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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good travelogue and overview from a unique perspective, January 16, 2004
By A Customer
This review is from: In North Korea: An American Travels Through an Imprisoned Nation (Paperback)
This was a fascinating book. I recommend it highly. I find myself referring back to it again and again, because author Nanchu has, within its pages, summarized a lot of hard-to-find information from varying sources. The information is accurate, as far as I could see. She mentions many little things that I don't think have been published elsewhere, although one can find them on the Internet if you look enough. She also goes into length about the current situation with North Korean defectors in Northeast China. Few books contain anything on this subject, and this book contains quite a bit, including many stories from the defectors themselves. It was *very* interesting to get her perspective on North Korea as a Chinese-American who was brought up in China. She would not have been able to write this book if she was still living in China. No way. And obviously, no North Korean, except for the very few who are living here in the US, could have written this book.
(Not many Americans realize that even the several thousand North Korean defectors in South Korea, who are theoretically in a 'free' country, are kept on pretty short leashes these days by the Roh regime. Why? Because the current South Korean leadership doesn't want the world knowing just how bad things are for their Northern bretheren, for reasons I can only guess.) From the beginning, it was clear to me at least that the North Koreans Nanchu met on her trip were significantly more open and forthright with her - more than they would have been with other outsiders. Perhaps Chinese people enjoy a level of access to this extremely closed society that no other outsiders (or even few North Koreans!!!) enjoy. Their experience is still tightly controlled, but perhaps with less attention to detail on the part of the NK authorities - which seems to have made a difference. Nanchu brings to the table a very great deal, much more than most other Western journalists who write about North Korea, even those who have been there a number of times. If you are more than a casual reader on North Korean subjects, buy this book!
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
some important observations by a visitor to north korea, December 30, 2003
This review is from: In North Korea: An American Travels Through an Imprisoned Nation (Paperback)
To rework a familiar phrase, it might be said that it takes a library of books to know North Korea. And one of those books is surely "In North Korea: An American Travels through an Imprisioned Nation." The primary author of this book is Nanchu, a Chinese emigre now living in the United States, who travelled with a group of Chinese tourists to North Korea. The good news regarding this book is the ground truth provided by Nanchu's detailed observations and the perspective she brings to her task by having experienced Communist rule in another country. Even though her group was confined to sanitized, prestige sites deemed appropriate for tourists, she still observed the ravages of food shortages, even in the case of privileged soldiers, the grim state of city infrastructures, and the Orwellian controls imposed by the state's security apparatus. In addition, if you follow North Korea's radio broadcasts regarding the activities of Kim Chong-il, you will find in the book information that brings to life his penchant for micromanagement and illustrates some of his preoccupations, such as introducing catfish breeding and erecting buildings with extraordinary shapes. "In North Korea" is less successful when it presents--often without critical assessment and sometimes with badly mangled details--information culled from the internet and other books.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
zzz, January 5, 2007
This review is from: In North Korea: An American Travels Through an Imprisoned Nation (Paperback)
I bought this book based on the positive reviews I read here on Amazon, and was sorely disappointed.
If you've never read anything else about North Korea, this book *could* be interesting. If you have read even a single book on the topic, however, you will find little new information here.
Based on the title, I imagined I'd read about Nanchu climbing over fences and evading police to glimpse the forbidden secrets of North Korea. Far from it. Nanchu's "travels" through North Korea were simply a banal package tour--similar or identical to the experience of any common tourist to the country. Most of the book consists of well-known information already available in secondary sources. Worse yet, the book is poorly written, poorly edited, and dull.
If you want an "expat in North Korea" book, why not read one by someone who actually saw something in the country? I highly recommend "Comrades and Strangers" by Harrold (who worked in Pyongyang for a couple of years) or "North Korea Under Communism" by Cornell (Swedish ambassador to NK for 3 years). The upcoming book "Pyongyang" by Delisle also looks promising.
There are so many excellent books on North Korea these days. Please don't waste your time with this one.
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