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The Megumi Yokota case was enough to make me irrationally wary of Japanese beaches-- this novel just escalated that chicken-sh#{ paranoia up to a dribbling psychosis.
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What was this? Satire? Realistic fiction? Whaaat? It felt like a less well-written, less zany Catch-22. It didn’t teach me about North Korea, either…it felt like any other dystopian or wartime fiction. I also thought that Jun Do was a kind of bland main character. They made a big deal of him having kind of a psychotic upbringing, what with choosing which orphans would eat, go to the workhouses, etc. and with his dad never acknowledging him. And yet he was basically Male Protagonist 101. I was ex
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What can I say about (what I consider) a 5-star book that isn't implied in the rating? Great Writing - check. Complex characters that feel real - check. Amazing story - check. So what can I, a private citizen that reads for pleasure and who possesses no writing skills of her own, really say?
The Orphan Master's Son is a Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction. I suppose one would consider it be a historical drama, and it is, but to me it's also one of the scariest dystopian stories I've read because i ...more
The Orphan Master's Son is a Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction. I suppose one would consider it be a historical drama, and it is, but to me it's also one of the scariest dystopian stories I've read because i ...more
The son of the director of an orphanage in North Korea gets consigned to a series of unsavory jobs - tunnel fighter, kidnapper of Japanese citizens - before taking his life on a remarkable turn.
Really interesting and well-written but a remarkably slow read.
Really interesting and well-written but a remarkably slow read.
I really loved this book. Set in North Korea and told from the viewpoints of multiple characters - the orphan master's son, a famous movie star, the North Korean government, a biographer looking back on what happened to them all. I don't want to give any of the story away because not knowing the story going in made it so enjoyable for me.
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Jun 06, 2015
Vesra (When She Reads)
marked it as to-read
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review of another edition
Shelves:
literature,
c-white,
e-book,
author-j,
fiction,
pub-random-house,
o,
pc-400-499,
tbr-2012,
book-jar
Nov 21, 2016
Shani
marked it as to-read
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review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-fiction,
read-my-shelf-tbr
Mar 17, 2017
Tricia Spoonts
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2020-reading-list
