Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick is a 2009 nonfiction book based on interviews with North Korean refugees from the city of Chongjin who had escaped North Korea.

The main theme of the book is the effect of propaganda, misinformation, and media control, on the population of North Korea. It explores the famine that struck North Korea in the mid-1990s, taking the lives of anywhere between 240,000 and 3.5 million people.

It also examines the use of juche—an untranslatable ethos that relates to self-reliance and total independence—in North Korea, as well as the fear, uncertainty, and instability that follow North Korean refugees as they make new lives for themselves in other countries.

The book paints a vivid picture of physical, social, and mental starvation in North Korea, and ultimately argues that scarcity and starvation are the result of oppressive government control. It also compares North Korea to Hitler’s Third Reich, highlighting the similarities between the two oppressive regimes. Finally, it examines the desperate measures taken by North Koreans to escape their country, and the trauma and survivor’s guilt that follows them.

Useful Takeaways

• The main theme of the book is the effect of propaganda, misinformation, and media control, on the population of North Korea.
• It explores the famine that struck North Korea in the mid-1990s, taking the lives of anywhere between 240,000 and 3.5 million people.
• It examines the use of juche—an untranslatable ethos that relates to self-reliance and total independence—in North Korea.
• It compares North Korea to Hitler’s Third Reich, highlighting the similarities between the two oppressive regimes.
• It examines the desperate measures taken by North Koreans to escape their country, and the trauma and survivor’s guilt that follows them.

What I Liked

The book is well-written and well-researched. I can’t believe how many anecdotes that she was able to pull from such a close country.

What I Did Not Like

Wow – this book is depressing. I’m also not sure about what to take away from it. North Korea feels like one of those one-offs in human society that is juts so weird, and so constrained by history…that it’s hard to learn really anything from it (even the standard lessons from totalitarianism are just…different in North Korea). It’s just strange and sad.