In The New York Times Book Review, Euny Hong reviews Suki Kim’s “Without You, There Is No Us: My Time With the Sons of North Korea’s Elite.” Ms. Hong writes:
Suki Kim’s “Without You, There Is No Us,” a chilling memoir of this Korean-American author’s 2011 stint as a visiting English instructor at a North Korean university, takes its title from a patriotic song extolling the Great General Comrade Kim Jong-il, whose death was announced on what happened to be the day of the author’s final class in the Democratic People’s Republic. The book reminds us that evil is not only banal; it is also completely arbitrary.
On this week’s podcast, Ms. Kim talks about her time in North Korea; Parul Sehgal and John Williams have news from the literary world; Meghan Daum discusses “The Unspeakable”; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.