Asian Trips - Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty
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List Price: $19.95
www.asiantrips.info Price: $13.57
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Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 951.930430922
EAN: 9780312323226
ISBN: 0312323220
Label: St. Martin's Griffin
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 896
Publication Date: 2006-01-10
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: 2006-01-10
Studio: St. Martin's Griffin
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Editorial Reviews:
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Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader offers in-depth portraits of North Korea+s two ruthless and bizarrely Orwellian leaders, Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il. Lifting North Korea+s curtain of self-imposed isolation, this book will take readers inside a society that, to a Westerner, will appear to be from another planet. Subsisting on a diet short on food and long on lies, North Koreans have been indoctrinated from birth to follow unquestioningly a father-son team of megalomaniacs. Revised and expanded for the paperback edition, this fascinating, definitive history brings the reader right up to the present-day tensions. For as this book direly predicted, North Korea has a legitimate nuclear program and appears to be the greatest threat to the world today.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A valued contribution to North Korea's record
Comment: Martin's book is one of those all-too-rare contributions to the public record of life in North Korea. A key strength of this book is his first-hand experience of life in North Korea, combined with the time he has examined the subject matter. Anyone looking for a credible account of life north of the 48th parallel should use this book as a reference point. Rest assured this would be one that the regime in Pyongyang would not want you to read and believe. You should do both.
Numerous flashbacks from Orwell's '1984' appear as you delve into the text. I was particularly struck by the childcare facilities - where indoctrination of children and babies starts early.
This book reinforced (for me) the first-hand accounts of 'Aquariums of Pyongyang', written by a survivor of North Korea's gulags. Martin's ability to maintain a narrative AND incorporate supporting historical data makes this long book seem much shorter. A fine contribution to exposing the regime in Pyongyang for what it truly is.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The standard reference
Comment: This is the most comprehensive and insightful book about North Korea currently in the market. Martin has extensively researched and traveled the country. If you've been there, or you'd like to take a trip from the comfort of your armchair, Martin's book is the way to go.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Introduction to North Korea
Comment: I became interested in North Korea at the beginning of summer '08 and looked around amazon to find which book is the most highly regarded, well reviewed, popular and otherwise definitive. This one fit the bill.
After purchasing it from a local bookstore (I couldn't wait to have it shipped) I spent the entire summer reading it and regaling my family and friends with curious tales from North Korea. I won't repeat the book's summary--you can get that in other reviews. I'll just say that I came to this book with very little background about North Korea (as I imagine most Americans have) and came out with a pretty good understanding of the history and the current status of the Hermit kingdom. The book didn't exactly turn me into an expert on Korea but it did provide a very thorough background to North Korean history and current events.
One of the strongest points in favor of this book is that it is well written. The writing style is strikingly objective, engaging and coherent. I guess the decades that Martin has worked as a journalist have paid off. He treats the subject with fairness and compassion--not a rose-eyed, everything is fine, we're all the same blah blah blah approach but an approach that allows the reader to see a bit of the big picture and to understand where the sick horrific society of North Korea came from.
As Martin writes in the book on a number of occasions, part of what makes his study unique is his use of defector testimonies. Much of the book is devoted to individuals and their own personal stories. Through groupings of defectors with similar experiences, he describes North Korean society, piece by piece. Martin brings the arguments of those who criticize such an approach but the reader will invariably side with him--that defectors offer a unique, largely objective and invaluable viewpoint on the truth about what is and has been going on in North Korea.
As other reviewers have noted, the book is huge. It took me the whole summer to read but I was sad to finish it. It opened my eyes, not only to North Korea per se, but to humanity and what we can become--or be reduced to.
When one reads about North Korea, one doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. The leader cult is ridiculous to the outside world yet hundreds of thousands of North Koreans are being tortured and killed for making even the slightest hint of doubting its veracity. And the "good" North Koreans are left to starve.
(One point for those that have not and will not read the book: the famine that devastated the country was not an "act of God." Radical adherence to Kim Il Sung's farming techniques--stripping hillsides bare without terracing, trying to use fertilizer to farm where it is not really tenable--and utter refusal to cooperate with the outside world (Kim's juche ideology) brought about the crisis and prevented its resolution. Martin bases this claim on defectors who saw the effects directly as well as expert analysis.)
The country is weird but there is more to it than just that--I guess you'll have to read it to find out!
PS Like every review, I can't just say nice things about the book. Some chapters were too long, some observations inconsequential, some speculation not sufficiently backed up with argument and some sentences were just weird! But if any book can deserve 5 stars, this one does.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The definitive book on the DRPK
Comment: Mr. Martin's book is one of the most informative books on a country that I've ever read. His written is very informative, but does not overload you with so much information in one setting. He provides a great insight into the very private lives of the Kims. I reccommend this book to anyone who wants to gain a better insight into the Hermit Kingdom.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty
Comment: This book provides exceptional insight into the isolated country of North Korea. With his objective approach, Bradley combines factual data, interviews with North Koreans and descriptions of his own personal accounts to show the world a detailed look into this mysterious country. A must read!
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