Justyna Kaliwoda Kaliwoda itibaren 2270 Lešniški Vrh, Slovénie
Very surprising things about this book: The language is very modern; I would never have guessed that Lolita (the book) is 55 years old. Nabokov is incredibly adept with the English language, though it's not his mother tongue. (Yes, he did have an English nanny starting when he was young) The writing style is one of the most meandering and high-context that I have ever seen. It can be both entertaining and confusing, depending on if you're in on the joke.
By the standards of contemporary histories, this is a flawed work. But its flaws reflect the 60 years of isolation and self-aggrandizement more particular weaknesses of the author. Simply put, there is no adequate base of academic works from which to write a comprehensive political history of North Korea. So Mr. Martin should be forgiven for quoting and being less than successful at dissecting the alternate-histories written and disseminated by the regime. Similarly, Mr. Martin should be forgiven for his journalists' over-reliance on defector's stories and informants' anecdotes without supporting data from government and academic sources and reports. In the end, Mr. Martin does a reasonably good job at shining light on the North Korean enigma. If you've wondered what motivates the North Korean government to pursue a series of seemingly self-destructive militaristic misadventures, this book--or at least the last third of it--is a good resource.