PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewWhat is North Korean literature, as read by North Koreans? One of the few English translations of a novel from Pyongyang — Friend...offers a beguiling introduction to the everyday, with none of the rockets and military parades that the words \'North Korea\' often bring to mind ... In its candid examination of domestic conflict and female ambition, the book unsettles expectations of North Korean life. The women, Chae and Eun-ok, are so committed to their careers that they violate traditional wifely norms. Their husbands feel resentful but know they shouldn’t ... Friend is, at times, didactic and propagandistic, but for every unctuous sentence, there’s another that points to blemishes behind North Korea’s facade ... The translation, by the scholar Immanuel Kim, can feel stilted, but usefully so, connoting the formality of the North Korean vernacular.
