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Nothing to Envy

Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Aug 07, 2015ryner rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Prior to borrowing this title from the library, I'd had only the vaguest idea of what life appeared to be like in North Korea: urban areas were drab and purely utilitarian, its citizens were indoctrinated to revere their leaders as divine, and the leaders themselves were not only nutty but dangerous. The greater reality, at least by the collective accounts of defectors, is even more strikingly shocking and dismal. The severity of famine, the degree of state surveillance, the ways in which citizens are encouraged to police one another, and the permanent psychological and physical damage being done to generations of Koreans made me want to weep. Barbara Demick has written a powerful, infuriating and heartbreaking book.