Book Review

[kenjari]

The Orphan Master's Son
by Adam Johnson

I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway.

I'm just going to quote the book flap, instead of providing my own explanation of what this book is about, because I really want to write this review without spoilers, and I can't do a better job than this:
"Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother—a singer “stolen” to Pyongyang—and an influential father who runs a work camp for orphans. Superiors in the state soon recognize the boy’s loyalty and keen instincts. Considering himself “a humble citizen of the greatest nation in the world,” Jun Do rises in the ranks. He becomes a professional kidnapper* who must navigate the shifting rules, arbitrary violence, and baffling demands of his Korean overlords in order to stay alive. Driven to the absolute limit of what any human being could endure, he boldly takes on the treacherous role of rival to Kim Jong Il in an attempt to save the woman he loves, Sun Moon, a legendary actress 'so pure, she didn’t know what starving people looked like.'"

I was thoroughly engrossed by this book, as well as sometimes horrified. It reads a lot like a dystopian novel, except North Korea is a real place (the author apparently did extensive research). In fact, this real-life setting makes many of the fictional dystopias I've read about sound quite nice by comparison. The compelling story contains several plot twists which would seem implausible in other novels, yet work quite well in a place where Kim Jong Il and his regime can construct any reality they want through propaganda, totalitarian control over society, and also far more brutal means. It's also quite suspenseful at the end, to the point where my heart was pounding a little. The characters were very good, too. All of them had depth and many of them, even some of the minor characters, underwent change and development. Jun Do's unfolding was done with special deftness, as he moves from an unquestioning servant of the state to someone who not only questions his world, but defies it.
The Orphan Master's Son is also extremely well written. The prose is by turns lyrical, ironic, witty, and sorrowful - but it is all subtle and seamless as if it doesn't want the reader to really notice its brilliance. I also really liked the way Johnson had things reappear throughout the story - even the passing mention of the shut down of a fruit canning factory could prove to be a significant or even devastating detail. It all makes for a beautiful book about how people can still form genuine relationships and retain their humanity under the most oppressive and horrifying of conditions.


*The North Koreans apparently used to kidnap Japanese citizens, possibly to serve as language instructors, and still kidnap South Koreans for various purposes.

Comments

[hai-kah-uhk.livejournal.com]

I have such a hard time reading memoirs and historical novels that take place in China. I read them anyway, of course. I don't know if I'd have the guts to read this book. But I hear ya about the intense dystopia.