Comrades and Strangers: Behind the Closed Doors of North Korea

Michael Harrold spent seven years in North Korea as language advisor of English translations of Kim Il Sung's (the country's President) speeches. The book is an account of his experiences in North Korea.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book even though I found some of the scenes Harrold describes about life in North Korea quite depressing - it's just unimaginable that in this day and age people are forced to live like this. The other aspect of this book that shocked me in a way is the privileged existence Harrold leads in North Korea. One does get the impression that every other person he meets in North Korea is part of the upper class or caters to them. In his foreword he admits to changing the identities of several people as well as obscuring their involvement in particular incidents. Whilst this is prudent given the nature of North Korea's regime, it may diminish the added value of the book. Lastly, I am amazed that Harrold managed to bear North Korea for seven years. Given his description of his life there I would be thoroughly fed up with it within weeks. And he does describe one or two characters who experienced this problem.
If you liked this book you might also want to read Andrew Holloway's A year in Pyongyang - it is listed in Harrold's Bibliography - and `Report of an Envoy to Paradise' by Eric Cornell, which are both excellent.

very well written! (2/2 people found this helpful)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Harrold emphasizes with a misunderstood population and we are given a telling portrayal of the lives of every day North Koreans. Often when we think of North Korea we think of its fear-provoking leaders and nuclear weapons programs. Through his experiences living in North Korea, Harrold introduces us to wonderful North Korean citizens whom we realise are not very different from ourselves.

Simple a great book!! (3/4 people found this helpful)

Just a fantastic book, which gives you a clear insight into what it must have been like to work in North Korea. Although more like a diary, it gives the reader a detailed account of the day to day living in a country that has had little written about it. The author sometimes goes off the point, but this merely adds to the reading experience.

For anyone that is interested in the day to day living of a people that that we know little or nothing about it is a superb book!!

Disappointing -surely an opportunity lost (4/7 people found this helpful)

What was excellent opportunity to inform the reading public of life inside one of the last 'forbidden countries' has, for me, been a disappointment. The book is far too much centred around the author and his circumstances. The result is a succession of dull and uninteresting episodes which do not hold the readers interest. The writing style, which strays into over-detailed and somewhat self-important prose far too often, kills any sense of imparting interesting insights into a strange nation and it's people. The author has not taken the opportunity to give an interesting view of the country and has instead written more of a narrow personal diary which does not engage the reader.

Comrades and Strangers: Behind the Closed Doors of North Korea

Michael Harrold

Reader Reviews:

Good account but can be rather depressing (1/1 people found this helpful)

very well written! (2/2 people found this helpful)

Simple a great book!! (3/4 people found this helpful)

Disappointing -surely an opportunity lost (4/7 people found this helpful)

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