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Bandi

Autor von The Accusation

3 Werke 376 Mitglieder 18 Rezensionen

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Hinweis zur Begriffsklärung:

(eng) Bandi is the pseudonym of a samizdat writer living in North Korea. The name translates to English as 'Firefly'.

Werke von Bandi

The Accusation (2014) — Autor — 368 Exemplare
Oskarzenie (2017) 1 Exemplar

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Wissenswertes

Geburtstag
1950
Geschlecht
male
Nationalität
North Korea
Land (für Karte)
North Korea
Hinweis zur Identitätsklärung
Bandi is the pseudonym of a samizdat writer living in North Korea. The name translates to English as 'Firefly'.

Mitglieder

Rezensionen

An interesting into an isolated country. Not as shocking as some of tales of escape from North Korea but sad still. Some of them 7 stories try to convey the absurd but don't go all the way.
½
 
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eairo | 17 weitere Rezensionen | Mar 6, 2024 |
The only book critical of the North Korean regime written by someone still living under that regime, making this collection of short stories one of the bravest books I have ever read.

These are stories of people with ordinary problems, living under a system with absolutely zero room for humanity — for making allowances for ordinary people with their ordinary problems. Toddlers who cry. Workers who want to visit dying mothers. Someone with a parent, uncle, or grandparent who once did something to offend the party.

These feel to me similar to other stories that have come out of Communist dictatorships, and I wonder if Bandi ever had access to any of those. What is remarkable about them to me is him. Someone who was a true believer, a party loyalist, then became disillusioned, not only in his own circumstance, but seeing how the regime crushes all those around him.

I hope for his continued safety.
… (mehr)
½
 
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greeniezona | 17 weitere Rezensionen | Feb 9, 2024 |
Aunque repetitivas ( alguien honesto y trabajador machacado por el sistema), me ha sorprendido las historias por su calidad.
Mucha suerte y ánimo.
 
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trusmis | 17 weitere Rezensionen | Sep 30, 2021 |
The Accusation: Forbidden Stories from Inside North Korea by Bandi is a collection of short stories that take place in North Korea around the transition of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. Bandi, a pseudonym, is more of a mysterious person. He lived in North Korea and presumably still does. His writings have been smuggled out of North Korea and have been published in South Korea and France. Bandi is Korean for firefly and is shedding his little bit of light in a dark country.

Anyone who is trying to stay current on North Korea has read the recent nonfiction and quickly comes to realize how little is actually known about the country. After a few books, the reader will see the same stories repeat over again. Most of what is written about North Korea comes from defectors and their stories have been well used. Jang Jin-sung, poet laureate, and South Korea propaganda expert was the only high-level government official to defect until very recently. He offered more of an understanding of the whys of the regime rather than just the whats.

Bandi offers a selection of short stories that leave the reader wondering. The stories are fiction but fit so well with the actual conditions of the country. It is a bit like a dystopian episode of the Twilight Zone. You know it’s fiction but it feels so real. The feeling of being trapped in a nightmare is very real. From the sins of the father being carried to the next generation to the fear that something a child might do will damage your family’s position. Interestingly, there is very little about the outside enemy in this collection. There is no mention of the United States’ determination to end the worker’s paradise and there is only passing mention of the South’s propaganda being blasted over the border to the north. Everything happens inside North Korea as it works to make itself an island separate from the rest of the world.

Inside people spend their lives trying to stay within the ever shrinking lines. Loyalty is the most important thing. One man’s son cracks to his father, “You took a cup of sorrow and cried a pitcher of tears” concerning the death of Kim Il-Sung. Another character talks of a magical garden where cries of pain and suffering are distorted into laughter. School children watch the trial and execution of a man tied to a peach tree. The rope that was used to tie the man had more of an impact than the execution. The rope bound a person into helplessness. Perhaps there are things worse than death.

One cannot but feel the entrapment and hopelessness of many of the people. Some follow not to get noticed. Some follow out of fear. Some dare hope to escape. The majority know they are stuck and try to ignore their surroundings and live in an illusion of a positive attitude. The stories are fiction, but the feelings and emotions in them seem very real. One wonders if the stories are fiction in only that names and places have been changed. Haunting fiction because the reader knows it can very well be true.
… (mehr)
 
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evil_cyclist | 17 weitere Rezensionen | Mar 16, 2020 |

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Werke
3
Mitglieder
376
Beliebtheit
#64,175
Bewertung
3.9
Rezensionen
18
ISBNs
34
Sprachen
11

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