It is only January, but Adam Johnson’s
astonishing novel is destined to cast a long shadow over the year in books. Jun
Do is The Orphan Master’s Son, a North
Korean citizen with a rough past who is working as a government-sanctioned
kidnapper when we first meet him. He is hardly a sympathetic character, but
sympathy is not author Johnson’s aim. In a totalitarian nation of random
violence and bewildering caprice—a poor, gray place that nonetheless refers to
itself as “the most glorious nation on earth”—an unnatural tension exists
between a citizen’s national identity and his private life. Through Jun Do’s
story we realize that beneath the weight of oppression and lies beats a heart
not much different from our own—one that thirsts for love, acceptance, and
hope—and that realization is at the heart of this shockingly believable,
immersive, and thrilling novel.
Well written and profoundly beautiful in parts, this story is a scathing indictment against Kim Jong Il and the North Korean government. Before reading this story I really did not appreciate (I had never thoughtfully considered, I guess) how warped the isolation and indoctrination have made the North Koreans. It's a shocking and sad story and makes the reader appreciate our fragile, precious democracy. For all that, it is not a good choice as a summer read because of the brutality. It is not graphic brutality, either. It's more insidious, callow and heartbreaking brutality. Also, I doubt the subject matter would have broad appeal. -msegalla
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