Only Beautiful, Please Paperback – June 26, 2012

This is an incredible book, and it is one of my two favorites of all of the many books and videos I have consumed about North Korea, a fascinatingly isolated place, that is seemingly trapped in a time warp.John Everard was an ambassador to North Korea from the U.K. at a fascinating time (i.e., on the heals of the great famine of the 1990s, as private markets start to become more openly accepted in North Korea, and people are less inclined to treat their leaders, who let them starve, as gods). I found Everard's writing style to be very engaging.Everard's ways of trying to see the real North Korea, even as a privileged ambassador, is enriching. Besides his friendships with staff and others, his book reveals that he was able to get a measure of freedom by bicycling around independently (well, sometimes he was trailed by government officials, but those are fun stories, too.) He brings a travelers spirit, and a real compassion for the people of the country, to his writing that I both respected and enjoyed.Most importantly, Everard shares his personal and political insights into the country in a very engaging and effective manner, always with full disclosure of the benefits and limits of his experience. He is clear with the reader when he is pretty sure he is getting the real story (i.e., through confirmation by multiple, unnamed sources) versus the government's version of the story (i.e., the kinds of pre-planned visits to classrooms provided to ambassadors). It is literally a life and death matter to protect the privacy of sources, so sourcing issues are challenging for books on North Korea. Those books that do not handle it as well as this one leave the reader unsure of what to believe. In this book, Everard openly and generous shares those points on which he, himself, is not certain. And that gave me great confidence in him as a writer and thinker on these issues.Everard is very clear that he can mainly speak to the experiences of North Korean elites, as it is mostly elites who live in the capital where he was based. North Korea makes it very difficult for anyone, but especially for ambassadors, to interact with anyone outside of the elite classes. He does his part to remind readers of this inherent limitation to his experience, which is helpful. But to get more of a 360 on this subject, I would recommend the book below, because it focuses on people from a range of different social classes.Readers will also leave this book with a solid sense of history and politics that he kicks into at the end of this book. It should be noted that the book is organized in a rather funky way: basically starting with his more personal observations and experiences and moving back to a more standard (but still useful and engaging) treatment of the history, politics, and potential for the country. But I think that organization works well, by presenting his more unique contributions up front that will be new to all readers, and by leaving the more standard material for readers to read as needed, based on their own familiarity and interest in that material. It was quite a clever innovation for this book.---------------- TIP ----------------A second book I would recommend that others read, perhaps just immediately before this one, is "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea, " by Barbara Demick. 2010. It is an excellent compliment to this book, as Everard is clear that he can speak mainly to the elite classes he was surrounded in Pyongyong as an ambassador. In contrast, Demick drills down into the experience of a range of North Koreans from different social classes, who eventually escaped the country. Taken in combination, the two books provide an amazingly thorough sense of the country, at least to the extent possible in such a restrictive regime. And since both writers are so skilled as engaging storytellers, it is quite a joy to read both of them. My review of Dimock's also-wonderful "Nothing to Envy" can be found here:https://www.amazon.com/review/R1QK6V1JB1DGQH/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

This is a tough book for me to review and rate because the authorstates early on that the only thing he suspects to be certain is thatbig chunks of it will be proven to be false in the future.He also makes it very clear, over and over again, that the book isonly intended as a look at a small slice of the daily life of a tiny fraction ofa privileged circle of people in Pyongyang, who clearly aren't representativeof the majority of citizens of the country. And even thoseobservations are almost certainly skewed.So while all of that is commendable in its honesty, it made it a littletough for me to get engaged with the point of the book.I see other reviewers saying things like "...nice to have a different viewpoint..."and "an interesting look into life in North Korea", but that seems like a misguidedstretch to me considering how often the author goes out of his way tovirtually negate so many of his observations with tag lines like "it's possible/likely they weren't telling me the truth","it's possible that the whole production was just put on for my benefit"and "I'm sure this wasn't representative of the vast majority of peoplethat I had no way to interact with."The author can certainly be praised for his transparency butwhen you're reminded again and again that what you're readingisn't the whole story, or representative of the norm, or has to judgedwith a very jaded eye, it starts to make it feel somewhat pointless.As far as the book itself, it doesn't have a typical narrative flow,but is more like a long list of bullet points with some anecdotes andexamples included to flesh things out, which probably makes senseconsidering the nature of the author's work.I was thinking of rating it only 3 stars but I'm bumping up to 4 at thelast minute. Again, there's nothing wrong with this book as long as youconsider the circumstances under which it was written, which shouldn't behard to do considering that the author makes no secret of how hamstrung he was.I just feel that reviews that have general comments like"an interesting look into life in North Korea", kind of miss the point.

What sets this book apart from others on North Korea is that the author isn't trying to convince his readers of anything. He fully admits that this is one man's perspective, limited by his position and how much the regime/North Korean contacts were willing to show him, and doesn't try to push it beyond that. He doesn't claim definitive insight like other writers on North Korea do after having taking the guided tour a handful of times.I marked it down a star because I found the writing style somewhat repetitive. There were a few cases where it seemed that the author forgot what he'd written a few chapters before and was introducing a new concept to his readers (again), but other than that, it's a great read and I'd definitely recommend it.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I've read other books about North Korea, but none of them dealt with the lives of the middle class as this book does. Everard writes in a very straightforward, simple manner. Some of the other reviewers didn't seem to appreciate this but it didn't detract from the book at all. Everard organizes the books topically, including farming, schools and food in North Korea, foreigners in North Korea, the diplomatic community in North Korea, North Korea in historical context. One of the topics I found most interesting was his descriptions of life for diplomats in Pyongyang, and also their Korean staff. I had never read anything about it before. Everard by no means supports the North Korean regime but he is very polite in the way he writes about the country and its people, which I appreciated. I hope he writes another book!

Although three have been many books written about this country this is different. Most books I have read describe life under the leadership. It is usually about the hardships of making a living and just simply staying alive. There are also many books describing the political suppression and the use of the camps.This book of course covers these aspects but written from the perspective of a diplomat. This means a

This book is a well written description of life in North Korea. It avoids the polemic, and avoids jumping to any easy solutions; indeed the last chapters make uncomfortable reading for those who believe that regime change will be easily accomplished. The book is a well researched academic volume, but is also readable and human. One only wonders at how the author in his role as a diplomat (and a senior one at that) was able to accomplish so much that is documented. A book to be thoroughly recommended especially at this time of raised tension.

If you are considering visiting North Korea (DPRK) this book will prepare you well for your visit. Its written in a very readable style and is full of information. In my opinion the pace of change in DPRK is very slow in comparison to other places so the information contained will remain current for some time to come.

A very good book and certainly a unique perspective on the DPRK. The writing style is very accessible and feels very genuine, as if someone is giving it as a presentation or speech.I would say that I enjoyed Nothing to Envy more though, as an account of first hand stories.

Though the country is constantly in the news, we hear very little about what goes on inside the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. This book offers a rare glimpse of life inside the least accessible country in the world.