"The Orphan Master's Son" won the Pulitzer Prize for literature for 2012. It is a bleak, dark look into the hidden country of North Korea. If I hadn't read of Adam Johnson who teaches at Stanford, I would have been sure the book was written by a Korean who had personal knowledge of the bereft life of its citizens. The colors I associate with this communist state are grey and dun like the uniforms all seem to wear when we see its citizens on t.v. The book reflects this mono-hued world, and the only sunshine I can conjure up is on the short trip to Texas that the hero of the book takes in a weird sequence toward the end of Part One. Many of the scenes take place at night where blackouts occur after 10:00 PM.
We first meet Jun Do in a home for orphans in a small industrial city. He clings to the belief that his mother was so beautiful that she was taken to Pyongyang which was often the fate of attractive women. Jun Do lives in dreams, a survival method that allows him to be numb to the dangers that surround him. Through his loyal obedience he works his way up from being a tunnel rat to an a kidnapper of coastal Japanese citizens. He eventually is sent to language school to learn English and is assigned to a derelict fishing boat where he mans a listening station hoping to pick up signals and conversations between American and Japanese coastal patrol boats. This section of the book allows the reader to get to know Jun Do a bit better. It is touching to read of his fascination with two American female rowers who are circumnavigating the globe. They row at night, and he listens in on their conversations. One of the rowers appears again later in the book.
Through a strange series of events Jun Do becomes a state hero and finds himself on a plane with various party officials flying to Texas for a secret meeting with an American senator. This event is priceless, in turns funny and sad. While there Jun Do is studying his American hosts. He watches the Senator give his dogs treats and decides, "....that in communism, you'd threaten a dog into compliance, while in capitalism, obedience is obtained through bribes."
In Part two, events turn very dark. The reader finds him/herself in an Orwellian world where truth is fiction and doublespeak is pervasive. It is disorienting and breeds feeling of discomfort akin to what one imagines North Korean citizens might feel. Jun Do strangely has taken on the persona of a Commander Ga. In effect he begins to live the life of Ga and falls in love with his wife, Sun Moon. At the same time the story shifts to Prison Camp 33 and we find Jun Do at turns a tortured prisoner and a husband to Sun Moon. What is true, what is real? The reader is left to puzzle the strangeness of this country ruled by Kim Jong-il, The Dear Leader. In the light of recent events in North Korea, it is even more ominous.
In the end Jun Do is able to salvage his humanity through love and sacrifice. This is not a book for the faint of heart. I found this well-written novel tough going but thought provoking. The plight of the people of North Korea and what goes on behind the line dividing North and South Korea can not be known. It is heart wrenching.
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