Pulizer Prize-winning novel The Orphan Master's Son is an intense, harrowing, tragic yet heroic book (and yes, sometimes very funny) about someone who is both an everyman and a "non-person" in Kim Jong Il's North Korea. The protagonist, Jun Do believes he does have a father (the Orphan Master of the title), yet he is treated as, and adopts the near-zero social status of orphans. He is given the name of one of the national revolutionary "martyrs" (like all orphans), which identifies him as someone with no family ties. This status sets him up for a life of even more difficulty than the average North Korean. The story of the protagonist is told interestingly through three competing narratives - the main narrative, that of the interrogator and that of the State's official propaganda myth-makers. The narratives intertwine, intersect and contradict each other interestingly. Although the book is vivid in its details of the horrible effects of the living under the current (and past) North Korean regimes, the author is never gratuitous in depicting the unimaginable suffering in the society. The ending(s) are both expected and unexpected, tragic and heroic, depending on which narrative you read. Surely you will finish the book with admiration for the incredible strength of the North Korean people, and by extension, of oppressed people wherever they may live.
For a review of the book from The New Yorker, click here: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2012/02/06/120206crbo_books_mason
For a review of the book from The New Yorker, click here: http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2012/02/06/120206crbo_books_mason
