Escape from Camp 14

I'm no stranger to books about conditions in North Korea, so it's hard for me to say that I didn't really enjoy the presentation of this one. We get the story of Shin, escapee from Camp 14, the only one so far who was born in the camp and who managed to escape. We learn a lot about conditions within Camp 14, but only from Shin's perspective. From the author's commentary, it sounds like his position within the camp was actually fairly privileged, which makes this even tougher to read knowing that even worse things were undoubtedly happening elsewhere. Shin reveals what it took for him to survive, the indoctrination he underwent that warped his view of the people around him, and how he finally broke through it all and escaped.

It's a powerful story, but the author notes early on that Shin wasn't very forthcoming initially, and even after telling his story to the author, changed it at least once. He also comes off as being very disconnected and uncaring about what was going on around him, but it's hard to say if that was the author's voice retelling Shin's story, or a disassociation from what was happening on his part. Either way, it was hard connecting with the story being told.

Finally, I had a hard time with the author acting as a narrator during Shin's story, where we'd suddenly get some North Korean backstory related to something Shin said in the middle of his story. Maybe Shin's story would've connected with me more if we didn't keep having asides in the middle of things.

It's still a powerful book, these small issues aside. Even if only a portion of what Shin said is true as told, it still shines an important light on the terrible conditions within North Korea.

I would give it 4.5 stars if not for Shin Dong-hyuk admitting that he had fabricated details for the book. With that in mind, it is still a worthy read.