or something in the back. Otherwise I find myself putting down the book mid sentence, which takes you out of the experience needlessly.
In the months since I read this book I've found myself thinking about it a lot. I think it's a book that needs time. It's so open. Hwang Sok-yong is clearly one of the world's great dirtbags, and the book really just lays it all out there. It gives it a feeling of honesty that helps balance and contextualize the parts where the author really states his own importance. It's so hard to say, when talking about a translation, what was the translation and what was the original, but I feel like this translation contributed a great deal to that feeling of transparency that made this book compelling.
I do think that this edition would have been improved with the addition of a list of like, works referenced or something in the back. Otherwise I find myself putting down the book mid sentence, which takes you out of the experience needlessly.
In the months since I read this book I've found myself thinking about it a lot. I think it's a book that needs time. It's so open. Hwang Sok-yong is clearly one of the world's great dirtbags, and the book really just lays it all out there. It gives it a feeling of honesty that helps balance and contextualize the parts where the author really states his own importance. It's so hard to say, when talking about a translation, what was the translation and what was the original, but I feel like this translation contributed a great deal to that feeling of transparency that made this book compelling.
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