Wyatt’s World: Reading Around the Hidden Kingdom—Literature About North Korea

[unreal.livejournal.com]

A steady buzz is building over Adam Johnson’s The Orphan Master’s Son (Random), but it is not the only well-reviewed title concerning North Korea. Consider also these works to create a minicollection for interested patrons:

James Church’s Inspector O novels (Minotaur), A Corpse in the Koryo, Hidden Moon, Bamboo and Blood, and The Man with the Baltic Stare: Perhaps the best-known fiction set in North Korea, these hard-boiled mysteries feature a state security officer and provide readers with nuanced glimpses into the politics and people of the little-known country.
■ Hwang Sok-Yong’s The Guest (Seven Stories): living in the United States, Rev. Ryu Yosop has long been haunted by his memories of a near three-month-long massacre he witnessed in his native North Korea. In this carefully observed and intricate novel, Yosop decides to leave America and travel back to his homeland to confront his past.
■ Jeff Talarigo’s The Ginseng Hunter (Nan A. Talese): descriptive and bleak, this book places readers on the border between North Korea and China, following a ginseng hunter who is faced with a maelstrom of violence as he becomes entangled with a North Korean prostitute.
■ Barbara Demick’s Nothing To Envy: The Ordinary Lives of North Korea (Spiegel & Grau): For narrative nonfiction fans, Demick recounts the real life stories of North Korean defectors. Each oral history reveals the personal cost of living in a totalitarian state and puts a human face on the few news stories we hear about desperate poverty and psychological isolation.

Source: libraryjournal

Comments

[appare.livejournal.com]

Nothing to Envy is an excellent book - it tells so many different perspectives. I really enjoyed it. For anyone who wants to learn more about North Korea's dictatorship, definitely read it.

Btw, I love your post, they are very informative. I might check out James Church's books.

[asiotus.livejournal.com]

Was Nothing to Envy hard to read? I mean the language. My English is not the best so i often find it hard to follow English books and i'm sure it isn't translated in Finnish. I'm very interested in reading it though if i ever find the book.

[appare.livejournal.com]

It was not too hard, but that is my opinion. Here is an excerpt.

http://nothingtoenvy.com/nothing-to-envy-excerpt/

[asiotus.livejournal.com]

Ok thank you!

[lettherebeminho.livejournal.com]

a lot of these sound interesting.
definitely going to try and hunt at least a couple of these down.

[yami-no-hoshi.livejournal.com]

thanks for the post! Nothing to Envy was so fantastic, I loved it. Definitely my favourite book on North Korea of all the ones I've read (although Bradley Martin's Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader is interesting too, but it's not a book you pick up casually, it's like 600 pages).

[renew.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm about 300 pages in and I've been reading for six months...

[geniebsmart.livejournal.com]

Omg thank you for this post!
I will definitely hunt these books down :D

[brianathebard.livejournal.com]

going to go look for these books, sounds really interesting!

Can anybody recommend some translated South Korean literature as well?

[appare.livejournal.com]

I read a lot of translated South Korean literature. I can recommend some for you, but I have to look up the authors. Off the topic of my head, my favorite book in awhile was Please Look After Mother. It was on the best-sellers list for a long time.

[appare.livejournal.com]

Please Look After Mom is by Shin Kyung-sook.
I Have the Right to Destroy Myself / Young-Ha Kim
Ten thousand sorrows : the extraordinary journey of a Korean war orphan / Elizabeth Kim
Long for this world : a novel / Sonya Chung
The surrendered / Chang-rae Lee
Native speaker / Chang-rae Lee
A person of interest : a novel / Susan Choi
The fold / An Na (An Na has a lot of short stories)
Free food for millionaires / Min Jin Lee
Secondhand world : a novel / Katherine Min
War trash / Ha Jin
The interpreter / Suki Kim
A cab called Reliable : a novel / Patti Kim

A few of these are by Korean American authors, but they are still excellent stories.

[brianathebard.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I've read a lot of Asian literature, but never any Korean. I really appreciate it!

[appare.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! I hope you enjoy the books :) I have read a lot of other books, but I can't think of any. This post made me wonder if anyone would be interested in popular Korean literature. Definitely read Please Look After Mom, Native Speaker, The Fold, War Trash, and Free Food for Millionaires.

[crashthatragedy.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the recommendations! Will check out the list soon enough. I was wondering if you have any other recs for Korean literature in general?