Overview

From ballistic missile tests to stranger-than-fiction stories of purges and assassinations, news from North Korea never fails to dominate the global headlines. But what is life there actually like? In See You Again in Pyongyang, Travis Jeppesen culls from his experiences living, traveling, and studying in North Korea to create a multi-faceted portrait of the country and its idiosyncratic capital city. Not quite memoir, not quite travelogue, not quite history book, Jeppesen offers a poignant and utterly original examination of the world's strangest country. Anchored by the experience of his five trips to North Korea, Jeppesen weaves in his observations and interactions with citizens from all walks of life, constructing a narrative rich in psychological detail, revealing how the North Korean system actually functions and perpetuates itself in the day-to-day, beyond the propaganda-fueled ideology. He challenges the Western notion that Pyongyang is merely a showcase capital where everything is staged for the benefit of foreigners, as well as the idea that Pyongyangites are brainwashed robots. Going beyond the cliches of taboo tourism and the good versus evil tenor of politicians and media reports, See You Again in Pyongyangis an essential addition to the literature about one of the world's most fascinating and mysterious places.

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9781549144004

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Reviews

"[A] first-person account of life in a 'multifaceted, misunderstood, and unsummarizable' nation. The author read and traveled widely enough (to festivals, revolutionary sites, etc.) to understand that 'paranoia and suspicion' are omnipresent in the police state, finding himself 'alternately charmed, intrigued, disgusted, amused, terrified-often all of these at once'...A candid and disturbing portrait of life under a dictatorship. -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" [Jeppesen] blends history, travelog, and memoir to present an uncomfortably timely portrait of the country. -- ""Library Journal"" A close-up look at the cloistered country over weeks, not a few days like most outsiders...[In] a country known for its contradictions...Travis Jeppesen, a Berlin-based writer, chronicles life inside this closed world. -- ""USA Today"" Dramatizes a meeting point between an intellect with a passion for getting lost in other cities and landscapes and an environment that by its very design forbids such a sensibility from ever gaining foothold. What ensues is not a polemic, but rather a romance of antitheses...and the bringing to light of others' stories that our own ideologically biased media seldom care to find for themselves. -- ""Los Angeles Review of Books"" Probing...[and] artful. -- ""New York Times Book Review "" What makes See You Again in Pyongyang worth reading is the tension between the bold explorer and the impenetrable country, the feeling of frustration in the face of lies and exclusion and petrified resistance. Jeppesen may get as deep as Pyongyang will allow, at least to an American. That might not make him an expert, but it gives him more cred than most of us: he went, and chances are, we never will. -- ""Los Angeles Times"""

[A] first-person account of life in a 'multifaceted, misunderstood, and unsummarizable' nation. The author read and traveled widely enough (to festivals, revolutionary sites, etc.) to understand that 'paranoia and suspicion' are omnipresent in the police state, finding himself 'alternately charmed, intrigued, disgusted, amused, terrified-often all of these at once'...A candid and disturbing portrait of life under a dictatorship. -- Kirkus Reviews [Jeppesen] blends history, travelog, and memoir to present an uncomfortably timely portrait of the country. -- Library Journal Dramatizes a meeting point between an intellect with a passion for getting lost in other cities and landscapes and an environment that by its very design forbids such a sensibility from ever gaining foothold. What ensues is not a polemic, but rather a romance of antitheses...and the bringing to light of others' stories that our own ideologically biased media seldom care to find for themselves. -- Los Angeles Review of Books What makes See You Again in Pyongyang worth reading is the tension between the bold explorer and the impenetrable country, the feeling of frustration in the face of lies and exclusion and petrified resistance. Jeppesen may get as deep as Pyongyang will allow, at least to an American. That might not make him an expert, but it gives him more cred than most of us: he went, and chances are, we never will. -- Los Angeles Times A close-up look at the cloistered country over weeks, not a few days like most outsiders...[In] a country known for its contradictions...Travis Jeppesen, a Berlin-based writer, chronicles life inside this closed world. -- USA Today Probing...[and] artful. -- New York Times Book Review

Author Information

Travis Jeppesen is an American novelist, poet, artist, and art critic. Jeppesen's first novel, Victims, was selected by Dennis Cooper to debut his Little House on the Bowery series for Akashic Books in 2003. His critical writings on art, film, and literature have appeared in Artforum, Art in America, Texte zur Kunst, Flash Art, New York Press, Bookforum, The Stranger, and Zoo Magazine. He is the recipient of a 2013 Arts Writers Grant from Creative Capital / the Warhol Foundation, and he has taught as a visiting tutor in the art department at Goldsmiths University and as a visiting lecturer in Critical Writing in Art and Design at the Royal College of Art. Will Collyer, an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator, is a film, television, and stage actor. He has starred in television shows such as Melrose Place, Charmed, CSI: Miami, and Boston Public, as well as numerous films and plays. He holds a BA in theater arts from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television.

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