Eyes of the Tailless Animals: Prison Memoirs of a North Korean Woman [Paperback]

Soon Ok Lee (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Living Sacrifice Book Co (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0882643355
• ISBN-13: 978-0882643359
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #324,562 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My eyes read, but my mind screamed.., July 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Eyes of the Tailless Animals: Prison Memoirs of a North Korean Woman (Paperback)

This book was the most heart-wrenching book that I have ever read. I have bought a number of copies of it to send to legislators. They need to know what is happening in North Korea. I am a pacifist and do not believe in war generally or usually support the use of force to solve problems. But when I read this book, my opinion changed about North Korea. We, the human race, the US, the UN, or whatever, need to go in there and stop what is happening NOW... Read the accounts directly.. And cry.. you will need to cry... Buy this book, but dont read it less than four or five hours before you go to bed.. you wont be able to sleep. Not for children!

I was so moved by Ms. Lee's testimony that I have been writing letters to lawmakers here in the US about it. You should too...

53 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An insider's view of a prison-camp nation, August 7, 2000

By 

"justicewriter" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eyes of the Tailless Animals: Prison Memoirs of a North Korean Woman (Paperback)

This book is a wake-up call to those of us in free nations: an icy bucket of water to help us open our eyes and appreciate the freedoms we have.

Soon Ok Lee was living the easy, ordered life of a Communist party worker in North Korea. She was able to travel some in her job as a procurer of goods. However, when one official requested more than his share, Soon Ok told him no, making an enemy for life, and an enemy that cost her the life she had known.

Set up on false charges, she was sent to prison camp. She was told at the gate to forget that she was human if she was to have any hope of survival. Her story is graphic in its details and shocking at the total lack of value given to human lives in North Korea.

Singled out for some of the worse treatment in the prison were people of one group: Christians. The so called "heaven people" (for it was illegal to mention God) were treated even worse than the general prison population. Soon Ok couldn't understand why these people refused to deny their God and save their lives. She was even more surprised that these believers would willingly take the punishment of others on themselves, sometimes even to the point of giving their lives for another prisoner.

Miraculously, Soon Ok survived the prison. She was released and returned home only to find that her husband had disappeared. With her son, she determined that she could no longer live in a country that promised equality for all people and then treated so many as "tailless animals."

This narrative goes quickly, but will stay with the reader, haunting with its descriptions and with the thought of what is still going on in North Korea.

May it drive us to prayer for those still under the boot of oppression in North Korea.

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The North Korean Holocaust, September 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Eyes of the Tailless Animals: Prison Memoirs of a North Korean Woman (Paperback)

This book is amazing. The prison camp conditions and treatment of the prisoners described are something that is so difficult for the human mind to comprehend. The only thing that I can think of to compare it to would be the Holocaust under the Nazis. Somehow, however, the story described within has escaped the eyes of the West -- Soon Ok Li's experience is one among hundreds of thousands of others -- she was released in the early 1990's but since then nothing has changed inside NK. If anything, things have gotten worse -- and there has been no outcry from the rest of the world. If you are willing to be challenged this is a book for you -- but be warned, after reading it you will find it impossible to do nothing -- her story and those of others cry out for justice.