In Order to Live

In Order to Live 

A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom  

“I am most grateful for two things : that I was born in North Korea and that I escaped from North Korea” 

Yeonmi Park a 26 year old young lady who is thankful enough to have escaped a hell like North Korea takes it all out and loud in her book. Right from her tender days till the day she became the face of a human rights issue, the details in the book will leave you dumbstruck. 

 It very well contains the moments of the brutal totalitarianism of the Kim dynasty whereby the citizens are indoctrinated to the extent that they believe North Korea is the center of the Universe and the leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il have supernatural powers. They are kept ignored of the cultures and technologies of the outer world. All of their actions even at home are controlled centrally and if found guilty could end up directly in jail or public execution. 

The family Yeonmi belonged to was of a low song-bun (lower caste) due to which her family had to fight the battle of hunger as well and in tackling those her father chose few sinful routes that led their family to be called criminals. The shame and barrenness paved path for her escape to China at the young age of 13 and eventually to South Korea. But life had more to it. Her time in China and South Korea exposed her to some of the larger threats of the society like trafficking, rape and domestic violence to name a few.  

Losing her father, witnessing her mother getting raped and the helplessness in finding her missing sister gave her some haunting scars. 

Amidst the chaos within and around her, she held onto her courage and took some lifechanging decisions in order to live. Even after all of this her will to study is simply inspirational. The power of education is what has made her the global icon with a respected position in the society.  

Written in the first person mode the book is interesting to read and exactly delivers what it wants to. The language is lucid, the characterization of each character introduced is remarkable, the space provided for each incidence of her life is just appropriate, last but not the least the pain strikes hard.  

Co-authored by Maryanne Vollers. Maryanne is an author and journalist based in Livingston, Montana. 

Her first book, Ghosts of Mississippi, about the murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, was published by Little Brown in 1995. It was a finalist for the National Book Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and the New York Public Library Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism in 1996. 

In 2001, Ice Bound, a collaboration with Jerri Nielsen, the American doctor who battled breast cancer while stationed at the South Pole became a #1 New York Times bestseller.  

She also contributed a chapter to Caroline Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage for Our Time (2002). 

Apart from this Living History, with Hillary Rodham Clinton, Lone Wolf: Eric Rudolph – Murder, Myth, and the Pursuit of an American Outlaw, All That is Bitter and Sweet, a collaboration with the actor and activist Ashley Judd are some of her excellent works. 

A former editor at Rolling Stone magazine, Maryanne has written for Time, Esquire, Mother Jones, The New York Times Magazine and many others on a range of subjects including anti-abortion violence, Native American issues, environmental racism, mountain-top removal in West Virginia, asbestos contamination in Libby, Montana, and the rise of right-wing militias. 

She being a part of this book has enriched the content and made it one of the best books on North Korean defectors.  

Yeonmi’s story went onto impact millions of lives but also invited trouble as the North Korean government is tarnishing her image in public and giving her life threats. 

In the era of democracy and universal human rights, living under the rule of a dictator whereby the citizens are spared from minimal human rights and treated as pile of garbage is something to be taken very seriously. 

Also the book got published in 2015 which makes it recent enough to grab. Having said that the book manages to dig out the stark reality of North Korea, the so called developed nation.  

I feel lucky enough to have read a book of this stature. As I got informed on a lot of hidden elements, I would surely recommend this book to anyone who is interested to experience the life in real sense, who wants to know what it feels like to be a refugee.