The Nature of Things

This highly praised novel by Adam Johnson, which ultimately was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction earlier this year, is confusing and not easy to define or categorize. It is in part a thriller with a bit of romantic love ladled on to sweeten it, but, overall, it is a depiction of a society of such horror that if one-tenth of what Johnson shows us is actually fact or even based on fact, then North Korea must truly be the worst place on Earth. Indeed, the phrase Hell on Earth comes to mind. It is a society in which truth is whatever the Dear Leader Kim Jong-il says it is. One's identity is assigned by Kim Jong-il. In Kim's fantasy world, North Korea is a paradise which is coveted by every other nation on Earth, especially by their arch enemies Japan, South Korea, and the United States. In this fantasy, the people in those other countries are starving and he generously sends food aid to them. How did this society come to exist? How did one man, one family gain and keep such p...