Saturday, November 2, 2013

The Orhpan Master's Son By: Adam Johnson

Summary:

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.

1 comment:

  1. 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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