Friend: A Book Review

Graphic by Libbe Phan

From Hollywood movies like “The Interview” to television shows like “30 Rock,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” and “South Park,” Western media is filled with satirical visions and narratives about North Korea. Oftentimes, these shows make fun of the country’s leader or revolve around the leader’s fascination with Western culture. But what’s missing from these depictions are the over 25 million people who call North Korea home.

Like most of the U.S., I grew up laughing along with these depictions and viewing North Korea singularly as a corrupt dictatorship to be condemned. While I do not condone the actions of the North Korean government, I couldn’t help but feel bad for the millions of average North Koreans as I grew older. How cruel and disheartening will it be when North Korea opens up to the world and North Koreans learn that while they were isolated from the world, the rest of the world was either mocking their hardships or their leaders? 

We are so rarely given access to the hermit kingdom and most of the time when we do get access, it’s still through the eyes of first-world, Western media like in the cases of Lisa Ling’s documentary, “Inside North Korea,” or the Frontline PBS documentary, “Secret State of North Korea.” Even South Korean media regarding North Korea still views the country through a first-world lens because the product, whether it’s a movie, book, or television series is created by South Korean artists. In some of these cases, like the hit K-drama “Crash Landing on You,” there is a North Korean defector advising the team for factual accuracy. However, the final product is still one from a first-world production team, mostly made up of individuals who have never lived in or been to North Korea.

This is why the 2020 publication of Friend: A Novel from North Korea in English is so important. 

Originally published in Korean in 1988, Friend is the first state-sanctioned North Korean novel published in English. What this means is that it is the first novel from North Korea by a North Korean author, who still resides in the country, to reach an English-speaking audience. The author, Paek Nam-nyong, is considered one of the finest writers in North Korea and is part of a group of North Korean writers called the April 15th Literary Production Unit. Considering how isolated the country is, it is amazing to not only have a novel come out of North Korea, but to also have one published that does not reek of propaganda.

What I mean is that if you’re expecting this novel to largely revolve around the North Korean government or to praise the country’s leaders, you’ll be surprised.

Book cover of Friend: A Novel from North Korea by Paek Nam-Nyong

The novel opens with Chae Sun Hee, a singer for the Provincial Performing Arts Company, appealing to Judge Joeng Jin Wu for a divorce. The reason why is as Chae Sun Hee becomes an increasingly well-known singer, she feels more and more distanced from her husband, whom she views as below her and as a failure. When Judge Joeng Jin Wu visits the family’s home to do some investigative work, he finds their son caught in the rain alone. Seeing the son’s treatment and knowing the son will be caught in the middle of the divorce, the judge decides he wants to save the couple’s marriage and help build a stable home for the son. The judge goes to great lengths to help the couple, including caring for the son, trying to help the husband achieve his technological aspirations, and encouraging the wife to be more understanding. During all of this, Paek – through the judge’s eyes – offers reflections on marriage and daily life.

Rather than being a propagandist text, Paek’s novel focuses on a fairly normal part of human life – the struggles of balancing marriage, family, and career. He provides us with characters who reflect all of the ups and downs of human beings. They can be kind, catty, helpful, aspirational, loving, jealous, and anything else characters in other novels are depicted as. Additionally, from descriptions of the apartment buildings they reside in and of meals they share, we get a look at the everyday banalities that make up their lives. By doing this, Friend emphasizes the humanity of its characters. It also shows us that Friend is a novel like any other novel in that it explores the human condition. 

While the main thing that makes this novel stand out is that it takes place in North Korea, Friend should not be analyzed strictly as a North Korean cultural product because by doing so, we end up searching for hints of oppression and violence (both themes we expect as a Western audience). Instead, it should acknowledge that the setting is a North Korean village, so that we can understand the daily life of North Koreans better without focusing on the aspects of North Korea that we already expect from the country. That lens provided me with the obvious conclusion that humans everywhere are all quite similar. We all struggle from time to time, whether it’s in marriage or with our careers, but we also all want to do what’s best for the people we care about. 

To put it simply, Friend is an important novel for all of us outside of North Korea. It not only provides an insider glimpse into a country we have limited access to, but it also reminds us that everyone is human and that these people are deserving of our compassion.