Undercover Among the Sons of North Korea's Elite - Without You

I enjoyed the read. This rare glimpse is very limited but it's also the point. N. Korean PUST students; the elite of the elite even are unaware of the outside which is a constant theme in this book. The country is so isolated and orchestrated that it's almost amazing that people swallow the (at times literal) bulls*** they are fed. It does have some hope although not much.

Recommended read.

I attended Suki's reading at Brooklyn Public Library and she patiently answered a question asked by my 15 year old daughter. I got a sense of how good the writer is in establishing emotional rapport with a teenager, and that certainly came out in this book. it is a wonderful memoir about how a young woman does her best to reach out to people in extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Suki is a first rate writer and her work reaches deep. I like the way that she was both a perceptive observer in the present, and also put the history of Korea and her family division in context. The book succeeds in humanizing Koreans and avoids the common cliches and misconceptions. Somehow the subject of North Korea has inspired some great writing, and this is one of the best. My daughter is reading the book and I think Suki is an excellent role model. My daughter asked her what she intended to take away from this experience, and Suki said, "to tell the truth." I think this book will have a big impact, and I recommend it highly. I read straight thru it in two sittings--bravo.

This is about one women's experience with teaching in a country that strips a person of any creative thought. Where fear is ever present and determines what you say and do. All this with nasty food, lack of real current events, and constant monitoring. One such trip would be enough for me.

An extraordinary, insightful, tender book by a gifted writer about developing relationships with students who have a profoundly different life perspective. I could not put it down, and cried at times.

It is no wonder Suki Kim is award winning.

I did not realize the entirety of the situation iin North Korea prior to reading this book. Suki Kim created a sense of fear and isolation that she experienced in a way that transmitted those feelings to me, the reader. Shocking, illuminating. I have empathy for the citizenry who may not have an idea of their reality.

Reading about these young men was so very interesting.
I would hope their sense of humanity however slight it is will have a chance to grow. Knowing that it will probably not happen is so sad.
Thank you for the small window into a country that is truly being held captive!

The most heart felt & heart wrenching recollection of any "tell all" book I have ever read.

I felt the agony of shining the light of knowledge and watching the prism of isolation bend that knowledge to justify that existence.

Ms. Kim is a great teacher & a great author.

Best book I've read all year.

Interesting and enlightening - for the most part. But there were a few instances where I found events frustratingly opaque - such as, how were they allowed to permit the students to watch Harry Potter? I would also have liked more information on the origins of the school and how an institute with a religious focus not only existed but thrived for a time. I appreciate this is a personal memoir but I thought Kim could have added some footnotes retrospectively.

The most interesting parts were the lies the students told and how they contrasted against what they wrote in their letters. So strange that the students would vacillate between warmth for Suki as their teacher and contempt for her western background. They were excited and curious about the outside world yet they regarded their society as superior. She depicted it well.

As someone who is intrigued (ok, obsessed) with the DPRK, I found this account of one woman's experience working as an English teacher to the country's elite to be riveting. I was an English teacher in a foreign country myself, so I was able to connect with her on that point. I totally got it when she would always refer to them as "my kids". I especially appreciated that she was able to connect with them in ways that even the other teachers couldn't--a very unique perspective indeed. I also appreciated her efforts and observations in how she went about exposing them to Western culture: methodical and careful. She adeptly captured their human spirit beneath the uniform façade. Which, as a result, made for an intensely heartbreaking read knowing that she would be leaving them behind.

Where contextually this memoir totally worked--I *LOVED* the subject matter and her descriptions of it, structurally speaking, I found it to be a little haphazard. I wasn't able to discern what distinguished one chapter from the next (maybe that was the point? to illustrate how the days droned on and were indistinguishable in their own right?) and the subject matter didn't vary greatly. However, for me, I didn't feel like I needed a "plot". This was just more like a report on her time in the DPRK, which for some people may not be enough to carry them all the way through to the end. For me, it was.

It's an interesting book and well written. Due to the restrictions imposed by the schools rules, we couldn't get a full panorama of the country. I do recommend the reading, although you should not expect much, since you feel as if you're trapped with the author inside the school.

I really enjoyed this book. I am fascinated by North Korea and have added this one to my collection of books on the topic. Ms. Kim writes from the unique position of being a native speaker, yet born in South Korea and raised in the U.S. Her insights are riveting. Overall an excellent portrait of a bizarre and devastating place.

I enjoyed reading this book. It is a firsthand account of the author’s experiences teaching ESL in North Korea. The author’s family is from South Korea and in relating her teaching experiences of the present, she weaves in the story of her family and how the division between North and South impacted and still impacts the people. The book provides glimpses into the life of North Koreans.

Very detailed and well written accounts of living under false pretenses in the shadow of the North Korean regime. Starts falling into predictability of what is next, another thing the North Koreans don't understand or are shocked about. This stems from the complete isolation of their society but none the less can lead to slightly stale segments of reading.

I bought this book yesterday and read it non stop until today. A beautiful and stark portrait of a North Korean elite boarding school, from the rare point of view of a Korean American English teacher. I felt like I was suffocated, repressed and in this school/ prison/ society with her.

A fascinating look at a secluded place. I wish she had written an afterward about what happened in North Korea after she left and what possibly came of the students, but maybe she didn't know enough to be able to.
I have recommended this book to several friends.

Insightful view of A country mostly unknown to the rest of the world. Very frightening possibility for any understanding or living together with N Korea. Also inadvertently gave a look into the life of a displaced young girl trying to find herself.

Very enlightening and I am totally impressed with her bravery. However, as fascinating and disturbing and reflective as it was, I wonder about repercussions from The Great Leader for her and future negotiations with our country.

This is a very well written and emotional account of an outsiders perspectives of daily life in North Korea. If you want to know what daily like is like there, this is a fantastic account of that theme.

Only mildly interesting and a tad self serving. Author is not especially likable. Has little or no understanding of the people she worked with. I would have prefered that her love life be left out of the story. I was looking for a different sort of story. Less about her.

Some reviewers found the story dull, but don't believe it. I found it fascinating, and for me it was a page turner. Ignore the groupthink and think for yourself, after all.

I think that Kim Suki is incredibly brave and tried the best she could to reach the unreachable. Great book!

An eye-opening memoir of life in North Korea. Suki Kim gives a detailed remembrance of her teaching assignment with missionaries who teach English to college age men. Though born in South Korea, Kim finds the differences between North and South immense. As the reader, I too, was amazed at the insular restrictions which were so acceptable to the North Korean students.

A most amazing, revealing book on a country such a mystery to the world. Author expressed beautifully her love for a country that really no longer exists and her hope though fragile, for a better future. So very timely!!

Book does have its flaws. The long personal history at the beginning does not really add to the story the author is telling and would have been better served in an appendix at the end of the book. It also loses track of the central narrative at points. The author's "reporting" from this school might very well have put others in danger and, indeed, this school has had two of its teachers recently arrested.

Nevertheless, it does give you a perspective of North Korea that is hard to find elsewhere. With all that is going on with that country, this is a good addition to essential reading material about the country.

Sweet, juicy, enjoyable, a guilty pleasure, unique flavor - and with a topsy-turvy quality. The author is an undercover spy, no she's a real teacher, she's spying on the oppressed, no they're the oppressors, no they're kids, no they're the enemy, no she loves them, she can't wait to escape, no she's going back, the boys are inscrutable, no they're sweet, no they're dangerous... I was hooked from the prologue:

"The emptiness runs deep, deeper with each slowing day, and you become increasingly invisible and inconsequential. That’s how I felt at times, a tiny insect circling itself, only to continue, and continue... Thirty missionaries disguised as teachers and 270 male North Korean students and me, the sole writer disguised as a missionary disguised as a teacher. Locked in that prison disguised as a campus in an empty Pyongyang suburb, heavily guarded around the clock, all we had was one another."

I've been fascinated and horrified by stories of North Korea, and have read numerous books and watched multiple documentaries about it. No matter how much you've read already, Kim's memoir provides the fresh perspective of a born Korean, now American, harboring deep family wounds and deep personal curiosity, who is charged with the care and training of some of the nation's elite college men. Despite their privilege, they're imprisoned, with rare contact with their families, and they're emotionally young. They need a mother, but are unable to receive or give real love. Kim stands in in a heavily guarded mother role, unable to give them the love they need - but really loving them nonetheless. This is a beautiful book.

If you've never experienced a cult of personality, then this is a must read book. It is ironic that the author is teaching in a missionary school in North Korea. Just provides a nice basis for comparison.

A detailed examination of a very thin slice of the repressive North Korean regime.
One can only wonder what kind of story it would be if the author had been given access to the lives of every-day families. Still, well worth the peek into that impenetrable culture.

Amazing access to an otherwise closed society. The organization and writing of the book are less impressive than the content, but this precious glimpse of the privileged class in DPRK does more than make up for any shortfalls in the writing.

Eye- opening review of life in the tightly controlled country of North Korea. Even children of elite government workers believe the world speaks Korean. They think the world revolves around their self-proclaimed god-like leader, Kim Jong-in, and the only important dates are related to him. Normal citizens starve and and worked very hard while the elite flourish.