Once, when I picked up a book from the local library, the librarian asked to tell her what I thought about the book when I would bring it back. Well, why not write a few lines about all the books I read so everybody could see what I thought about it? I'm often also happy to have friends recommend a certain book or tell me this and that is not really worth reading. I won't comment about the tons of books I have read so far, but about books I read from now on.
| highly recommended | sehr empfohlen | |
| good reading | gutes lesematerial | |
| average | durchschnittlich | |
| not too interesting | nicht allzu interessant | |
| recommended not to read it | empfehlung das buch nicht zu lesen |
 |
|
|---|---|
| title | A River in Darkness |
| author | Masaji Ishikawa |
| ISBN-10 | 1-542-04719-6 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-542-04719-7 |
| ASIN | |
| rating | |
| date | 2019-Mar-09 |
Born in Japan to a japanese mother and a north korean father, Masaji's family moved to North Korea in 1960 because they were promised a better life there. One thing in Masaji's life indeed did improve in the homeland of his father, but it definitely was not the promised "paradise on earth", "hell on earth" definitely is more to the point. After more than 30 years, Masaji succeeded to flee and go back to Japan. Definitely Japan is paradise compared to North Korea, but for him it's more like "purgatory on earth".
Even though it does not seem like Mr. Ishikawa has mercy with the reader when describing his life in North Korea, I am pretty sure the reality was even worse and he spares us a lot. Spares us things also, which probably would be beyond our understanding. But he also let's the reader understand that not everyone is suffering there, that some people are doing well enough.
For people living in the developed western world, like Western Europe or the US and similarly rich and prosperous countries, this should be mandatory reading. But not only reading, also thinking. We live in such abundance, we are wailing about the smallest non-issues, most of us actually do live in paradise but think that we have a tough time or are treated unfair. Think again, after letting sink in the contents of this book.
