Miles's Reviews > The Orphan Master's Son

** spoiler alert ** 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 Pulitzer––it reads like one written with the Pulitzer already in mind. The result, in my opinion, is a cluttered, overblown narrative that eventually eclipses the fascinating and tragic nature of life in contemporary North Korea. This book is genuinely tragic at times, but Johnson never skips an opportunity to remind the reader of that. He is constantly pointing out the sadness of things instead of allowing events to speak for themselves. On top of that, I didn't find the prose very inviting. Oftentimes I had to reread simple sentences because they didn't make sense to me the first time. I expect this to happen every so often, but it happened so regularly with this book that I began thinking it wasn't just me. In my case, the text simply wouldn't flow.

I understand the idea of having a relatively anonymous protagonist, especially in an environment where the individual is denigrated in favor of the singular narrative of the state. Still, his lack of identity had me reaching for reasons to care about Jun Do, and I found myself caring even less when he morphed into Commander Ga. His relationship with Sun Moon was peppered with moments of sexy intrigue, but their dialogue was often stilted and lifeless. The relationship never came together for me; it felt photo-shopped into the narrative, especially after Johnson drew the clunky Casablanca connection. I'm willing to accept that perhaps some of this was intentional, but in that case I just don't think Johnson made very good choices about how to propel the story forward.

In the end, my biggest complaint was that Johnson appeared to be so concerned with insisting on the profundity of his story that he lost sight of the story itself. The last half of the book, while containing flashes of metaphorical and thematic success, ultimately comes off as contrived. The big climax is more concerned with making a heroic statement about resistance in North Korea than with finding a conclusion for the characters that fits with the internal logic of their fucked-up culture. Ga's courageous defiance of Kim Jong Il feels unrealistic and silly. I'll concede that Commander Ga's final moments "on autopilot" are poignant and perfectly executed, but then why not end the book that way? The events at the airport seem too melodramatic, but they provide the kind of "climax" we all expect. This reveals Johnson as exactly what he is: an American ivy league writing professor who decided to insert his own story into a foreign culture. I've no doubt the author did his homework and possesses an impressive knowledge of the subject matter, but I was too busy trying to get past all the literary contrivances to notice. The whole experience left me feeling that a much shorter book with far less literary flair would have packed a greater emotional punch.

I still want to learn more about North Korea, so I'm going to try Demick's "Nothing to Envy." Maybe it will be closer to what I'm looking for.