Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Without You, There Is No Us
Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea's Elite | Suki Kim
A haunting memoir of teaching English to the sons of North Korea's ruling class during the last six months of Kim Jong-il's reign Every day, three times a day, the students march in two straight lines, singing praises to Kim Jong-il and North Korea: Without you, there is no motherland. Without you, there is no us. It is a chilling scene, but gradually Suki Kim, too, learns the tune and, without noticing, begins to hum it. It is 2011, and all universities in North Korea have been shut down for an entire year, the students sent to construction fieldsexcept for the 270 students at the all-male Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), a walled compound where portraits of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il look on impassively from the walls of every room, and where Suki has accepted a job teaching English. Over the next six months, she will eat three meals a day with her young charges and struggle to teach them to write, all under the watchful eye of the regime. Life at PUST is lonely and claustrophobic, especially for Suki, whose letters are read by censors and who must hide her notes and photographs not only from her minders but from her colleaguesevangelical Christian missionaries who don't know or choose to ignore that Suki doesn't share their faith. As the weeks pass, she is mystified by how easily her students lie, unnerved by their obedience to the regime. At the same time, they offer Suki tantalizing glimpses of their private selvestheir boyish enthusiasm, their eagerness to please, the flashes of curiosity that have not yet been extinguished. She in turn begins to hint at the existence of a world beyond their ownat such exotic activities as surfing the Internet or traveling freely and, more dangerously, at electoral democracy and other ideas forbidden in a country where defectors risk torture and execution. But when Kim Jong-il dies, and the boys she has come to love appear devastated, she wonders whether the gulf between her world and theirs can ever be bridged. Without You, There Is No Us offers a moving and incalculably rare glimpse of life in the world's most unknowable country, and at the privileged young men she calls "soldiers and slaves."From the Hardcover edition.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
TrishB
post image
Pickpick

I know we all live in different parts of the world, with different governments and societal expectations, but North Korea ☹️.
Thanks Jessie, I found this an interesting and thought provoking read.

jlhammar I also enjoyed this book. So interesting! 2y
TrishB @jlhammar it definitely was. 2y
Suet624 Jeez, yeah. So glad I don‘t live there. 2y
See All 9 Comments
erzascarletbookgasm 👍Glad you found it a good read. 2y
CarolynM ☹ Indeed. 2y
TrishB @Suet624 @CarolynM very glad I don‘t live there. It‘s a bit mind blowing to think they don‘t know anything about the rest of the world! 2y
Cathythoughts Sounds really good 👍🏻 2y
TrishB @Cathythoughts it was a good read 👍🏻 2y
Cathythoughts I love this title. If one good thing comes from covid .. it‘s that we can‘t ignore the rest of the world & inequality.. the Whole world needs the vaccine ! The whole world ❤️ 2y
101 likes3 stack adds9 comments
review
HeatherBookNerd
post image
Pickpick

A rare and interesting look into North Korea, told by a Korean woman who spent several months there teaching English to elite college students. The students total lack of connection to the rest of the world was astounding, as was her own experience in the isolated country.

TrishB Good to know it‘s good- I have on my tbr 👍🏻 2y
35 likes1 comment
review
Megabooks
post image
Pickpick

Loved this #reread of a great #audiobook. Suki taught at an English-language college for North Korea‘s elite boys run by Christian missionaries. Suki is not Christian and was there undercover to connect with the boys and write about her experiences. The insights into what they do/don‘t know about the outside world were fascinating. Her relationships with them have as much depth as I‘ve read between and outsider & North Koreans.

Note ⬇️

Megabooks ⬆️ The Christians are not allowed to proselytize or share anything about religion with the students. I think NK allows it for the infusion of foreign cash and the missionaries want to be in the country in case the regime topples. She was there in 2011 when Kim Jong-il died. 3y
Jgotham This book was so good 3y
Megabooks @Jgotham agreed! 3y
See All 13 Comments
TrishB This looks good 👍🏻 3y
Megabooks @TrishB it is! I definitely recommend it. 3y
Cinfhen Never heard of this one!!! Fascinating 🧡thanks for the tag!!! You and @britt_brooke are the BEST 3y
britt_brooke @Cinfhen You‘re pretty amazing yourself, Cindy! 💚 Stacking this one. I‘d never heard of it either! 3y
Megabooks @Cinfhen @britt_brooke y‘all are definitely two of my favorite Littens! 3y
britt_brooke @Megabooks Back at ya, Meg ❣️❣️ 3y
Cinfhen Mutual LOVE, Meg xxxx 3y
EvieBee I really liked her novel, The Interpreter. It‘s weird but good. 3y
Megabooks @EvieBee thanks for the rec! 3y
89 likes5 stack adds13 comments
review
Bookwormjillk
post image
Pickpick

A fascinating behind the scenes look at an elite college in North Korea. I was so nervous for Suki Kim while reading this, and really appreciated her insights into a culture few get to see. #ReadingAsia2021

Librarybelle This does sound fascinating! Stacking! 3y
readtheworld This book was so good! I listened to it on audio. 3y
BarbaraBB This sounds fantastic indeed. I already have a book on my shelves for North Korea but I think I want to read this anyway. 3y
See All 9 Comments
Megabooks @BarbaraBB it is fantastic!! 3y
BarbaraBB @Megabooks Stop it 🤣 I can‘t keep up! You also recommended 3y
Megabooks @BarbaraBB That‘s true! They‘re both excellent books! 😃📚😜 3y
Bookwormjillk @BarbaraBB even if it‘s not this year this one is worth reading 3y
BarbaraBB Yes I certainly will read it. I‘ve always wanted to know more about life in North Korea. I read this one which I can recommend too 3y
59 likes1 stack add9 comments
review
Jpeeler501
Pickpick

This one million more light years sincere than any book about teaching I have ever read. I regret waiting so long to read it. I read “The Interperter” and loved it but did not read “Without You Their is No Us” because it was recommended by NPR. The people that employ that racist Maureen Corrigan, and yes this is totally about her review of “Please Take Care of Mom”, which is one of the best books ever.

blurb
mhillis
post image

Switching to this audiobook for the commute home!
#currentlyreading #audiocommuting #trainreads #summersendreadathon

Megabooks Loved this one! 5y
LeahBergen This was a good read! 5y
73 likes2 stack adds2 comments
review
Megabooks
post image
Pickpick

Loved this #audiobook. The author goes undercover pretending to be a missionary and teaches English at a university that basically (in relative luxury) imprisons the children of North Korea‘s elite.

She tries very hard to introduce them to the outside world as best she can with the minders and bugging. It‘s a look at what even the most privileged know about the outside world there. Definitely the Hermit Kingdom! 4.5⭐️

AlaMich Oooh, this sounds good! Stacked! 5y
Megabooks @AlaMich I hope you like it! 👍🏻 5y
EmilyM I enjoyed this one, too. 5y
Megabooks @EmilyM It‘s really good. 5y
80 likes4 stack adds4 comments
quote
jdaehan
post image

“Their faces still come to me, one by one, and this motherly feeling overwhelms me. I taught them how to speak, this strange breed of children, unaware of the world outside. Yet I hope they have forgotten everything I inspired in them and have simply grown to become soldiers of the regime...I cannot bear the idea that any of my students...might end up somewhere dark and cold, in one of the gulags that exist all over North Korea.”

review
Nebklvr
post image
Pickpick

Ms Kim went to North Korea as a Christian Missionary to teach English to sons of the North Korean elite. (She isn‘t Christian which adds a whole extra layer of complexity). The claustrophobic environment in which she teaches is palpably uncomfortable. Her emails and conversations are monitored and she never knows if her students are genuinely interested in her life or trying to trick her jnto saying something that could get her expelled.

blurb
Jilly6183
post image

1. Pretty Woman
2. Not exactly vacation, but I lived in Japan for 2 years after college and I am missing it big time lately
3. True crime, and I like books about North Korea because I'm fascinated that a country's people can be so unaware of the outside world. Tagged book is a great example and I highly recommend.
4. Red ❤️
5. What's your favorite book? Mine is A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

#friyayintro

42 likes10 comments
review
Kempii
Pickpick

A real and serious exploration of a Korean-American woman's experience as a teacher/journalist in North Korea. The level of detail and personal insights make it a powerful description of North Korea's elite students, even as she acknowledges the limits of her interactions with the unrepresentative upper echelon. Her phrasing is poetic--she refers to the dialect as "a linguistic Galapagos,” which reminds me of my mom's frozen-in-time 1970s Korean.

10 likes1 stack add
blurb
Weaponxgirl
post image

I reviewed this book yesterday as a memoir and it's described as such in the litsy database and then I found this article. https://newrepublic.com/article/133893/reluctant-memoirist
one thing I did think was how sad her book couldn't be marketed as both investigative journalism and a memoir. I hate that the author felt like she had her authority taken away and some of the backlash she got but I'm also annoyed that memoir is viewed as lesser.

Cathythoughts Great title 👍🏻 6y
mhillis That article is really interesting. Thanks for sharing it! 5y
60 likes3 stack adds2 comments
review
Weaponxgirl
post image
Pickpick

I listened to this on audio on #scribd and I found this fascinating. Posing as a Christian missionary to teach in a university in North Korea this book had me on edge. The paranoia is palatable as she had to self censor all the time and knowing that anyone could report you made human interaction with her students scary as hell. Are they asking about taxes because of curiosity or are they trying to trap u?

Weaponxgirl The strength was in the small details of life she was able to pick up from the students, there is always something you don't know and you can't ask because apart from you getting in trouble what if someone else who lives there gets punished because of you. 6y
Weaponxgirl Some parts weren't as strong and seemed a bit self indulgent but considering the environment she was in I can imagine that would happen to anyone so I felt it worked in the memoir. 6y
Weaponxgirl Also a part near the end showing how she was being watched from not just the government but also the other missionaries with a showdown about actually being able to show a certain movie that got ok,d with the counterparts but one missionary thought it was obscene due to occult references. That part actually got to me almost the most as they obviously didn't care about the students just trying to bring them Christianity. 6y
Weaponxgirl If your interested in North Korea, I'd give this a read to add to what little we can ever know about it. 6y
56 likes1 stack add4 comments
quote
KristinaRay
post image

It takes tremendous energy to censor yourself all the time, to have to, in a sense, continually lie.
#nonfiction #quotes

Weaponxgirl I'm listening to this on audiobook atm 😀 6y
KristinaRay @Weaponxgirl How do you like it? I thought it was a great book. Mind boggling. (edited) 6y
36 likes2 comments
review
KristinaRay
post image
Pickpick

An extremely enlightening read. My fascination with North Korea only grew while reading this book. Emotional and Mind-Boggling. Highly recommended! #favorite #nonfiction

11 likes2 stack adds
review
Billypar
post image
Pickpick

Kim's first hand account as an English teacher for North Korean college students displays the extent of the country's isolation. The reality of life in North Korea is chilling: the youth are fed a steady diet of lies about their country and have no way of learning the truth. Kim makes cautious attempts to expose her students to life outside their country, but it's a daunting task when every lesson must be approved and her every move is watched.

LeahBergen I really enjoyed this one! 6y
29 likes4 stack adds1 comment
review
JenP
post image
Pickpick

I found this to be a pretty fascinating non fiction book that gives us a glimpse into life in North Korea. Kim manages to get a position teaching at a missionary school for North Korean elite boys. She describes her day to day experience teaching these boys while knowing that her every move is being recorded and watched. At times a little self-indulgent but for the most part a really interesting and terrifying book. A great book club book

Notafraidofwords Have you looked into how this book was published. The self indulgent parts were fabricated. 6y
JenP @Notafraidofwords what do you mean? 6y
JenP @Notafraidofwords I‘ve read critiques of her book from the school and her response to them but not sure which pieces you mean? 6y
See All 14 Comments
Notafraidofwords @JenP she was forced to publish it as a memoir and not a stand alone journalism piece. Google it. 6y
JenP @Notafraidofwords yes, I did know that. 6y
Notafraidofwords @JenP oh they forced her to write the pieces of her private life. 6y
JenP @Notafraidofwords I read@about the controversy with her feeling like it was a decision due to her gender but I‘ve also read that the response to publish as a memoir was in part because pieces read more like a memoir than an investigative journalism piece. I haven‘t read that she fabricated pieces but maybe I missed that. The parts I found self indulgent were definitely more of the personal elements but specifically how she described the way all ⬇️ 6y
JenP The students loved her 6y
JenP @Notafraidofwords interesting. I hadn‘t read that but if so, it makes sense bc they felt tacked on 6y
Notafraidofwords @JenP yeah, she said in an interview on YouTube that they wanted her to include personal elements. I haven't read the whole book, just excerpts so I'm not fully sure how it reads. 6y
JenP @Notafraidofwords I‘ll have to read more. I read a piece she wrote where she said that 6 months before publication she received a copy of her book and it said “memoir.” When she complained about it, the publisher told her it was a marketing/sales decision because that sort of book sells more. But she never said they forced her to add the personal bits. It seemed like the personal bits were already in it. 6y
JenP @Notafraidofwords https://newrepublic.com/article/133893/reluctant-memoirist here‘s the article. Which is interesting for a variety of reasons related to how the work of women may be marketed. The author wrote the piece 6y
Notafraidofwords @JenP thanks!! I am going to read it 😁 6y
JenP @Notafraidofwords and I‘d love to watch the video if you find it! 6y
40 likes3 stack adds14 comments
blurb
EllieDottie
post image

Wow! @Onlaughterandliteracy I love everything you put together for me in this box! I love the 📚that show different aspects to life in North Korea! I would definitely do a buddy read of These is my words! And I just started audio-coloring with some bookmarks and I'm so excited to have a whole book to start on! Plus the HP tattoos and the Hufflepuff book mark! I 🖤💛 them! Thank you so much for every thoughtful gift! #bibliophilebookexchange

JoeStalksBeck 👏👏👏👏👏👏 7y
Onlaughterandliteracy Yay!! I'm so happy you like everything. It was so fun to pick it all out. I hope two North Korean memoirs wasn't too much lol Without You There Is No Us is SO good. Let me know when you want to read These Is My Words and I'm totally down! 7y
ElishaLovesBooks These is my words is so good!! 7y
Laalaleighh @Onlaughterandliteracy I love the Kchen novel!! Omg. 7y
79 likes5 comments
blurb
LouLouLane
post image

Listening to an audiobook on my headphones but I think Easy wants to listen too. I have so many great books from the library that I "have to" read this week. #dogsoflitsy

7 likes1 stack add
review
alisonrose
Pickpick

This was so so sad to read, but I'm really glad it's out there. It bothers me so much when people make jokes about North Korea, and especially about the "ignorance" of the average citizen. It's gross to basically make fun of people for being in what is essentially a nationwide cult where they are completely cut off from the rest of the world. I appreciate the author for trying to show us the humanity of these young men. And I pray for them 4/5 ⭐️

24 likes1 stack add
quote
alisonrose

The rest of the time, the commentators exhausted every glorifying adjective to describe Kim Jong-Il, who was "so great" and "very great" and "the greatest." The message was, of course, the same in their newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, as well as in the students' Juche class. I once saw a student's notebook in which one page was entitled "The Great Achievement of Our Great General."

[Gee. Make you think of anyone? A certain orange someone? Ahem ?]

LeahBergen 😬 7y
14 likes1 comment
quote
alisonrose

If they were to wake up and realize that the outside world was in fact not crumbling, that it was their country that was in danger of collapse, and that everything they had been taught about the Great Leader was bogus, would that make them happier? How would they live from that point on? Awakening was a luxury available only to those in the free world.

blurb
alisonrose
post image

Feels like a good time to read this one... 😕 #nowreading

Notafraidofwords So scary. This book was scary. 7y
LeahBergen 👍🏼 7y
20 likes3 stack adds2 comments
review
leslieisreading
post image
Pickpick

A fascinating glimpse into a closed society that is basically a real-life dystopia. It is heartbreaking how Korea was artificially divided and essentially destroyed by foreign powers. Kim is a South Korean/American journalist who posed as a missionary teacher to gain access to the country that should have been her own. While there she had no freedom of movement, and she was closely monitored. What she was allowed to see was baffling and chilling.

emilyhaldi Always fascinated by books relating to North Korea 🙃 7y
21 likes2 stack adds1 comment
review
rach_simone
post image
Pickpick

Suki Kim was in North Korea under the guise of teaching English to children of the elite. Really she's an investigative journalist looking to shed light on life in North Korea. It was an extremely interesting read despite the feeling that she saw only what they wanted her to see. Her interactions with and observations of the students were probably the most illuminating.

blurb
leslieisreading
post image

My current in-person book club pick. Hopefully it goes better then the last one, which I bailed on after about 45 pages. Since I'm the one who suggested this title, I'm more optimistic. I decided to read this after loving Pachinko, because I wanted to get a better understanding of what happened to the Koreas after the split.

My kitty is happy that it got too hot for me to keep reading outside. 😻

EllieDottie I've wanted to read this for a while! I'm excited to hear what you think! 7y
19 likes1 stack add1 comment
blurb
Alicia
post image

I guess I had a lot of orange books!! Currently listening to Mort(e) on audiobook. Pretty crazy so far... #ORANGEYOUGLAD

Alicia @TobeyTheScavengerMonk 😱😱😱😱 I was listening when I saw this comment! So ominous... 7y
2BR02B I'm reading this next for my book club! 7y
49 likes1 stack add3 comments
blurb
Literaryunicorn
post image

A cascade of awesome #ORANGEYOUGLAD titles! Thanks for doing an awesome giveaway @Liberty !!! 🙌👏

review
Ja_Mez
post image
Pickpick

An interesting and fascinating look into the lives of students in North Korea. Also a very interesting listen on audiobook.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1692031465

quote
Yellowpigeon
post image

I don't know why but I'm obsessed with reading about North Korea. The way this sentence is phrased struck me as very funny

blurb
rachelm
post image

101 Books
55 by Women
21 by POC
17 Nonfiction/Essay Collections
17 Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Favorite Authors Discovered in 2016: Rainbow Rowell, Octavia Butler, Leigh Bardugo, Fredrick Bachman, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Longest book: Infinite Jest
Least Popular: The Invisible Musician

Total Pages: 33,182
#2016stats #2016readingwrapup

Here's to another year of awesome books!

Marni How long did it take you to finish Infinite Jest? 7y
rachelm @Marni two and a half months. I listened on audiobook and bought a physical copy for the footnotes 😉 7y
DebinHawaii Great job! 🎉📚👍 7y
Marni I hadn't thought of listening to it! That's a great idea!! 7y
Lindy Well done! 7y
76 likes5 comments
blurb
BooksFootballBeer
post image

Just chilling with the new kitten who is in quarantine and my book club book.

8 likes2 stack adds
quote
GoneFishing

When you are shut off from the world, every day is exactly the same as the one before. This sameness has a way of wearing down your soul until you become nothing but a breathing, toiling, consuming thing that awakes to the sun and sleeps at the dawning of the dark. The emptiness runs deep, deeper with each slowing day, and you become increasingly invisible and inconsequential. That‘s how I felt at times, a tiny insect circling itself...

27 likes2 stack adds
blurb
balletbookworm
post image

Welcome back to Iowa, Suki Kim! (She was last here during the caucus in January, reporting on the Rubio campaign.) She opened her lecture with the video of the song "Without You, There is No Us", a propaganda piece that informed the title of her book. #iowacitybookfestival #uicenterforhumanrights #onecommunityonebook

LeahBergen I really enjoyed this book! 7y
rachelm I loved this book 7y
33 likes3 stack adds2 comments
quote
librarian365
post image

"For the first time in my life, thinking was dangerous to my survival."
Fascinating memoir of a Korean American teaching elite students in North Korea. It's been a bit of a slow start but is getting more intense as Kim becomes more involved in the life of the school. #memoir

blurb
librarian365
post image

Time to read while the kiddo is in the pool. Fascinating story so far. #memoir #momreader @Crownpublishing

review
geardrops
post image
Pickpick

A reporter goes into North Korea undercover as a teacher. The subject matter and the stories she shares are heartbreaking, but she manages to write in such a way that I could keep reading without having to take breathers. Great book.

quote
geardrops
post image

review
Emcneil
post image
Pickpick

I enjoyed this book more as I got further into it. I could've lived without all the references to her lover and her frequent digs at Christianity... But this is her memoir and she can do as she pleases. Overall, an interesting look into a slice of North Korea that no one gets to see.

blurb
kristenlcoates
post image

I started this on my commute home today, got out of the car and went inside, and am now just sitting stone still on the couch continuing to let the audible player run. Totally engrossing.

BooksForEmpathy Love when that happens!! 8y
15 likes1 stack add1 comment
blurb
Legxleg

I'm trying out the #recommendsday tag on this fascinating nonfiction book by a woman who taught English at a school for the elite in North Korea.

BookNerdBritt Wow, this sounds intense! 8y
Legxleg It was really interesting, especially the amount of time people spent monitoring each other. I would be so paranoid 8y
6 likes3 stack adds2 comments
blurb
BookladyOnTheMove
post image

Hour 5 - just started this and I will definitely get back to it! So much to think about, I realize how much we don't know about the people who live in North Korea.

Onlaughterandliteracy Love this!!! One of the best North Korean memoirs I've read! 8y
7 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
readtheworld
post image
Pickpick

Working undercover as a teacher at the only western-run university in North Korea, Kim had an unprecedented look into the lives of her students. Make sure to also read her New Republic essay "The Reluctant Memoirist," which sheds light on the publishing decision to market her book as a memoir.

21 likes5 stack adds
review
alejguts
post image
Pickpick

Only through the first chapter and it is awesome! Compelled to pickup after hearing interview on NPR. Looking forward to MORE.

LeahBergen I really enjoyed it. And then bought 2 more North Korean memoirs (you know how that happens 😉). 8y
whitney_archer Nothing to Envy is in this genre and so good! 8y
alejguts @LeahBergen I do, I do! 8y
alejguts @whitney_archer I will look into this too. 8y
7 likes4 stack adds4 comments
blurb
LeahBergen
post image

I feel like I know so little about North Korea (and this cover is really appealing). Any opinions on this one?

BestOfFates I enjoyed it - not my favorite about North Korea but a good look at a group you seldom hear about there! 8y
LeahBergen What are some of your favourites about North Korea, @BestOfFates? I'm interested! 😀 8y
mrldg I couldn't put it down, an amazing story. 8y
13 likes3 stack adds3 comments
quote
SeeJaneRead
post image

Resume strategies from the DPRK. 🤔

review
Its500Books
post image
Pickpick

Really interesting insight into North Korea from a journalist undercover as an English teacher at a Pyongyang university