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A daily record of what I'm thinking about what I'm reading

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Friday, April 20, 2012

The most powerful element of Adam Johnson's novel "The Orphan Master's Son" isn't the great deprivation that the North Koreans live with every day and that he depicts so vividly - especially in the scenes where the hero, Jun Do (I have to admit I didn't get the phonetic reference of his name until one of the American characters caught on - John Doe - but it's the sense that they live in virtual slavery: the horrible thought that a country that claims through its ceaseless propaganda to be a progressive people's republic consigns its citizens to a role in life almost entirely determined it seems by circumstances of birth - and the terrible oppression, characters constantly afraid of saying anything critical of the beloved rule - in one scene, the fishing boat boarded by American sailors who ransack some of the rooms and take down the pictures of the beloved leader - and that's the greatest fear the fishermen face, returning to port without those pictures they may face death. This sense of slavery most heightened among the women: the beautiful widowed fisherman's wife will now be assigned to a party official and she has no say in the matter - just plain slavery, brutal,horrible. Is it all true? The novel is very compelling, but, as noted in early post, really has no plot per se - just moves along episodically through Jun Do's life. Nearing end of part 1, that is, almost half-way through the book, Jun Do goes to the U.S. with some kind of delegation, serving as interpreter - not sure quite what to make of these scenes, oddly they seem more proscribed and formulaic than the scenes in North Korea - Johnson doesn't do much with the yearnings for freedom that Jun Do may - or may not - have - he's not a character with a lot of interior life: he's a window through which can catch a glimpse of a horrifying world.

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