oozandoz

This book was probably straight up the most interesting book I've read on North Korea to date. It's also not at all academic, and maybe that's why. Bradley Martin compiles a couple decades of covering North Korea for various publications into a huge compendium of everything you'd want to know about the Kims and more. Because cult-of-personality Kim (both Il Sung and Jong Il) worship is pretty much the state-sanctioned religion of North Korea, Martin writes the story of the Kims as the story of North Korea. In reading, not only do you get the straight up history of the Kims (and by extension, North Korea) but tipping in at a little under 900 pages this books is full of really interesting, sometimes hilarious and often tragic anecdotes (I still can't decide if the stuff about the sexual proclivities of the Kims is more funny than tragic or more tragic than funny). There is also a couple chapters dedicated to testimony of North Korea's many defectors, the validity of which is debatable but Martin himself often comments on the subject. The only thing I didn't like about this book were a few parts where Martin sort of wanders into fantasy. One is a verbatim account of what the author, Bradley Martin, would adivse Kim Jong Il to do as far as the management of the state apparatus. I mean, does anyone really care or is this just unnecessarily self-indulgent filler? Taking that into account, you wonder if this book couldn't have been trimmed down to a more palatable size (under 500 pages?). Still, if you are at all interested in what goes in the hermit kingdom, read this book.

2022-12-28 02:37