Review: ‘The Orphan Master’s Son’ by Adam Johnson

Book: The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
Reviewed by: Kester

Here’s your assignment. Write a novel about current events. It should be topical, but timeless. It should be specific, but universal. It should be about a place that you’ve never been, but capture that place perfectly. Oh, and that place should be North Korea. And one of the characters has to be Kim Jong-Il. We’re not looking for a caricature of this country or its citizens, in fact, that will count against you. Your story must be filled with accurate portrayals of the place and an astounding empathy for its people. Go.

Not sure you can do it? No worries, Adam Johnson already did in his latest novel, The Orphan Master’s Son.

Pak Jun Do is a young man living in North Korea who considers himself “a humble citizen of the greatest nation in the world.” His mother was a famous singer, “stolen” to Pyongyang, and his father runs Long Tomorrows, a work camp for orphans. His story paints a picture of a place that most readers know very little about, outside of stories seen on the news, but one that is also haughtingly familiar in its portrayals of propoganda and power, cruelty and corruption. As he grows from a young boy, choosing which orphans are treated well or poorly, to a young man involved in professional kidnapping, Jun Do’s is a story of lost innocence and both the good and evil places to which the hunger for more can lead.

Johnson’s style is reminiscent of David Mitchell and Gary Shteyngart and his work can be placed confidently alongside their own. The Orphan Master’s Son is as riveting as it is relevant, sure to make the year end “best of” lists of 2012.