The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson – 443 pages
Book Blurb:
In this epic, critically-acclaimed and Pulitzer Prize-winning tour de force, Adam Johnson provides a riveting portrait of a world rife with hunger, corruption, and casual cruelty but also camaraderie, stolen moments of beauty, and love. Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother—a singer “stolen” to Pyongyang—and an influential father who runs a work camp for orphans. Superiors in the state soon recognize the boy’s loyalty and keen instincts. Considering himself “a humble citizen of the greatest nation in the world,” Jun Do rises in the ranks. He becomes a professional kidnapper who must navigate the shifting rules, arbitrary violence, and baffling demands of his Korean overlords in order to stay alive. Driven to the absolute limit of what any human being could endure, he boldly takes on the treacherous role of rival to Kim Jong Il in an attempt to save the woman he loves, Sun Moon, a legendary actress “so pure, she didn’t know what starving people looked like.”
My Review: 3 stars
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This was a hard book for me to review. I was immediately sucked in and then as it went on, my interest waned. I was often confused as to whose voice I was hearing. I wasn’t sure which comments were propaganda or the truth. This book had a satirical edge throughout and was often hard for a Western reader, living in a democracy, to grasp. Most historical fiction books leave it up to the reader to decipher what’s fact vs. fiction, but in this case much was lost on me. I can’t wait to discuss this with my book club although only 4 of 12 girls read it. It’s definitely a “literary piece” and I understand why the book community has been buzzing about it. For me though, it was too much so, and one that was hard to stomach due to the plethora of atrocities continually portrayed.
Quotes I liked:
I like that about you—always ready to drink in the morning. What’s the toast? The longer the night, the shorter the morning.”
– “For us, the story is more important than the person. If a man and his story are in conflict, it is the man who must change.”
– “When the dogs returned, the Senator gave them treats from his pocket, and Jun Do understood that in communism, you’d threaten a dog into compliance, while in capitalism, obedience is obtained through bribes.”
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