Month: March 2017

In Washington D.C., beautiful young attorney Evelyn Carney goes missing. She ran out of a restaurant after an argument with her husband and seemed to disappear into thin air soon after. Virginia Knightly, an executive producer at a news station, notices the city’s Criminal Investigations Division latched on to the case immediately, even though there’s no evidence of a crime. There has to be more to the story and she’s determined to get the exclusive.

Virginia’s struggling news station is desperate to get ratings up. Anxiety fills the newsroom, as the office buzzes with gossip of imminent layoffs. Nobody’s job is safe and newsroom rivalries flare. If Virginia can get the exclusive in the Carney story, maybe she can do right by Evelyn and save her coworker’s jobs. She becomes fixated on Evelyn’s disappearance. She’s certain she recognizes Evelyn from a news clip, but she can’t pinpoint the exact story. Virginia races around the city attending press conferences, finding credible sources, and verifying information. Officials are tight-lipped and there’s always the possibility information is only given to manipulate the reporting.

“You know that inscription on the pretty white building on First Street?” He was talking about the United States Supreme Court. On its facade it was written: Equal Justice Under Law.
“I’ve read it.”
“A beautiful dream, isn’t it?” he said mournfully. “But nowhere close to reality. Know what’s worse? Nobody cares.”

cialis overnight online Medical treatments such as intake of drugs may cause a person to see sex as a sinful act. It is important to note that cialis sales canada browse now not increase your desire for sex. Recent studies have proved that natural supplements are preferred than pharmaceutical drugs. prices cialis In males, testosterone hormone plays a viagra pill on line click over here major role. Washington D.C. makes such a fascinating setting for a mystery. The Capitol dome looms dramatically in the background. There’s an underlying sense that some people are expendable to keep corrupt systems from being scrutinized. The bustling U.S. capitol city feels so small and claustrophobic. Everyone’s lives are intertwined. The “tribal” nature of those who work in and with the government make it difficult to get to the heart of a story. Through Virginia’s eyes we see the rampant sexism towards female journalists, both in and out of the industry. Just the rumor of an improper relationship can sink a career. Virginia also has some uncomfortable interactions with police officers. While investigating Carney’s case, she runs into prejudice against women who are victims of crimes. A victim’s past history can keep the police from taking a case seriously.

Virginia’s personal life was less compelling to me. Her entire life is built around her career. She keeps people at a distance because she’s always waiting for them to deceive her. She feels guilty for something she wished as a child, even though she wasn’t able to act on it. There’s a subplot that deals with her family history, but it didn’t feel fully integrated. She repeatedly asks herself why she is so obsessed with Evelyn’s case and I kept trying to connect it to her past. I did to some extent, but it didn’t totally link up for me. Her own analysis of her fixation was what I would’ve expected any journalist to say. I also felt like I was missing something with her relationship with the charming news anchor Ben. There’s obviously some history there, but it also came across as uncharted territory.

“If you’re good at what you do, no one can steal it from you, and you’ll carry your skill wherever you go. Being good at what you do is the closest thing to freedom a woman can find.”

The Cutaway is an entertaining mystery, especially for those interested in the journalistic process. Where’s Evelyn? Did she get mixed up in something that she couldn’t handle in her career or her personal life? Will Virginia break the story before anyone else gets the chance? The author’s seventeen-year history in newsroom added so much weight to Virginia’s experiences out in the field. I really enjoyed reading a woman’s perspective. I’d love to read Kovac’s memoir!

Existence runs on energy, a fluid movement forward, yet we never stop seeking the point of origin, the Big Bang that set us upon our inevitable course.

Jakub Procházka, the first Czech in space, is sent on a solo mission to collect dust from the mysterious Chopra cloud. The long journey through the cosmos gives him plenty of time to ponder the state of his marriage. His wife Lenka is getting increasingly distant during their chats. One day, Lenka goes into hiding and doesn’t show up for their weekly call. Devastated by her disappearance, he sinks into a deep depression. That’s when a Nutella-loving alien spider appears. Jakub names him Hanuš, after a Czech clockmaster. Is Hanuš real or a figment of his imagination, perhaps a “personification of [his] fears”? Jakub’s conversations with Hanuš help him assess his life and determine what drove him to this point. Can this expedition into the unknown help him overcome his father’s sins? Will he survive the dangerous journey and return home? Even if he finds his way back to Earth, will Lenka remain permanently out of reach?

Wasn’t all life a form of phantom being, given its involuntary origin in the womb? No one could guarantee a happy life, a safe life, a life free of violations, external or eternal. Yet we exited birth canals at unsustainable speeds, eager to live, floating away to Mars at the mercy of Spartan technology or living simpler lives on Earth at the mercy of chance. We lived regardless of who observed us, who recorded us, who cared where we went.

Spaceman of Bohemia is a mix of science, history, politics and philosophy. Sometimes I saw shades of Kurt Vonnegut (Hanuš) and Anthony Marra (Jakub’s childhood). The story takes a messier path than I usually prefer, but it actually worked for me here. It fits with the way Hanuš interacts with Jakub’s memories and mirrors the tangled web of human history. Jakub’s journey shifts halfway through. I preferred the first half. There was less room for humor in the second half. I also missed some of the characters from the beginning! The writing was always gorgeous, but sometimes too ornate for me. I’d get lost in a sentence and have to start over or I’d lose sight of Jakub during the philosophical ruminations. I started to see the author’s hand in the second half, but it was still a pleasure to read.

“You know that the world is always trying to take us. This country, that country. We can’t fight the whole world, the ten million of us, so we pick the people we think should be punished, and we make them suffer the best we can. In one book, your father is a hero. In another book, he is a monster. The men who don’t have books written about them have it easier.”

Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution, the bloodless overthrow of the authoritarian Communist government in 1989, marks a turning point in Jakub’s life. Jakub’s father was a member of the secret police; he informed on his neighbors and participated in torture. Once the Communists lose power, the man who was feared becomes a target. After his death, Jakub and his grandparents face the full brunt of the community’s resentment. Jakub considers himself “the biological carrier of [his] father’s curse.” Every step he takes is intended to overcome his father’s mistakes. Are our parents’ flaws embedded in our DNA, destining us to repeat their mistakes? One character notices that Jakub and his father share the same “terminal decision to serve.” Would Jakub’s father have always been attracted to brutality, or could his worst impulses be harnessed for good in the right conditions? Is Jakub proof that his father’s actions were borne out of circumstance?

“Love could turn us all into war criminals.”

One of Jakub’s biggest fears is being a “nobody.” It’s part of why he’s so intent on having children. Jakub sees firsthand how the things that drive us can also destroy us. As good as Jakub tries to be, he isn’t perfect. He’s willing to trample over other people to survive (and I can’t say I blamed him!). He imagines a man tortured for selfish means. He even has Lenka followed, despite feeling guilty about it. Jakub was completely blindsided by Lenka’s disappearance. His travels caused some strain on their relationship, but he thought that their love was enough to hold them together. He was too caught up in his own goals to notice that his marriage might not be going as well as he thought. “People become abstractions. And the things weighing on you become clear. That’s why people are so afraid to be away from each other, I think. The truth begins to creep in.” The physical distance between Jakub and Lenka deepens cracks in a marriage already on a shaky foundation. How could he have been so distant from the person he thought he was closest to? How could he have been so unaware of what was going on right in front of him? 

It was exhilarating, all of it—was existence alone not revolution? Our efforts to establish routines in the nature that forbade them, to understand depths we could never reach, to declare truths even as we collectively snicker at the word’s virginal piousness. What a mess of contradictions the gods created when they graced us with self-awareness.

Why are we here? Is a life made most meaningful by a person’s achievements or the intimate relationships they make along the way? Who has it better in life: those who live simple lives or those whose names are still uttered because of their contributions to society? Is living a quiet life enough? Jakub expresses wonderment at humanity’s unstoppable march forward. When he looks at Old Town Square in Prague, he sees all of its iterations through the decades: the things that change for the good, the things that change for the worse, and the things that only change on the surface. Life is messy, but alway moving. He feels an overwhelming love of humanity and a sense of pride to be a part of it all. He sees the value in people who propel us forward without any thought to self-preservation, but also in those who keep moving forward with their day-to-day lives despite everything going around them. As driven as Jakub was to explore the unknowns of space, he realizes there are many mysteries to explore on the Earth too. In a way, we are all exploring the unknown, feeling our way through the dark.
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How unlikely. Yet here we are.

Isolation makes Jakub see what he values and what he really wants out of his life. Will Jakub get a second chance to live for himself? He’ll have to confront many uncomfortable truths first. Like with many of these stories packed with lots of big ideas, I’m not confident that I absorbed everything. It was a messy, beautiful journey, very much like life.

 

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Another quote that struck me, but I couldn’t work it into my review:

The greatness of a nation is in its symbols, its gestures, in doing things that are unprecedented. It’s why the Americans are falling behind—they built a nation on the idea of doing new things, and now they’d rather sit and pray that the world won’t make them adapt too much.

The most important component of the best critical thinking that is lacking in our society today is humility. It is a simple yet profound notion: If we realize we don’t know everything, we can learn. If we think we know everything, learning is impossible.

Who knew a book about numbers could be so entertaining? Weaponized Lies is written for the average person, those of us who aren’t statisticians or scientists. It introduces fundamental critical thinking skills that will assist the reader in making logical decisions and analyzing claims made in the news. The spread of misinformation is not a new problem, but the internet has made it more pervasive. Some people and publications are more likely to be right than others, but no one is infallible. Bad information can be spread by people with an agenda or people who don’t know any better. Regardless of motive, it’s our job to think critically about information before we spread it or form opinions. By knowing what questions to ask, we can better assess the validity of claims. Levitin reminds us to be critical of information that confirms our biases too. I liked his method of asking the reader to question a previous statement in the book. It reminded me to remain alert and critical, even of Levitin’s claims.

Critical thinking doesn’t mean we disparage everything; it means that we try to distinguish between claims with evidence and those without.

This edition is a repackaging of A Field Guide to Lies (pub. 9/6/16). The biggest (only?) difference is the introduction. In the updated introduction, Levitin argues that euphemisms, such as “fake news” or “extreme views,” are doing a disservice to us all. It makes falsehoods sound less insidious than they are. False statements should be called what they actually are–lies.

EVALUATING NUMBERS

Biases, inaccuracies, and honest mistakes can enter at any stage. Part of evaluating claims includes asking the questions “Can we really know that?” and “How do they know that?”

Numbers seem so objective and definitive, but they shouldn’t be taken at face value. Statistics and infographics can be manipulated to lead you to a conclusion that doesn’t hold up upon closer look. Sometimes our basic knowledge of the world can weed out the bad information immediately, but other times the deception is more obscured. We should always question how the numbers were collected and interpreted. Visual representations of statistics make a powerful impact and most people only give them a passing glance. Levitin explains the methods used to deceive with infographics. He uses real-world examples to reinforce the points. One example shown is the misleading chart shown at the Planned Parenthood hearing in 2015.

What is the likelihood of something occurring or being true? Probability gives us a much broader view than anecdotes and helps us make better decisions. Make sure you understand the “Probabilities” chapter, especially Bayesian probability, because it comes up in other chapters!  I was especially interested in probability in the medical industry, because understanding how probability works can make you a more empowered patient. If you get a positive result on a mammogram, what is the actual chance of having breast cancer? Under 10%, because the disease is relatively rare and the test is not perfect. There are also times when doctors have recommended unnecessary, intrusive operations based on faulty understanding of probability.

EVALUATING WORDS

This section includes tools to evaluate the information we encounter every day. We depend on experts to provide information, but does everything they say hold the same weight? No! For example, just because someone is world-renowned neurosurgeon* doesn’t make them an expert in other fields, even other medical fields. Sometimes experts engage in speculation like the rest of us and it’s important to be able to differentiate between opinions and evidenced-based claims. Levitin also lists the telltale signs of bias or deception. He explains different techniques used to deceive people, such as burying fallacious arguments in a cluster of facts. Does a website’s claims to reveal “truth” actually indicate the opposite? Before we blindly accept a claim, we should also ask if there are any alternative explanations that weren’t considered or revealed.

EVALUATING THE WORLD
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The inner workings of the scientific community are a mystery to many and charlatans take advantage of this. In this section, Levitin explains the scientific method and the rigorous process through which scientists come to a consensus. He addresses the myths about science: (1) scientists never disagree and (2) a single experiment tells us all we need to know. He also explains common logical fallacies, so that we can better evaluate scientific claims. The autism/vaccines controversy is used to illustrate four logical fallacies in action.

The information presented in this book is not just helpful for evaluating the news. Bayesian thinking can help with a legal defense, making an important medical decision, or even evaluating salesperson’s claims. The last chapter includes four case studies that apply the previous lessons in critical thinking to the real world. My favorite of the four was Levitin’s personal story about his dog’s illness. He and his wife were able to logically think through every option and choose the path that was best for their dog. They were able to be a peace knowing they had done everything they could for their dog, while also causing the least harm.

There are not two sides to a story when one side is a lie. …. Two sides to a story exist when evidence exists on both sides of a position. Then, reasonable people may disagree about how to weigh that evidence, and what conclusion to form from it. Everyone, of course, is entitled to their own opinion. But they are not entitled to their own facts. Lies are an absence of facts and, in many cases, a direct contradiction of them.

My only complaint is the “Numbers” chapter felt more fleshed out than the “Words” and “World” chapters. The last two sections went so fast and I was so disappointed when the content ended 2/3s of the way through. I wasn’t ready for it to end yet! Maybe that’s more of a compliment than a complaint! The remainder of the pages are filled with a glossary, supporting documentation, and an index.

We’re far better off knowing a moderate number of things with certainty than a large number of things that might not be so.

Weaponized Lies is about understanding the limits of our knowledge and not being ashamed to admit that we don’t know everything. This book encourages people to think scientifically and suppress the temptation to automatically discount dissenting evidence. It’s easy to submit to lazy thinking when we’re bombarded with so much information and we’re so busy with our everyday lives. None of us are logically perfect human beings, so it’s important to be aware of our flaws.  This book is an excellent refresher course in thinking critically. It’s helped me better articulate why I find some information manipulative or misleading. The best part of the book is that it gave me an upper hand in an ongoing argument with my husband (he was essentially “truncating the y-axis” to make a misleading point). Thanks, Daniel Levitin! ;D

NOTES:
* I used a neurosurgeon as an example because of Ben Carson’s recent claims about memory: Washington Post, Wired.
* I read this book around the same time I watched Denial, a movie about a woman who was sued by a Holocaust denier for libel (a real-life case: Irving v Penguin Books). In the movie, the woman is frustrated with the defense’s refusal to allow witness testimony and the lawyer’s heartless questions. The defense maintains that they need to prove the case more objectively if they’re going to win in a definitive way. Richard Rampton:”They’re a strange thing, consciences. Trouble is, what feels best isn’t necessarily what works best.”
* Purple America Has All But Disappeared: This article on FiveThirtyEight terrified me more than anything else I’ve read recently: “In an increasing number of communities …. an entire generation of youth will grow up without much exposure to alternative political points of view. If you think our political climate is toxic now, think for a moment about how nasty politics could be 20 or 30 years from now.”
* “The longer I live, the more I read, the more patiently I think, and the more anxiously I inquire, the less I seem to know…Do justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly. This is enough.” – John Adams
* Popular comic about the science news cycle.

I was clueless about this book’s subject, so my eyes just about popped out of my head when a character blurts out the scandalous family secret! The Roanoke Girls is exactly the type of twisted tale that I’d sneak into my library book stack when I was a teenager, so it triggered a nostalgic feeling in me. I was completely riveted by the story, but the entertaining quality made me feel like a rubbernecker. One big secret is revealed at 12% and the course of the story felt fairly certain from that point, but I’m spoiler-tagging the important lessons. If you’re sensitive to any type of family secret storyline, you’ll probably want to read this first spoiler: [spoiler]incest.[/spoiler]

“Roanoke girls never last long around here. In the end, we either run or we die.”

Fifteen-year-old Lane was sent to live with her grandparents after her mother committed suicide. It had always been just her and her depressed mother, but now she is surrounded by family. She’s welcomed to the Roanoke estate by her charismatic grandfather, cold grandmother, and “mouthy, willful” cousin Allegra. Allegra and Lane hit it off immediately, becoming as close as sisters. The living arrangement only lasts for one summer, because Lane uncovers a terrible secret. She runs away and never looks back. Eleven years later, Lane’s grandfather asks her to return home. Allegra is missing. Lane becomes the first Roanoke girl to go back to Roanoke and she doesn’t intend to leave until she does right by her cousin. Where is Allegra? Why has so much tragedy befallen the Roanoke girls?

Roanoke always felt slightly alive, especially when I was there alone, as if it could lead me astray down unused corridors, whisk me away into the unknown, never to be seen again.

I was totally sucked into the story from the beginning. The prologue is deliciously creepy! The chapters alternate between Lane’s first summer at Roanoke and her return as an adult, with occasional interludes from the other Roanoke women. The story takes place in rural Kansas, with “wheat fields that melt into the horizon” and the ever-present sounds of cicadas and train whistles. The sticky, oppressive heat is unrelenting. Lane always imagined Roanoke as a majestic estate, but it’s actually a farmhouse augmented by a mishmash of disparate renovations. The entire town of Osage Flats feels like a return to a simpler era, but Roanoke is uniquely stuck in time. Lane’s short time there feels like a lifetime. When she returns to Kansas, she reconnects with friends from her first summer at Roanoke: loyal Tommy and ex-summer-fling Cooper. I actually liked the romantic subplot in this one! Cooper and Lane had an interesting history and I’m a sucker for a “bad boy trying to do better” storyline.

Guilt, I’m discovering, is an emotion that’s almost impossible to kill. It’s like a poisonous weed that keeps on growing, burrowing into every vulnerable spot. Always reminding you of all the ways you’ve failed.

One of the secrets is revealed in the beginning, which allowed me to focus on how everything happened rather than what happened. Every subtle behavior takes on an ominous tint when we discover why Lane fled Roanoke so quickly. We see how a manipulator can muddle issues to the point that a person doesn’t trust their own instincts. [spoiler]The Roanoke Girls addresses the confusing feelings a survivor of sexual abuse may have, the type of feelings that aren’t easy for outsiders to hear. Oprah Winfrey addresses these feelings in her interview with Matthew Sandusky (Washington Post, Ordinary Evil blog):

“This is what people don’t understand about sexual abuse. People think that sexual abuse is somebody throwing you against the wall, and torturing you or raping you…They don’t understand that the aim and the intention of the perpetrator is to make it pleasurable, so you will be confused.”

Allegra was given the illusion of choice, but she’d been carefully groomed from a young age. Roanoke is so isolated from the rest of the community that it’s not hard to see how she came to be so dependent on her abuser for love and affection. I liked that Allegra is not judged for her situation. Lane even admits that different circumstances could’ve led her down the same path. While secrets are a normal part of life inside Roanoke, the horrors are amplified when the victims are exposed to the outside world. The devastating effects of abuse endure long after the abuse has ended. Lane’s mother Camilla could barely function. One of the most heartbreaking moments is when Lane finally understands her mother’s overwhelming despair. Camilla couldn’t love a child they way they should be loved, but she did the best she could.

I knew well the painful futility of reaching for more than you were ever likely to get, how much easier it was to simply accept the limits of your world.

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I realize that the distance I’ve put between us, both in miles and in years, matters not at all. Because behind the secrets and the horrible truth, under the shame and anger that beat like a heart, there still lives a terrible kind of love.

What kept the whole story from being too much for me, was that it isn’t overly explicit. We are introduced to the Roanoke girls when they are alone with their thoughts. Their chapters are about how they were feeling, rather than lurid descriptions of what they were subjected to. However, there were still several moments made me sick to my stomach, including a kiss and Lane’s description of her grandfather’s love at the end. The beauty of the Roanoke girls is repeatedly mentioned, but I was especially annoyed at the focus of the handsomeness of a patriarch. It almost felt like it was trying to make his magnetism more palatable, even though attractiveness doesn’t seem to be a key feature in these situations. [/spoiler]

You can’t outrun what’s inside of you. You can only acknowledge it, work around it, try and turn it into something better.

At Roanoke, secrets fester in the darkness. It was sad to see how even “good” people fell prey to their baser instincts. My heart broke even more for one of the girls when her trust was betrayed by the one person she thought she could count on. The author also explores secrets outside of the cultish, twisted environment of Roanoke. The Roanokes are not the only ones who have dark secrets. More than one character wonders if the cycle of pain is destined to repeat itself through the generations.“Sometimes you have to pass the pain around in order to survive it.”

“Sometimes people who love us can still hurt us.” The Roanoke Girls features an extreme situation, but we’ve all seen shades of it in the news. Crimes committed by respected members of the community, their terrible secrets guarded by those who should be the protectors. Sometimes segments of the community rally around these people, while passing judgment on the victims. This story covers some difficult issues that can be hard for people with loving families to comprehend. It’s a compelling story, but also very disturbing. The contemporary mystery vibe made me feel like I was gawking at the situation, which is why I’m so conflicted about my feelings for this one.

 

4.5 Stars. The Accusation is a collection of seven short stories about life in North Korea. The manuscript was smuggled out of the country. It’s the first time a book critical of the North Korean government written by someone who still lives in North Korea has been published.

Bandi, Korean for firefly, is the pseudonym the author uses; he states that he’s “fated to shine only in a world of darkness.” The translation is by Deborah Smith, translator for Han Kang’s Human Acts and The Vegetarian. Bandi wrote the stories between 1989 and 1995. They take place during the rule of Kim Il-sung, grandfather of North Korea’s current leader Kim Jong-un. The stories are fictional but based on real-life accounts. Every story is great! They had all of the features I appreciate most: completeness, rich symbolism, thoughtful characters with strong family relationships, and haunting endings. It was even more impressive that these stories were written in such a closed environment. I was reminded of all the dystopian fiction I’ve read and it’s jarring to think that it’s unlikely Bandi ever experienced any of that work–though he is living it firsthand.

There’s a classic quality to the stories, perhaps due to the lack of technology or the author’s restricted sphere of inspiration. The presentation of the stories is reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguro’s work, because Bandi tends to introduce an event and fill in the gaps later. Many of the relevant details are revealed through an intimate conversation (“Life of a Swift Steed,” “So Near Yet So Far”) or via a document (“Record of Defection”).

It features both the privileged and those who are marked by an ancestor’s “crimes” against the state. Status is never guaranteed and a perceived misstep can alter the course of a life. There’s a constant fear that the actions of a relative will become a lifelong burden. Fear and obedience are necessary tools for survival. All negative emotions must be suppressed. Anyone could be watching, waiting to find someone committing even the most minor offense. In each of these stories, characters find themselves in an absurd situation that makes them see the contradictions of their homeland. Sometimes realizing the disconnect between long-held beliefs and the reality of their situation has tragic consequences.

The first five stories were my favorites, but each story has staying power:

Record of a Defection – A man discovers that his wife has been taking birth control in secret. Her other strange behavior makes him assume the worst, but there’s another explanation. The sacrifices we make for those we love and the cruelty of multi-generational punishments.

People write books and sing songs claiming that love is this or that. But to me, love was indistinguishable from sympathy. That intolerable fretfulness at your inability to take any of the suffering on yourself, that irrepressible impulse to offer up your own flesh as a sacrifice, anything to bring some measure of relief.

City of Specters – A two-year-old boy cries every time he sees the giant portrait of Karl Marx across from his apartment, causing huge problems for his parents. This story shows the extreme paranoia of the state and the power of fear.

Life of a Swift Steed – Decorated war veteran Seol Young-su refuses to let the military police cut a branch off of his treasured elm tree. When Jeon Yeong-il is questioned by the military police’s chief on the matter, he his mystified by his “uncle’s” insubordination. This story is about a man “torn apart by contradictions” when he realizes his entire life has been dedicated to a lie. He experiences the rage, sorrow, and shame of an illusion being shattered.

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“They must have trained you well in that village of yours, eh? Properly broken you in. In this society, I tell you, people are like sheep!”
“Are you any different?” Yeong-sam countered. “If you hadn’t been ‘broken in,’ as you put it, would you have managed to live so long?”

Pandemonium – A woman accidentally becomes part of a propaganda video. The government’s report of “happy laughter” is a stark contrast to the chaos that occurred near the filming location. I loved the use of fairy tales in this one.

Hahaha and hohoho, all year round—because of the laughing magic which the old demon used on his slaves. “Why did he use such magic on them? To conceal his evil mistreatment of them, of course, and also to create a deception, saying, ‘This is how happy the people in our garden are.’ And that’s also why he put the fences up, so that the people in other gardens couldn’t see over or come in.

On Stage – The country is still grieving three months after the death of Kim Il-sung. Outlandish displays of emotion are expected at the hundreds of altars scattered around the city. Comrade Inspector Yeong-pyo’s son is in trouble for a second time, this time for being disrespectful during a time of mourning. In a dramatic confrontation, his son compares living in North Korea to a lifetime at drama school. Everyone is forced to live a lie and put on a false front in order to survive. This story also shows why authoritarian regimes are so quick to ban art and quash dissent. Once an idea is planted, it’s impossible to eradicate.

“A sincere, genuine life is only possible for those who have freedom. Where emotions are suppressed and actions monitored, acting only becomes ubiquitous, and so convincing that we even trick ourselves.”

The Red Mushroom – A man implores a journalist to help clear his uncle’s name. A good man who sacrificed his entire life in service to the state has become a scapegoat. In this story, we see how bizarre accusations can be and the futility of fighting the party officials. It was my least favorite, but I still really liked it. (It’s me, not the author! I have a negative Pavlovian response to farming stories thanks to Anna Karenina.)

“In all of creation, the rule is that the more toxic something is, the more pretty and friendly it’s made to look.”

“Afterword: How The Accusation Came Out of North Korea” and “A Note from Do Hee-Yun” give background on the author and reveal how the manuscript was snuck out of North Korea. Some of the biographical details were changed to protect Bandi’s identity. The supplementary material is fascinating! I’m tempted to round up to five stars because I’m so blown away by the story behind the book! Bandi’s stories gave me a more well-rounded view of what it’s like to live day-to-day in North Korea, replacing the caricature that previously existed in my mind. Many of the stories end with a quiet resignation, but the “lightbulb” moments for the characters and the fact this book exists at all gave me hope. A government can restrict people from the outside world, scare them into submission, and suppress dissent, but they can’t crush all imagination and independent thought.

Risking one’s life to resist a system of oppression can be interpreted as having a premonition of that system’s end. In this sense, the writing produced by resistance writers who live within North Korea, exposing the face of the nation to the world, is in itself the beginning of an epoch-making upheaval, showing that cracks are now appearing in the hereditary dictatorship, which has seemed until now an impregnable fortress. – Kim Seong-dong

Further reading:
Do North and South Korea speak the same language? Yes, but not quite by Deborah Smith – A glimpse into Smith’s translation process. It’s interesting that the original manuscript includes 200 words that the average South Korean would be unfamiliar with.
Another interview with Deborah Smith – “I have new translations of Han Kang and Bae Suah coming out in November ’17 and January ’18 respectively” !!!!
Goodreads review by Gustavo  – Interesting analysis of The Accusation’s authenticity.

“Family is all we have,” my father said.
“Yes,” I agreed. “Family is all we have.”

The “war” is over. The divorce is settled and the custody battle is won. A father takes his two sons away from their home in Kansas to start a new life in New Mexico. It’s them against the world! He promises the boys a better life, but his behavior becomes more erratic as they get situated in their new home. He’s quick to minimize any missteps and the boys accept his explanations. The sense of danger escalates as their world gradually becomes more insular and the boys are forced to participate in their father’s strange activities.

“‘There is virtue in sticking it out, in staying put, in building the stamina necessary to endure anything. We can take it. Can’t we take it? Can’t we?’”

The story is told from the perspective of the youngest son, age twelve. The father’s narcissism and manipulations are evident from the beginning, but the boys idolize him and follow his lead. He keeps them in line by appealing to their desire to be “one of the boys” and a dependable family member. His sons are willing to go through immense suffering in order to meet his standards. The psychological abuse escalates into physical abuse and the illusion of the father they thought they knew dissipates. Despite his bad behavior, the boys continue to feel a sense of duty towards him and maintain hope that he’ll change. The way these children can’t help but care for their father makes it even more painful to watch him take advantage of their innate trust. The two boys are forced to become adults when the parents who are supposed to protect them continuously fall short. Every time the brothers attempt to improve their situation, they are thwarted by their unpredictable parents.
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I didn’t want his kindness. His cruelty was less confusing.

One of the Boys is a one-sitting read, but it’s a gut-punch of a book. It struck a similar chord in me as Did You Ever Have a Family. It seemed deeply personal and I felt so much anxiety for the characters. The exhaustion the boys feel by the end is palpable. My favorite passage is when the boy reveals a dream he had about his father in a candlelit hallway (Chapter 10). In the dream, his father directs him to paint over the cracks that are lit up by the candles. When daylight comes, the patchy paint job only serves to highlight the damage to the wall.

Life in the desert is found in the testimony of small changes. It is nearly a secret.

What does it mean to be “one of the boys”? One of the Boys exposes the dark side of widely accepted concepts. The boys’ father repeatedly espouses the virtues of masculinity and family. Admirable values, like being there for your family, can be distorted and used as tactics to normalize abuse and make a child incapable of speaking out. This story shows how a child’s unconditional love for their parents can be used to take advantage of them. We see how gradually an abusive situation can take hold and the myriad of ways an adult can betray their child’s trust. It’s a quick read, but by no means an easy one.