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The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea
Bandi (Author), David Shih (Narrator), & 1 more
4.6 out of 5 stars 41 customer reviews
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5.0 out of 5 starsFascinating glimpse into a different world
ByTXJGon April 2, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
We in the West see little about the every day lives of those in North Korea. This smuggled book offers a remarkable view. The stories show us how much we all have in common; concern for loved ones, fear and suffering from prejudice, and the daily struggle to make life better.
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5.0 out of 5 starsInteresting!
ByLarry Tanngon February 14, 2017
Format: Hardcover|Verified Purchase
This book is a must have for anyone who's fascinated with learning more about what life is like inside North Korea. Even though these stories are fiction, they still paint a clearer picture on how North Koreans view life.
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5.0 out of 5 starsStories Born From Tyranny
ByRobert Boltonon May 5, 2017
Format: Hardcover|Verified Purchase
North Korea is possibly the most isolated country on Earth. Ruled by the Kim family for nearly seventy years, this ostensibly communist country is regularly in newspaper headlines for its threats of nuclear war or artillery bombardment of its southern counterpart. Equally horrific, however, has been the country’s internal suppression of any expression of individuality that might threaten the stability of the regime, particularly in the field of literature. After Joseph Stalin died in 1953, writers within the U.S.S.R. began to quietly dissent from the prevailing order by circulating samizdat, self-published works that implicitly and sometimes explicitly critiqued the government. No similar underground of dissent seems to exist in North Korea; while a Russian might have expected ten years in the gulag if they were caught, a North Korean can expect death by starvation in a concentration camp or, if they’re lucky, a bullet in the back of the head. Nonetheless, at least some citizens are becoming disenchanted with their society because we now have the first piece of critical literature by someone still living in the country. The Accusation is a collection of seven short stories by an anonymous author who writes under the nom de plume of Bandi.
Each of the stories focuses on the lives of ordinary citizens who try to survive in a regime that seems to be decaying from within. While rarely explicitly critical of the idea of socialism, the stories providing a searing indictment of bureaucratic incompetence that leaves people on the precipice of starvation or condemned to a life of hardship because a piece of paper marks their record. In one story, “So Near, Yet So Far,” the protagonist attempts to visit his mother who is dying of heart disease, only to see his application for a railway pass denied on three separate occasions over the course of many months. Growing desperate after his most recent denial, he stows away on a train and manages to disembark immediately outside his hometown. However, he is stopped by guards and, because he lacks the necessary pass, is condemned to penal labor for three weeks. By the time he arrives home, a telegram arrives notifying him of his mother’s death.
For most of these characters, they served the regime loyally and worked hard, but see their efforts come to naught, which spurs a sudden realization of the horrors they have tolerated. Another story, “Life of a Swift Steed,” describes a teamster who served admirably in the Korean War, and in peacetime he was regularly commended with medals for his employment performance. In his youth, he planted an elm tree, symbolic of his optimism for his new country and the prospect of a better life. As the decades pass and the protagonist grows old before his time, he realizes he was beguiled by the empty promises of the regime and that his medals are nothing but valueless pieces of iron, and dies of a heart attack as he chops down the elm tree so cherished by him.
In virtually every story, one’s family plays a vital role in their fate. Many characters are tarred with a permanent black mark that bars their advancement because a family member defected or was found to be treasonous. Even those too young to understand the political consequences of their behavior place their family in peril. “City of Specters” has a two-year old petrified by giant posters of Karl Marx and Kim il-Sung that hang outside his apartment window, mistaking them for monsters. His mother tries to sooth him by closing the curtains, but this interferes with the uniformity expected of Pyongyang for an upcoming parade, and results in the family being banished to the countryside. With the exception of a cameo in one story, Kim il-Sung never appears in person, but his specter haunts these characters, demanding loyalty to his regime above their own lives. To do otherwise guarantees their forfeiture.
Only one story in the collection can be regarding as having something resembling a hopeful ending. In the first story of the collection, the protagonist’s wife refuses the romantic advances of the local party commissar and they are forced to flee by boat, leaving behind a letter that forms the story and leaving ambiguous whether they survive. For each of the other tales, life offers nothing but death, heartache, or physical suffering. The characters are provided only minimal personality development, in part because their stories are meant to represent the pain and arbitrariness of fate for each citizen in the country.
When I first read about the publication of The Accusation, I was somewhat skeptical of the stories’ veracity. The State Department admitted they provided funding to advance its publication, and the North Korean exile community can sometimes float ridiculous material in an attempt to chip away at the regime’s credibility. After completing this book, however, I believe the stories are genuine. They seem to come from a place of deep bitterness, even in translation. In the few biographical details provided in the afterward about the author, it is stated he is a member of the country’s writers league. He wrote these stories in the late 1980s and early 1990s, just as the country was beginning to undergo a famine that would kill hundreds of thousands of people. Growing disenchanted with the regime, he made his dissent in silence and when a family member defected, he was able to eventually smuggle these stories to her through a trusted intermediary. Bandi means firefly in Korean, and a poem at the front notes he sees himself as a solitary light piercing a veil of immense darkness. Hopefully this collection is the first hint that a new dawn in North Korea will soon arrive.
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5.0 out of 5 starsLife in North Korea
ByN.S.on March 31, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
Incredibly sad stories of disappointment,fear,broken dreams and betrayal. Tears fell as I read them,pitying the people who have been treated so badly by Kim Il Joon and his sons. Promises made and then broken. It was hard for me to imagine what life is truly like there until I read these stories by Bandi. The translation seems to be very well done. I highly recommend this book.
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5.0 out of 5 starsThank you to all who made this work available in English
ByRonaele Whittingtonon April 7, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
Translating a book into English must be an enormous challenge. I will assume that in its original form, the book contains even more subtleties and smooth flow of ideas. As interesting as the essays are, equally important are the background stories that tell how Bandi's work came to the west. In the USA, we must not take for granted free speech. Read Bandi to understand how a twisted dictator can organize servitude across an entire population.
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5.0 out of 5 starsExcellently written and translated -- gives a full picture of life in North Korea around the turn of 21st century
ByHardy Griffinon May 6, 2017
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
I was worried when I got this book that it would be lackluster fiction on a timely subject, but I am happy to say I was wrong. The stories in this collection show the immense pressures and difficulties faced by normal people in North Korea in the 1990s (and I see no reason this would not be the same today): worrying about being blacklisted or found to not be fervent enough in one's support of the regime, disillusionment by those who gave everything to this country and who now regularly live through unnecessary deprivations, and at many points a fear for what the weight of all of this is doing to innocent children who shouldn't have to suffer for the missteps (real and merely perceived) of their parents and even grandparents.
The writing and translation are also quite good, giving us a taste for the literary quality of everyday sayings and people's conversations. The stories follow laborers/miners both in the country and in Pyongyang, as well as what should be middle class people, such as an elderly woman and man who are teachers in the country, who can only afford a bag of bread for their train journey. Hunger, cold, depression and dejection are found often but this is also offset by the spirit of the characters, who joke about how their navels are trying to kiss their spines (they're so hungry), and generally try their best to get by. The anonymous author ('Bandi' is a pseudonym for the writer who still lives in North Korea) has done an excellent job of capturing the lives of the majority of the population of the 25 million people in this country as they attempt to function with the weight of the regime constantly on them.
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