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Jump to navigationJump to searchThe Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson (view source)
Revision as of 11:42, 22 February 2012
, 11:42, 22 February 2012no edit summary
To begin with ''The Orphan Master's Son'' seems to be one of those novels aimed at worthy, wordy, literary awards. This doesn't last long though – once the book grabbed me it wouldn't let go. I found myself caring deeply about Jun Do, the man whose very name is a pun on the American phrase (John Doe, meaning a male without an identity). He's an ordinary man trapped in an extraordinary system, just wanting to do the right thing, initially for the state and then for his conscience. He is joined by a wonderfully ensemble character list. Even the less important characters are well drawn and come alive on the page: the Captain of the trawler who just wanted to do the best for his men and who initiated Jun Do's chest tattoo (a big plot moment so enough said), Dr Song, the North Korean 'diplomat' who couldn't really count diplomacy as one of his gifts, Wanda the kindly US agent... the list goes on.
This is a novel that refuses to be pigeon-holed. It's laugh-out-loud funny, it's romantic (in a gritty non-Mills and Boone sort of way) but the deeper it goes, the darker it gets. Along with the humorous highs, Adam Johnson plumbs the depths of despair and hopelessness to such a degree that when I first started reading I thought it a caricature. It seemed as if he was taking the subject matter to extremes for effect. However, having read more about North Korea and some of the interviews the author gave, the facts aren't blown out of proportion at all. This is one case were where fact is indeed stranger than any fiction. For instance, Fact No 1: Kim Jong Il kidnapped a South Korean film star and her husband, holding them till they agreed to take part in a propaganda film. Fact No 2: There is a work camp in North Korea to which entire families (parents, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles etc) are sent to disappear; no one hears about them ever again. There is no comfort in the realisation that death camps didn't die with the Nazis.
You'll remember the moments of mind-numbing sadness long after you've finished reading, but you'll also still find yourself chuckling at vignettes like the girl who was thrown off the pier (funnier than it sounds – trust me) or the North Korean lecture on Americans and their customs. This is an epic adventure, shedding light on a land that's been just a blob on the map with a rather odd leader for too long. Perhaps now, after the demise of Kim Jong Il there will be more hope or, unfortunately, perhaps not.
