The Orphan Master's Son in Bound Together

Feb 27, 2012 Chrissie rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: audible-us, hf, returned, dnf, disliked, korea

I have listened to half of this audiobook, and now I refuse to waste m my time anymore!

Do you enjoy political satire? Then this book will be right up your alley. But I don’t.

Do you enjoy a puzzle? Would it be intriguing to you to figure out what is fantasy and what is real? Again, if you answer in the affirmative, you will most probably enjoy this book. Me, I like to have a firm handle on the events. I want to understand what is definitely happening. You see in North Korea what Kim Jong Il sai ...more

35 likes · Like · see review

Apr 04, 2013 Melissa rated it it was amazing

It's hard to explain how a book so bleak in subject matter and setting -- North Korea under Kim Jung il -- can be so full of heart, humanity and even humor, but it is. It worked for me both as a "good read," meaning a compulsively readable page turner focused on one young man's life, and as a serious, thought provoking book raising issues about, well, just about everything important: individual identity and society, torture, good and evil, family, love, survival. The portion of the book where ou ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

May 16, 2013 Rachel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I was all set to give this four stars if I didn't like the ending. I thought it was going to be an ambiguous ending where you don't know what the true story is, which I think would have been the easy way out. But in fact, the ending snuck up on me. I borrowed this from the library and read it on my IPhone. I thought I had about 100 pages left, but it turned out that they were the questions to the author and for the reader. So when I got to the last page I nearly gasped on the subway. And had to ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jul 24, 2012 Bucket rated it it was amazing

Shelves: culture, literary, life-and-death, reviewed, love, unreliable-narrator, identity, pulitzer-winners

This is an excellent novel that marries action-packed thriller with the depth and sorrow of very real tragedy and corruption. It offers both a rapid-paced plot with twists, turns, and close calls, and the slow build of ongoing character development, symbolism, and discovery. All this, while taking on a very real and mysterious setting - North Korea. I'm very, very impressed.

The main character, Jun Do, begins life in an orphanage (not an orphan, though he is assumed to be, and lives the early li This is an excellent novel that marries action-packed thriller with the depth and sorrow of very real tragedy and corruption. It offers both a rapid-paced plot with twists, turns, and close calls, and the slow build of ongoing character development, symbolism, and discovery. All this, while taking on a very real and mysterious setting - North Korea. I'm very, very impressed.

The main character, Jun Do, begins life in an orphanage (not an orphan, though he is assumed to be, and lives the early life of one) and ultimately becomes the ultimate opponent of Kim Jong Il for one brief, but hard-hitting moment. He does what his namesake (the martyr Pak Jun Do) did, sacrificing everything and proving his loyalty all at once, while sticking it to one of the world's worst dictators. An ongoing part of how control is maintained in North Korea is that lies are accepted as truth, even very obvious lies, because it's too dangerous not to. In this way, the will of Kim Jong Il, whatever it may be, becomes the truth.

This was used to fascinating effect in the novel, allowing Jun Do to become a whole new person in the novel with barely a blink from anyone around him. The theme of survival is tied closely to this one. Jun Do is described at one point as "a survivor who has nothing to live for," which becomes both less and more true as the novel continues. As Jun Do gains relationships and experiences that make life worth living, the need for his ultimate sacrifice becomes more and more critical.

Towards the end of the novel, as he takes that step, Jun Do comes to a realization that allows him to let go of a feeling of abandonment by his mother he's had his whole life:

"There was no such thing as abandonment, there were only people in impossible positions, people who had a best hope, or maybe only a sole hope. When the graver danger awaited, it wasn't abandoning, it was saving. He'd been saved, he now saw."

In a world where the truth shifts, corruption rules and there is no certainty, to save or be saved is the only weapon people have. I really enjoyed this book, and am looking forward to a little more reading about North Korea. This way of life where accepting the truth of whatever is happening is safest (including suddenly having an unknown man claim to be your husband) is terrifying and thought-provoking at once. Definitely worthy of its Pulitzer.

Themes: North Korea, dictatorship, poverty, identity, ever-changing truth, sacrifice, survival, loyalty, darkness, corruption, thriller ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 31, 2015 Irene rated it liked it

This novel is set in North Korea, a society so permeated by deceit, distrust and fear, so characterized by brutality and deprivations that it makes Orwell’s 1984 seem like a facsimile of the Garden of Eden. It is the story of an insignificant man who creates a self-narrative of heroism and love in distinct defiance of his culture’s definition. Although the writing is outstanding, the tale is so dark and uncomfortable that I found it hard to enjoy the story

1 like · Like · see review

Dec 24, 2013 ☮Karen marked it as did-not-finish

I am finding it hard to concentrate on this. Maybe another time.

1 like · Like · see review

May 15, 2014 Lisa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I first heard of this book last year, when I saw Adam Johnson at the National Book Festival. He was an engaging speaker, and I immediately put the book on my list to read. I've since watched several interviews with the author, and am always struck by how soft spoken he is and how gently he portrays the horrors he found in his researches for this book.

There are two passages in the book that struck me. One was from the first part of the novel itself, the other from the interview with the author at I first heard of this book last year, when I saw Adam Johnson at the National Book Festival. He was an engaging speaker, and I immediately put the book on my list to read. I've since watched several interviews with the author, and am always struck by how soft spoken he is and how gently he portrays the horrors he found in his researches for this book.

There are two passages in the book that struck me. One was from the first part of the novel itself, the other from the interview with the author at the back of the book.

The first was this: "The hallway was lined with photographs of the Senator's family, always smiling. To move toward the kitchen was like going back in time, the graduation photos becoming sports photos, and then there were scouting clubs, pigtails, birthday parties, and finally the pictures were of babies. Was this what a family was, how it grew--straight as the children's teeth? Sure, there was an arm in a sling and over time the grandparents disappeared from the photos. The occasions changed, as did the dogs. But this was a family, start to finish, without wars or famines, or political prisons, without a stranger coming to town to drown your daughter." It is a beautifully written passage about how foreign a normal family would seem to someone completely unfamiliar with it.

There were many passages throughout the novel that moved me, certainly too many to quote here, but what took it from four stars to five for me was this at the end of the author interview: "Trauma narratives are hallmarked by fragmentation, broken chronology, changing perspectives, shifts in tone, and absented moments. I needed to capture those elements if I was to conduct a true outlet for the experiences of these characters. And North Korea, I believe, is a trauma narrative on a national scale. The real mistake would have been to force this story into a shape that conformed to a Western reader's expectations--you know, a nice beginning-middle-end kind of thing. The reality is that we'll know the true way to write a novel set in North Korea when North Korean novelists become free to tell their own stories. I hope that day comes soon."

Amen. ...more

Like · see review

Feb 28, 2014 Pat rated it really liked it

Not really finished, but I am tired of seeing it listed. My Kelly recommended this most difficult book, and while I am enjoying it, it is just to heavy to read straight through. Fortunately it is on my IPAD so I can read a few chapters at a time which is what I do. It is very interesting and disturbing to read about life under a dictator so foreign to our thought. And living under the North Korean dictator is especially gruesome and shocking! It has all the elements of a Pulitzer prize winner wh ...more

Like · see review

Jan 01, 2013 Mina rated it it was amazing

Shelves: tob-2013

This book is not a walk in the park. Step outside your comfort zone.. Imagine that 90% of what you know to be true is fabricated ..Now you are inside the world of Pak Jun Do.

Like · see review