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Title: The Last Paradise: North Korea by Nicolas Righetti ISBN: 1-884167-32-2 Publisher: Umbrage Editions Inc Pub. Date: December, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3 (2 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: Paradise Lost
Comment: I have already reviewed this on the UK amazon site, but I feel so strongly about this book that I feel compelled to let my American friends know my views as well...... I purchased this book with high expectations, being a keen observer of the "Hermit Kingdom" that is Kim-Jong-Il's North Korea. I saw an interview with the photographer on CNN Europe which persuaded me that this would be a refreshing look at fascinating country - however, I was to be sorely disapointed. The book consists of endless, garish interior photographs, juxtaposed with chunky catchphrases which seem to bear little relation to one another. There is little or no explanation of precisely WHAT each picture is about, and so the reader is unable to build any narrative around life in this secretive country - afterall, that was why I purchased the book. One thing I cannot stress strongly enough is just how poor-quality the actual photographs are; they are grainy and pixelated, badly lit almost to the point of being unrecognisable, and almost all of them simply show a hotel foyer, or an empty room - some are blatently photographed from a television. These are vacation pictures you would be ashamed to show family, because they show nothing of the actual country; after all, North Korea is not the only place in the world to have tacky interior designers. Sad though this may be to say, you probably get a better impression of what Pyongyang looks like by referring to official press phtos; in the meantime, however, if you REALLY want to see tasteless, out-of-date furniture, I suggest you visit your grandmother - at least someone will get pleasure out of the experience.
Rating: 5
Summary: We are in Heaven
Comment: In the book, the bright, almost cartoonish photographs of neo-constructivist architecture and synchronized folk dancing are juxtaposed with slogans found in the street. "We are Happy," insists an airport sign greeting visitors; "We are in Heaven," reads another sign at a crossroads. The images were culled from video taken in Pyongyang, and the viewer is never quite at ease in the sphere of the book. Reality and fiction strike an uneasy balance as we attempt to sort out which image is truth and which one is something taken from the TV screen in Righetti's hotel room. The nature of video naturally calls up issues of surveillance, but in the case of North Korea it is especially relevant.
Though I see this book as a frightening incarnation of 1984 I think Kim Jong Il might just clap Nicolas on the back for showing the world such lovely photographs of everything the guides want you to see.
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Title: North Korea: Another Country by Bruce Cumings ISBN: 156584873X Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Pyongyang: The Hidden History of the North Korean Capital by Chris Springer ISBN: 9630081040 Publisher: Saranda Books Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: In North Korea: An American Travels Through an Imprisoned Nation by Nanchu, Xing Hang ISBN: 0786416912 Publisher: McFarland & Company Pub. Date: July, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: North Korea: The Bradt Travel Guide by Robert Willoughby ISBN: 1841620742 Publisher: Bradt Travel Guides Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Inside North Korea by Norbert Vollertsen ISBN: 1893554872 Publisher: Encounter Books Pub. Date: May, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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