Book 2 - The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag

The Aquariums of Pyonyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag

By, Kang Chol-Hwan and Pierre Rigoulot

272 pages - 3.0 stars

After reading Nothing to Envy last year, I got on a bit of a North Korean non-fiction kick. I've got a stack of new books and started it all off with this book. The story of North Korea, the gulags, and all of the stuff that's been going down there is really interesting to me, especially given how little I knew about it before reading Nothing to Envy.

The Aquariums of Pyongyang was a bit different in style - more of one person's experience with and account of spending a decade in the prison camps of North Korea. It was an interesting perspective and did have details that Nothing to Envy didn't but I have to say that I didn't like it as much as Nothing to Envy. The story was very powerful and it was interesting to get a single person's perspective but I appreciated the journalistic style of Barbara Demick's book and the many interviews that were included in that.

If you're into personal accounts of terrible things (no judgement, just calling it like I see it!), this book is probably in your wheelhouse. If you're looking for more of a report on North Korea, I'd check out Nothing to Envy.