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.