Identify Containing Books The Orphan Master's Son
| Title | : | The Orphan Master's Son |
| Author | : | Adam Johnson |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 443 pages |
| Published | : | January 10th 2012 by Random House |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. Cultural. Asia |
Adam Johnson
Hardcover | Pages: 443 pages Rating: 4.07 | 82509 Users | 9742 Reviews
Narration Toward Books The Orphan Master's Son
An epic novel and a thrilling literary discovery, The Orphan Master's Son follows a young man's journey through the icy waters, dark tunnels, and eerie spy chambers of the world's most mysterious dictatorship, North Korea.Pak Jun Do is the haunted son of a lost mother - a singer "stolen" to Pyongyang - and an influential father who runs Long Tomorrows, a work camp for orphans. There the boy is given his first taste of power, picking which orphans eat first and which will be lent out for manual labor. Recognized for his loyalty and keen instincts, Jun Do comes to the attention of superiors in the state, rises in the ranks, and starts on a road from which there will be no return.
Considering himself "a humble citizen of the greatest nation in the world," Jun Do becomes a professional kidnapper who must navigate the shifting rules, arbitrary violence, and baffling demands of his Korean overlords in order to stay alive. Driven to the absolute limit of what any human being could endure, he boldly takes on the treacherous role of rival to Kim Jong Il in an attempt to save the woman he loves, Sun Moon, a legendary actress "so pure, she didn't know what starving people looked like."
Part breathless thriller, part story of innocence lost, part story of romantic love, The Orphan Master's Son is also a riveting portrait of a world heretofore hidden from view: a North Korea rife with hunger, corruption, and casual cruelty but also camaraderie, stolen moments of beauty, and love. A towering literary achievement, The Orphan Master's Son ushers Adam Johnson into the small group of today's greatest writers.
--jacket description
Describe Books Concering The Orphan Master's Son
| Original Title: | The Orphan Master's Son |
| ISBN: | 0812992792 (ISBN13: 9780812992793) |
| Edition Language: | English URL http://www.randomhouse.com/highschool/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780812992793 |
| Setting: | Korea, Democratic People's Republic of North Korea(Korea, Democratic People's Republic of) Pyongyang(Korea, Democratic People's Republic of) |
| Literary Awards: | Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2013), California Book Award for Fiction (Gold) (2012), Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction (2013), National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for Fiction (2012), Andrew Carnegie Medal Nominee for Fiction (2013) Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Fiction (2012), The Rooster -- The Morning News Tournament of Books (2013) |
Rating Containing Books The Orphan Master's Son
Ratings: 4.07 From 82509 Users | 9742 ReviewsArticle Containing Books The Orphan Master's Son
This very long, very dark, and highly imaginative work by Adam Johnson forces upon the reader a series of distasteful sensations, only a few of which are horror, fury, hatred, injustice, and revenge. But by the end, one also experiences hope, compassion, sincerity, integrity, and love. Thoughts surface, submerge, roil in the mind during the days spent reading this huge novel, leaving one as drained and unsettled after a session with it as if one had eaten bitterness. Welcome to North Korea. IfToo many other great reviews you can read....... I need some serious sleep!but......... I had put this book off --(kept waiting for the mood 'to strike') --I wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did. (I thought it was for those 'other' people) ---but 'WOW'....it was not ONLY the masterpiece many people said it was ---but it REALLY WAS....A FRICKIN GREAT ENGAGING STORY!
Adam Johnson's The Orphan Master's Son defies categories and captives the reader's attention end to end. We are brought face to face with the brutal inhumanity of the Kim Jong Il dictatorship (which the author visited and tried to depict as accurately as possible given the lack of defectors and their testimony). But the even deeper story was how much suffering and deprivation humans can endure while remaining human.For another interesting take on North Korea, I would highly recommend Guy
I don't understand the accolades this book has been getting. I did read it during a week of awful flu, and the slowness of getting into it may have been partly attributable to that. It's certainly clever, and Johnson is nothing if not inventive. But I couldn't get past the use of North Korea as a setting, which seemed like a meretricious trick to me. There's certainly a lot of superficial North Korean trappings, loudspeakers, prison mines, references to starvation, and the theater of Kim Jong
This is a hideously beautiful, harrowing work of imagination. It's hard to tell which atrocities come from the mind of the writer and which are real. It illuminates a North Korea that seems all too real, while telling the story of a man whose feats of survival would turn him into a folk hero in any other context. This is an excellent book but not easy or light reading. ETA: I keep thinking about the fact that Jun Do chooses his own identity from the beginning. Is he ever told he's the orphan
I'll preface this review by saying that, in many ways, this is an excellent novel. It's intelligent, rich in symbolism and metaphor, and takes place in one of the most interesting contemporary settings an author could choose. It has many moments of terrific insight regarding one of the strangest and most tragic places on Earth. I can see why it's getting so much attention.All of that aside, this book did not work for me. It doesn't read like a book that was so good that they had to award it the
In a stunning feat of imagination, Johnson puts us inside Jun Do (yep, John Doe), a North Korean orphan who stumbles from poverty to a job as body double for a Hero of the Eternal Revolution. The closed world of North Korea revealed herewhere businessmen are conscripted to work in the rice fields and the ruthless Kim Jong-il is still the Dear Leadergoes beyond anything Orwell ever imagined. The Orphan Masters Son veers from cold terror to surrealistic humor with ease, and succeeds as both a
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