Yeonmi Park

This is a somewhat harrowing book. It's written by a young woman who spent her childhood before escaping with her mother to South Korea as a teenager. It describes her early life of poverty and deprivation of all kinds: though compared with some, her family was privileged. The perceived behaviour of family members and friends affected how the family was treated by officials, and governed their access to decent jobs. Government propaganda radio was a compulsory constant of everyday life. Escape was fraught with danger, and the price the women paid for fleeing was that they were trafficked and sold in China, only eventually making the hazardous journey across desert through Mongolia to South Korea. Yeonmi describes her painful adaptation to western life, her efforts to get an education, and her eventual position as a spokesperson for the North Korean community. A worthwhile and disturbing read, at a time when North Korea is much in the news.… (meer)

This is a powerful book.

It has echoes of Tara Westover's "Educated" -- a young woman, confronted with a series of brutal life circumstances, neglect and outright malice, nevertheless finds sufficient strength in herself and those around her to escape and to triumph. In both books, the struggle for education is amazing, and pays off hugely.

But there are stark differences, as well. Park is describing not a single family or small cult in a corner of the US. The North Korean government absolutely controls the lives of 24 million people, the vast majority of whom are impoverished. All are forbidden freedom of thought, freedom of association, freedom of movement. Much more compellingly, the abuse and rape to which Park was subjected by human traffickers in her flight from North Korea are literally terrible -- terror is the rational response. That these are frequent conditions for women in flight is certain.

I'm very glad that Yeonmi Park chose to tell this story.… (meer)