I think it safe to say, sadly, that this book was a bit of a bust with the group. Only two of us (that I know of) finished it, and most that attempted it did not get further than 100-150 pages.
The book was written in two parts. Part One was solely narrated by Jun Do and Part Two was narrated by Commander Ga (Jun Do), the interrogator, and then about every third chapter was the government loud speakers daily episode of what one living outside of a communist country would consider brain washing sessions, which EVERY citizen in North Korea is required to listen to every morning.
The first part of the book is about Jun Do's life, first as an orphan, and then it goes into the government assigned jobs he has as a young adult. For most of us, the writing felt very disjointed and was difficult to read. Pat also felt that this book failed to develop Jun Do's character sufficiently, and was a rather boring read. The rest of us did not feel that it was boring, as we found the subject matter rather riveting, never having read about North Korea before. (One book reviewer describes the daily existence of the average North Korean citizen as a "frightmare".) However, we absolutely agreed that the way in which this book was written made it very difficult to get through. I for one had the constant feeling that I was missing something when I would find myself reading and then wonder, "how did he get to this point?" Did I miss the transition?" Last Friday, Bonnie Jean and I met so she could talk about it and, her take on the way it was written was SO interesting! In her opinion, she felt that the writing style was very intentional by the author. She feels that he was trying to give the reader a small taste of the frustration of the North Korean society. The citizens of NK only got to know what the government told them and they had to live with that. We, the reader, experienced that through the writing.
The author, Adam Johnson, who is an associate professor in creative writing at Stanford University, clearly knows how to write. Unfortunately, we just did not care that much for his chosen style. So much so, that the highest rating this book received from us was a 3 and the average was only 2.75.
