The Girl with Seven Names: Escape from North Korea

As tensions between the U.S. and North Korea escalate, I cannot fathom a more pertinent story to inform the rest of the world of the plight of North Koreans...in their own country as well as much of Asia, and the rest of the world really. A very intimate and honest reflection regarding self-discovery, human rights and the experiences that have shaped her own attitudes towards others. I honestly cannot think of a single thing I would change (with the exception of only a couple minor typos...inconsequential really). Not only is the story incredible and all-consuming but it is so totally well written from start to finish. Thoroughly engaging and easy to follow. Absolutely void of ANY lulls which, for me anyway, is almost unheard of! I did not endeavor to read this in one sitting but it pretty much turned out that way because I literally could NOT tear myself away. The only breaks I took were self-enforced so that I could take a breather from the intense storyline. And no, it was not lost on me that this brave young woman and her family could not just stop to take a breather while living this gut-wrenching saga. I cannot recommend this book highly enough! I almost NEVER give a book a 5-star review because, let's face it, there's always room for improvement, right? Not so with this one. Easiest 5-star rating EVER! Now, I've got to catch up on some much needed sleep I missed while immersed in this woman's quest for the dream of freedom, claiming her own basic human rights and reunion with her family. But before I go, a personal note to Ms Lee. Well done and welcome out of the darkness that was your birth country. You are an extraordinary young woman, daughter, sister, and world citizen with a voice for oppressed persons the world over. My life has forever been changed and challenged after reading your story. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Ms. Lee (not her real name in order to protect family & friends back in North Korea) clearly loves her native country but loves her family more than anything. As a girl, her family moved from their home town of Hyesan to the much larger city called Hamhung. This metropolis is where a synthetic fibre used in uniforms called Vinylon was invented. In a bit of unintentional irony she tells us that it held dye badly, shrank easily, was stiff and uncomfortable to wear, but was marvelously fire resistant. TV in North Korea features programs devoted to bland music, government propaganda, or soap operas that always have an underlying political message. The enemies of NK are South Korea, Japan, and worst of all, us Yankee bastards. Western style music is illegal and anyone found possessing cassettes or DVDs containing such music is severely punished. When the Great Leader Kim Il-sung died in July 1994, people were photographed in large groups weeping for their loss. Ms. Lee was in grade school at the time and the children were also expected to mourn the loss. Kids were punished if it was detected or thought by authorities that they didn’t cry hard enough. In grade school there were classes dealing with communism and being a good citizen. The children had exercises where they had to denounce another student for some infraction which could often lead to trouble for the accused and his or her family. Ms. Lee and another girl made a pact; they would alternately denounce each other in such a way that it would not get either one in trouble. Ms. Lee eventually decides to escape and spends several years in China, learning Mandarin and trying to improve her life’s quality. When she takes the plunge and arrives in Seoul she is granted asylum but only after a long and intense interrogation. Asylum granted, she had to start her education from ground zero because her earlier schooling was vastly inferior. She also witnessed the shock of other North Korean women students when they learned North Korea had invaded the south, not the reverse, and were beaten back by the hated Yankee bastards. They realized that everything they were told by their Great and Dear Leaders was nothing but lies. This is a gripping, harrowing and ultimately inspirational tale of one woman’s courage and perseverance to better her own life and well as the lives of her mother and brother. The book is more than a simple memoir and reads like an exciting mystery that you can’t put down until you reach the end.

It was both interesting and informative to learn about life in North Korea. I like that aspect of the book very much. I felt that the author told her story well, for the most part, but it does leave you wondering how anyone could be so 'lucky' in so many instances. I'm sure it wasn't just 'luck', but the way the story is written, that's what it seems like. She always has just enough money to get out of a situation, or meets just the right person, or escapes an inevitable disaster. True, there are many hardships, and times when it takes her months or even years to resolve a problem, but it almost starts to feel miraculous. I do applaud her bravery and ability to solve problems, as well as her ability to endure hard times and maintain what seemed to be a positive outlook most of the time. Overall, a good read and some history that all of us should know about.

This book was recommended by a member of my neighborhood book club and we chose to read it for our November meeting. I am probably typical of many Americans in that I am relatively unconscious about what life is like in countries around the world. This book, for me, is riveting. The book is divided into three sections, each composed of brief essays that describe a particular event or phenomenon. The first section describes the author's life in North Korea, a country she was taught to believe was "The Greatest Nation on Earth." It provides an account of author's life up until the age of 17, when she walked across a frozen river for what she intended to be a 5-day surreptitious visit in China. This travel was strictly forbidden and she discovers she can never return to North Korea because she would risk not only her own imprisonment, but that of her family. The account of author's life up until that point is shocking to my American sensibilities—what it is like to live in an authoritarian dictatorship where individuals are tightly controlled through fear of being reported by neighbors or local officials for "wrongdoings," the experience of living through "The Great Famine" in which government offered no assistance to the thousands upon thousands who died, the way in which school children are indoctrinated, the required "worship" of The Great Leader, the necessity of using bribes in order to provide for one's daily needs. And more. The book is engagingly written in first person voice, so that reader easily enters this young girl's world. I have only begun to read the remainder of the book, which accounts for author's escape from China and her journey toward becoming an important advocate for human rights on the international stage. I recommend this book, both for its content and engaging style. The book reminds me that I take for granted freedoms that are easily lost. In 1969 I visited Prague, which is the year after the Russians extinguished the Prague Spring. I was with someone who as a child had escaped Czechoslovakia after WW II, and we visited family members who had stayed behind. I came home stunned by learning how people feared being "reported" to authorities for expressing a wrong political viewpoint, and by seeing Russian soldiers flooding the streets with their rifles held at the ready. Reading The Girl with Seven Names is reminding me of that lesson from 1969, which I had allowed to fade. Living in a "free" society, such as the one in this country that seems currently endangered, is precious, should be cherished, and must be carefully protected.

I really enjoyed this book. It is well written and engaging. I ended up reading the entire book one evening and the following morning. I appreciate not only the story, but the different perspectives the author provides. Truly inspiring.

I've read several accounts of escaping from North korea. This is a good one because it covers several subjects that are not covered in other books. For example hyeonseo grew up right on the border next to the Yalu river. There is extensive discussion of cross border smuggling in the book as her mother and other relatives were participants in this trade. Being so close to the border they could also get Chinese cell phone service and calls could be made to North Korea using Chinese cells. The other thing that is quite different about her story is that she spend more than a decade in China and was continually hiding from being discovered as an illegal therr. In one period she mentioned to others that she was from North Korea and its clear somebody reported her. She withstood an interrogation by the Chinese police and was able to convince them she was Chinese due to her ability to speak Mandarin and her mastery of Chinese Characters, which she attributes to her father pushing her to study while she was in school. She has dangerous interactions with gangs, which she survives, was assaulted badly by an unknown assailant with a 1 liter beer bottle, an incident that did put her in the hospital and other adventures. One learns a bit about China and North Korea in this book. She has relatives which span several classes of North Korean society and one can get a feeling for what those strata are like. She also talks about the great amount of indoctrination she received during her education, of course this is common among the accounts of DPRK defectors. Different that most of the defectors books she does describe the challenges facing defectors in South Korea. Their education is worthless and hence most of them severely struggle to obtain a college degree, which is important in South Korea. she also describes the process by which they vet defectors as well as the interrogation techniques of the Chinese police. Once she has made it to South Korea she brings her mother and brother out of North Korea. This activity has several difficult twists which meant that the plan had to change in major ways on the fly and the challenges of getting through China to another country to defect to a South Korean embassy are shown. They chose Laos, a backwater whose insufferable bureaucracy and corrupt civil service made things hard. A very helpful Australian saves the day. The story is interesting and one learns a fair bit about North Korea and China.

This was a fascinating, heart-wrenching book about a family's escape from the oppressive authoritarian regime in North Korea. Some of the details are just too horrific for words and it's hard to believe that people live under such terrible conditions. The author was shielded from a lot of it because of her social position, but she's still a witness. Hyeonseo Lee does a great job of explaining how effective the brainwashing from birth is. Even after being exposed to the world, it took her some time to accept that everything she'd learned about the 'great leader' was a lie. I was already aware of the way the regime maintains its power by using people to spy on each other, but reading about it in practice was a real eye-opener, especially the regular sessions from kindergarten onwards where everyone is forced to denounce someone else. There was much in here that reminded me of Orwell's 1984. The reason I'm only giving the book 3.5 stars is because its structure is too contrived for my liking. It's written like a suspense novel with a cliffhanger at the end of each chapter. I got the feeling that the timeline of events had been changed and some things embellished to fit this mold. For example, I just don't buy that the day after the author left NK the government decided to do an audit of the population. There were a few other things in the book that made me go hmmmmm. Maybe I just have a suspicious mind, but my 'bullsh*t' meter went off a few times. It's a shame, because the author's experiences are enough to stand on their own, they didn't need to be embellished or sensationalized. It cheapens what could have been a truly great memoir, but it is still a very good book and one I recommend for anyone who want to know more about North Korea.

There are some books that stay with you after the last page. This is one of those books. Days after finishing it, I continue to think about it and talk about with friends and family This is a moving story of a brave young woman who escaped from North Korea, hid for years in China, and eventually found amnesty in South Korea. She provides great insights in to life in North Korea, and the plight of refugees. In the past I had read books and articles about North Korea written by outsiders or by one man who had escaped from the Gulag. Hyeonseo Lee shows that for some in North Korea there is a very different way of life. Her family was relatively privileged and fairly high in the social hierarchy. She was in many ways a typical teenage girl who loved fashion, who loved music, who liked to have her hair done. Her family even had a television and her mother enjoyed redecorating the house. Her family didn't go hungry during the famine. Her life was filled with friends and family that she loved. At the same time she talks about the indoctrination she experienced from a young age, and of how even children were expected to report disloyalty of classmates, teachers, and family. When her house burned down, her father ran in to the burning building to save the portraits of the leaders that hang in every home, because not to do so could bring punishment to the family. She saw her first public execution at the age of seven, she witnessed people starving, and ultimately even her family couldn't escape the violence. Another way this book opened my eyes was to show the plight of North Korean refugees. Her life in China was as terrifying to me as her life in North Korea; perhaps even more so because she was in an entirely alien environment, alone, as a teenager with limited life experience. It took a great deal of intelligence, skill, and luck to survive and even thrive as she did, but she had some very frightening close calls. I hadn't realized that the Chinese don't just deport North Koreans they find, but that they actually hunt down refugees for deportation, and that they guard embassies to prevent North Koreans from seeking sanctuary. The stories she tells of other refugees are heart breaking. Those who offer to help North Koreans escape through other countries are most often dangerous thugs who are in it for their own profit. Hyeonson Lee's stories from Laos are chilling. What she also does well is to help readers understand the hardships faced by those North Koreans who do eventually reach South Korea. The challenges in learning that all the history they've been taught was a lie. The challenge of learning to live with absolute freedom. The challenge of being looked down upon by South Koreans. Hyeonseo Lee writes with such a rare honesty - even about her own mistakes and self-doubt. I was so impressed by her strength, her determination and by her incredible resilience.