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on January 2, 2016
Very well-written memoir about a young woman's 'accidental' defection from communist North Korea. Hyeonseo Lee describes her journey from notoriously ruthless communist North Korea first to China (which seems free comparatively) and eventually to South Korea. In the process, Lee learned a lot about herself and the world outside the bubble of North Korea.
This was a fascinating glimpse into the closed world of daily life inside a regime which most of the free world finds unimaginable. It's hard for the average American to imagine being forced to keep a picture of their leaders inside their home and have the police come in to inspect the pictures regularly to be sure they were being cleaned properly. That's just one of the smaller ways in which the government intrudes into it's private citizens lives.
This book is definitely worth reading.
This was a fascinating glimpse into the closed world of daily life inside a regime which most of the free world finds unimaginable. It's hard for the average American to imagine being forced to keep a picture of their leaders inside their home and have the police come in to inspect the pictures regularly to be sure they were being cleaned properly. That's just one of the smaller ways in which the government intrudes into it's private citizens lives.
This book is definitely worth reading.
on March 6, 2017
This was the first North Korean defector story I've read. I laughed with Hyeonseo when she laughed, I celebrated with her in her small victories, I cried when she cried, and got angry when she got angry. This is a must read to all South Koreans, so they can appreciate their history, their freedom (thanks to America) and because most South Koreans have ancestors and families from/in North Korea. There is no denying of that because before the Korean War, it was a single nation with a common ancestry. God bless America and the sacrifices of our American soldiers who have fought and are still fighting for our freedom, God bless the Hanawon, God bless the North Korean people who have blindfolds over their lives, God bless Mr. Stolp, and Ms. Lee for her courage. May the reading this book spark a hope in your heart and the courage help and to stand up for what is right, to raise awareness of the lack of human rights of the North Korean people, and for the fair treatment and the protection of the defectors they so desperately need.
on July 10, 2015
I had always been curious about North Korea, having heard about it in the news, and I thought this book would be interesting. It does have vivid descriptions of life in North Korea. It also turns out to be suspenseful and emotionally engaging. Once I started reading this book, I did not want to stop until I was done.
The book is divided into parts, describing the author's life in North Korea, then her life in China (an entire decade), escape to South Korea, and finally, the ordeal of getting her mother and brother out of North Korea. I won't bother to summarize everything other than to say that her life was in significant danger in every place except for South Korea. In China, she makes a life and barely avoids deportation, being captured by human traffickers, and an arranged marriage to a complete zero.
The biggest surprise for me was maybe how hard it is for North Koreans to adjust to life outside of their country. Of course, it is very different, and despite knowing that they will likely be tortured and killed if they go back, some want to return anyway. The author's own brother almost goes back in a moment of weakness, but she manages to talk him out of it.
Thinking back on this story, it seems almost unbelievable that a person could have lived this life. It took huge amounts of courage, intelligence, and luck, all of which the author has.
The book is divided into parts, describing the author's life in North Korea, then her life in China (an entire decade), escape to South Korea, and finally, the ordeal of getting her mother and brother out of North Korea. I won't bother to summarize everything other than to say that her life was in significant danger in every place except for South Korea. In China, she makes a life and barely avoids deportation, being captured by human traffickers, and an arranged marriage to a complete zero.
The biggest surprise for me was maybe how hard it is for North Koreans to adjust to life outside of their country. Of course, it is very different, and despite knowing that they will likely be tortured and killed if they go back, some want to return anyway. The author's own brother almost goes back in a moment of weakness, but she manages to talk him out of it.
Thinking back on this story, it seems almost unbelievable that a person could have lived this life. It took huge amounts of courage, intelligence, and luck, all of which the author has.
on March 6, 2017
I read this book before I realised what a global celebrity Hyeonseo Lee had become. I found her account of life in North Korea and the lengths she had to go to in planning her escape, fascinating and chilling. I felt she spent overlong regaling her readers with her multiple identities in South Korea, before embarking on the final third of the book where another bout of incredible heroics was required to get her family to safety. "The Girl with Seven Names" was a timely read while North Korea dominates the headlines again with its threatening nuclear sabre rattling. After an account like this describing a closed and vicious dictatorship, it is challenging to understand how an entire nation can still be held in thrall by a despot, his thought police and brutal strong arm enforcers. Those of us living in democracies take so much for granted.
on August 24, 2015
Hyeonseo Lee has written a superb memoir of her childhood in North Korea, her years living a precarious existence as a refugee in China, and her dramatic escape through China and Laos to South Korea. Indeed, I found the account of her time in China to be the most fascinating section of the book. Most readers with even a passing knowledge of the North Korean regime will be familiar with the eccentricities of its leaders and some of the more bizarre aspects of its political system. But there doesn’t seem to be as much literature on the plight of North Korean refugees living in countries like China whose official policy is to repatriate them to North Korea. Ms. Lee recounts several run-ins with the law that could have easily ended in her deportation. While she is clearly very critical of China’s official stance towards refugees, it was interesting how China was also clearly a land of opportunity for her and other North Korean escapees. Despite having to live under assumed identities and constantly evade local police, Lee was able to quickly find work in various Chinese cities, broaden her cultural horizons, and form tight friendships.
It was only when her mother, who had been living with her brother in North Korea the whole time, decided to also flee, that Lee made the decision to attempt her escape to South Korea. This involved helping her mother cross from the North into China, traveling across China on forged documents, then crossing into Laos in the hope of reaching the South Korean embassy there. Needless to say, her account of this epic journey is riveting.
If I had to make one quibble with the writing style, it is that Lee ends nearly every chapter on a vaguely worded cliffhanger. But her story is so compelling that this is easily forgivable. I am looking forward to reading some of the other memoirs by North Korean defectors that have come out recently. But Ms. Lee’s account is an excellent place to start!
It was only when her mother, who had been living with her brother in North Korea the whole time, decided to also flee, that Lee made the decision to attempt her escape to South Korea. This involved helping her mother cross from the North into China, traveling across China on forged documents, then crossing into Laos in the hope of reaching the South Korean embassy there. Needless to say, her account of this epic journey is riveting.
If I had to make one quibble with the writing style, it is that Lee ends nearly every chapter on a vaguely worded cliffhanger. But her story is so compelling that this is easily forgivable. I am looking forward to reading some of the other memoirs by North Korean defectors that have come out recently. But Ms. Lee’s account is an excellent place to start!
on October 25, 2016
By the time she turned 29, Hyeonseo Lee had spent a decade living on the run and in hiding. She had escaped a brothel, survived a kidnapping, run away from a loveless engagement, and changed her name four times. She was attacked on the street, robbed, conned, and arrested more than once.
She is one of the lucky ones.
Hyeonseo Lee was born in North Korea under a different name, to a family with good songbun (NK's caste system). But even being one of the lucky ones in North Korea means that Lee witnessed her first public execution at seven years old. Like all citizens, starting in elementary school, she was forced to partake in weekly tattletale sessions, where one has to confess to a "crime" or accuse someone else of one. It could be as simple (and deadly serious) as "I don't think about the Dear Leader enough times during the day." While her family had food, in part because of her industrious and savvy mother, she witnessed others starving to death during the 1990s famine that killed hundreds of thousands.
Even under these conditions, when Lee escapes, it's purely a matter of curiosity. Her family lives in a town directly across from China, along the narrowest part of the river that separates the two countries. She plans to turn around and come right back, but things don't work out that way.
But it's not freedom that necessarily waits for her beyond the border. The Chinese government is dogged about tracking down illegal North Koreans and returning them to their fate back home. In many ways, Lee's life in China is as arduous as her life in North Korea. South Korea gives citizenship for all NK asylum seekers, but getting there isn't easy. Lee finally makes it and without suffering abuse in a Laotian prison like so many others-- women, particularly-- desperately trying to get to Seoul.
Yup, Hyeonseo Lee is one of the "lucky ones." And I've never felt so damn privileged in my life.
I really enjoyed this book. At times, Lee's storytelling is a little flat, and her decision to end each chapter with a cliff-hanger (that gets resolved on the very next page) is a little odd. This is a great book for anyone looking to learn about North Korea or just read an interesting memoir. 4.5 stars.
She is one of the lucky ones.
Hyeonseo Lee was born in North Korea under a different name, to a family with good songbun (NK's caste system). But even being one of the lucky ones in North Korea means that Lee witnessed her first public execution at seven years old. Like all citizens, starting in elementary school, she was forced to partake in weekly tattletale sessions, where one has to confess to a "crime" or accuse someone else of one. It could be as simple (and deadly serious) as "I don't think about the Dear Leader enough times during the day." While her family had food, in part because of her industrious and savvy mother, she witnessed others starving to death during the 1990s famine that killed hundreds of thousands.
Even under these conditions, when Lee escapes, it's purely a matter of curiosity. Her family lives in a town directly across from China, along the narrowest part of the river that separates the two countries. She plans to turn around and come right back, but things don't work out that way.
But it's not freedom that necessarily waits for her beyond the border. The Chinese government is dogged about tracking down illegal North Koreans and returning them to their fate back home. In many ways, Lee's life in China is as arduous as her life in North Korea. South Korea gives citizenship for all NK asylum seekers, but getting there isn't easy. Lee finally makes it and without suffering abuse in a Laotian prison like so many others-- women, particularly-- desperately trying to get to Seoul.
Yup, Hyeonseo Lee is one of the "lucky ones." And I've never felt so damn privileged in my life.
I really enjoyed this book. At times, Lee's storytelling is a little flat, and her decision to end each chapter with a cliff-hanger (that gets resolved on the very next page) is a little odd. This is a great book for anyone looking to learn about North Korea or just read an interesting memoir. 4.5 stars.
on May 12, 2017
A truly remarkable girl/woman! Her perseverance at such a young age is beyond belief. The quest for freedom is universal! This should be a must read in our schools and those millennials who are always demonstrating and rioting here in The U.S.A. They haven't a clue how good they have it!
on June 11, 2017
The story could be a Hollywood blockbuster filled with drama, emotion, and unexpected reversals of fortune. The fact that it's all true and documented only increases its potential to teach, move, and inspire. For most Americans, spoiled by our freedoms and wealth and largely ignorant of the rest of the world, a story like this is a revelation. Even for those of us with some awareness of the strangle - hold the Kim dynasty maintains over North Korea, it may be startling to think of a nation where elementary school children are mandated witnesses at public executions; where the sale of crack cocaine is a minor offense, but one can be severely punished for shedding too few tears at the Great Leader's funeral service; where a complex networks of bribes and black markets keeps the country functional--where it functions at all.
Although I knew or had heard much of this, Ms. Lee's story gave me insights into how difficult freedom (and individual responsibility) can be for one suddenly cut loose from the heavy hand of the Kim leadership where the Great Leader makes all the decisions.
I'd have enjoyed this story just for the adventure and insight, but it is also beautifully written. I recommend it highly.
Although I knew or had heard much of this, Ms. Lee's story gave me insights into how difficult freedom (and individual responsibility) can be for one suddenly cut loose from the heavy hand of the Kim leadership where the Great Leader makes all the decisions.
I'd have enjoyed this story just for the adventure and insight, but it is also beautifully written. I recommend it highly.
on April 1, 2017
When we read this story we realize how fortunate we are to live in a country where individual rights are guaranteed and freedom of choice is ours. The story of Hyeonseo Lee, who as a teenager made her way, against extraordinary odds, and by herself, from North Korea, via China and Laos, to South Korea is inspirational. It involved having to trust helpers, who were bribed and sometimes did not follow through, and the incredible kindness and help of a tourist from Australia, in Laos, who facilitated the completion of a ten-year journey to freedom. I doubt many of us would have the fortitude to do what she did. An outstanding read.
