Escape from Camp 14

I find it really hard to review this book. I loved this book when I read it. It was my favorite book for the longest time because of how powerful it was and I was recommending it to everyone to shed some light on the atrocities committed in North Korean prison camps. However, now, after knowing that large elements of Donghyuk's story was fabricated and altered.... I don't know how to feel. What he experienced was inhumane and terrible for sure, but.. knowing now that he lied changes how I feel about it. I have the original 2012 printing and read it not long after it's original release, so I feel like if I'm going to reread this book, I will have to get the new 2015 printing to due to the revisions Blaine Harden has made since my initial read.

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.

It's been a while since I've read anything about North Korea, and this slim biography of a young man who was born inside a North Korean prison camp and remained there until he escaped in his early 20s is harrowing, and ultimately very readable. Would have finished faster except I was trying my darndest not to pick it up right before bedtime!

Includes a decent amount of background on what happens in general with North Korean defectors, who travel through China to South Korea or even though other Asian countries first, their mental states and behaviors. Written by a former Washington Post reporter.

Maybe the ending is a bit annoying but everything else about the book is perfect. A role roller-coaster of emotions and a story about the world we can not see.

“Like” is not the right word to describe this book (or any book about North Korea, for that matter). I preferred Barbara Demick's Nothing to Envy but this, too, is a story that needs to be told and repeated until the human rights atrocities in North Korea stop. It's sickening what we all allow to happen simply because there is little monetary benefit to be had from entering a war with North Korea.

We are introduced to Shin Dong-hyuk at the execution of his mother and older brother. By the second chapter a six year old girl is beaten to death at the camp school for the crime of stealing 5 kernels of corn. It's tough slogging here as Blaine Harden profiles the only know person to have been born in a total control zone camp (in this case Camp 14 considered one of the harshest) and escaped. North Korea's labour camps hold between 150,000 and 200,000 prisoners and have existed for twice as long as the Soviet gulags and 12 times longer than Nazi concentration camps.

Shin's life outside North Korea has proven no less challenging. Being raised in that environment leaves Shin suspicious of others, aping the human emotions expected of him. He's still looking for footing in a world completely foreign to him and once again raises the spectre of how a reunified Korea could ever hope to reintegrate such a starkly divided nation.

fascinating read