Stevie’s ‘what’s going on?’ look in this photo kind of captures my brain while reading this book. I’m not usually left confused or bored by a Pulitzer Prize novel, but alas, I often felt confused–and sometimes a bit bored–by the dizziness of events and travails of the main character, Pak Jun Do, in this novel about North Korea. 

Published in 2012, it depicts life under the late Kim Jong-il, the ruthless Communist dictator who goes by “Dear Leader,” whose photo hangs everywhere, whose policies starve its population while funding its nuclear program, and who punishes/banishes/kills any disloyal citizens. The overall culture of fear comes through clearly. It’s the details of Jun Do that become a bit challenging to follow. 

He’s working in the mining tunnels and also on a fishing boat. He’s a radio transmitter eavesdropper and a kidnapper. Then he’s on a ranch in Texas and also in a NK prison camp. He’s tortured and also named a hero.   I think there is exaggeration for effect here and possibly some magical realism? The narrative actually reminded me of Tim O’Brien’s Vietnam book Going After Cacciato, though as wild as that was, I still found it easier to follow than this one. And yet, no doubt there is brilliant writing here. It’s just a LOT to take in, to follow, to keep track of. And maybe that’s the point: that it’s a whirlwind of crazy, horrific, nonsensical events paralleling life in North Korea (and it seems little has changed under the current third generation of Kim leadership).

After I read Adam Johnson’s more recent novel, The Wayfinder, a sort of Polynesian Odyssey story which I loved, I went back to find Johnson’s older books. He’s a fabulous writer; I’m just not a fabulous enough reader to have fully appreciated all that’s happening in The Orphan Master’s Son, though I’m glad I took a stab at it. 4⭐️