I believe every American should read this book.It gives you an up close and personal, insider point of view of North Korea, and one man's desperate escape. I had no idea that North Koreans had such foul-mouth habits. However, the foul language is not overpowering, more like pepper than salt.
Jang (not his real name) has a tremendous writing talent. He has an excellent grasp for suspense, timing, and even uses the flashback (which I really, really hate) to good advantage in the least annoying way.
Go buy this book! You will be so glad you did. Just know that after you read the last page, you will most likely be thinking about it for weeks afterwards.
ABOUT THE BOOK...
In this rare insider’s view into contemporary North Korea, a high-ranking counterintelligence agent describes his life as a former poet laureate to Kim Jong-il and his breathtaking escape to freedom.
“The General will now enter the room.”
Everyone turns to stone. Not moving my head, I direct my eyes to a point halfway up the archway where Kim Jong-il’s face will soon appear…
As North Korea’s State Poet Laureate, Jang Jin-sung led a charmed life. With food provisions (even as the country suffered through its great famine), a travel pass, access to strictly censored information, and audiences with Kim Jong-il himself, his life in Pyongyang seemed safe and secure. But this privileged existence was about to be shattered. When a strictly forbidden magazine he lent to a friend goes missing, Jang Jin-sung must flee for his life.
Never before has a member of the elite described the inner workings of this totalitarian state and its propaganda machine. An astonishing exposé told through the heart-stopping story of Jang Jin-sung’s escape to South Korea, Dear Leader is a rare and unprecedented insight into the world’s most secretive and repressive regime.
