Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

"Nothing to Envy" is North Korean propaganda, it means they do not envy other countries since they are so superior. Of course from the outside looking in the saying is ironic, meaning exactly the opposite we have nothing to envy of them. This book is a braided retelling of about half a dozen North Koreans who defected and told their life story. It's pedestrian and personal, day to day life, loves, work, there's not much high-level overview or history. I was disappointed Demick didn't weave more general information about North Korea (other than the opening and last chapters), but the individual lives tell a different kind of story that is helpful in understanding what it's like to live in a '1984'. I came away understanding that NK after the death of "Dear Leader #1" in the early 90s has essentially failed as a state, but due to cultural reasons the people will never revolt. They can only raise about 60% of the food needed, due to geography constraints, so the population is literally dieing and atrophying, each generation smaller and weaker. An elite few at the top fatten off the majority like in a Medieval kingdom, it's unsurprising since Korea once had the worlds longest lived dynasty at over 1000 years. It's already lasted longer than anyone expected, and sadly most likely will continue for years more to come. The only ones to blame are the Koreans themselves, who put the needs of the state above the needs of the individual, for whom we have nothing to envy.

In this book, Demick immerses us in what it was like to grow up, live in and escape from North Korea. She does this by portraying the lives of six individuals and their families in the 1990's and 2000's. There is a lot of insight into why so many have put up with the regimes of the Kims for so long. The horrors inflicted on the North Korean people by their government are chilling, yet the indoctrination prevailing in their lives from birth caused many to believe that things are worse in the west.Millions died in the famines of the 1990's when most families were reduced to walking out of town each day to gather weeds and grass to make a soup for their daily meal. Factories closed down because there was no electricity or raw materials to run them. People died of starvation and from rampant epidemics. The development of a generation of children was stunted by prenatal starvation and lack of sufficient nutrition in childhood. Doctors were helpless to save starving children. There were also packs of children called "kochebi" or "wandering sparrows" left to fend for themselves when their parents died or abandoned them to go in search of food.Each of the six people profiled in this book ultimately made the difficult decision to defect to South Korea. We learn how they accomplished their escapes. Even when they arrived in South Korea their difficulties continued: they had to learn how to live in a free capitalistic society, which was not easy.This is an excellent book, and it reads like a novel or a series of excellent memoirs. I couldn't put it down while I was reading it. Even though it is almost 10 years old at this point, it did not feel out of date at all.Highly recommended.4 stars (maybe 4 1/2)

To be very clear, I most appreciated this book for what it says than for how it says it. It can easily be called nitpicking, but I found this book read like NPR radio sounds, namely, ultra calm and civilized, no matter what the topic. Having said that, the author is a fine writer, clear, never off topic. I have to compliment her for doing such a thorough job of pointing out the extraordinarily unique country of North Korea and doing it under extraordinarily difficult to investigate circumstances. In a real sense, North Korea is nearly as isolated in its own bubble as a lost tribe in the deepest jungle. As the narrative progresses, the reader may wonder what makes North Korea end up so differently in the present day world from other communist inspired governments of the past or from other dictatorships, for that matter. The author really doesn't comment on that, but for someone who has studied the Khmer Rouge era of Cambodia, perhaps the ultimate "pure" communist state, as I have, you start noticing the key differences between how North Korea was created and how other communist countries did, such as Cambodia. What affect did the lengthy occupation by Japan play, for instance? While there are great similarities between how the Khmer Rouge Cambodians struggled and how North Koreans struggle, there are noted differences in how the different peoples respond to those troubles. For me, the great value in this book is the questions it provokes in how countries and peoples in those countries respond to global dynamics. Many people will read this and dwell only on how North Koreans struggle. Other countries' peoples have struggled and do struggle. What makes North Korea different from other countries is, in my mind, the more important issue behind this book, even if the author does not point out the contrast directly.

Barbara Demick interviewed about 100 North Korean defectors and made nine trips to North Korea between 2001 and 2008. Her notes in the back of the book give a glimpse of the tremendous amount of research that went into this portrayal of six selected lives of defectors. Each story of the lives is alarming for the living conditions, cultural restraints and the demands from the leaders of North Korea, Kim il sung, Kim Jong il and Kim Jong un. The real focus is on the lives of the ordinary people trying to survive. Their lives are very different from those in South Korea. From brainwashing starting in kindergarten to the constant struggle to find enough to ea.t The telling of the Great Famine by defectors is horrendous. It brings to mind the famines in China but unlike China, the people have not fully recovered. Many have had stunted growth from the famine in the 1990s and the food supply is still not good. There is tremendous pressure to keep your own secrets. If not, your own children may report you. Each person portrayed had tremendous obstacles and barriers to survival. The best part of this book was the finding the updates at the end of the book about the defectors. I highly recommend this book as a true picture of life in North Korea, the difficulty of escaping and then the final difficulty of adjusting to a completely different world than you have been raised in.

In the 1990s, Barbara Demick conducted extensive interviews with North Korean defectors about their lives, and in Nothing to Envy she interweaves their personal tales with some broader historical context to present a portrait of everyday life in North Korea under the reigns of Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il. It is, of necessity, an incomplete portrait, as even journalists who have been there (as Demick has been) get only a carefully managed, deliberately distorted view of the place, and fact-checking anyone's stories is largely impossible. But it's enough to give a sense of what life is like there. And that life is just... hard to fathom, at least from where I sit, here in the United States.It's one thing, I think, to know intellectually that North Korea is basically an Orwellian nightmare brought to life, but another to see how that actually plays out in the lives of ordinary people. More than that, I was struck by the extent to which North Korea in the 90s comes across as not merely Orwellian, but as almost post-apocalyptic. It's a place where the lights have quite literally gone out, a place that once had infrastructure that's now broken down, once had industry whose remains have been cannibalized for scrap, once was able to feed its populace but now leaves its people to desperately scour the countryside for whatever meager pickings they can find.It's often horrific to read about, and yet, in its own disturbing way, absolutely compelling. As are the very human stories of the people affected. This is definitely a book that deserves all the buzz it's gotten. (Even if I am very, very late in adding to that buzz.)

Very interesting, insightful and heartbreaking, about five individuals and their families living in North Korea, and how they defected to South Korea, after the famine, and the culture shocks when they finally arrived there.