I was looking for a book which goes beyond the usual cliches about North Korea, so although I wasn't that interested in literature I bought this book. It provides a fascinating look at a North Korea that I hadn't known existed. We all tend to think that the personality cult kicked in right after 1945, but this book shows that it developed over time, with literary figures like Han Sorya playing a large role in developing what Myers calls the "iconography" of the personality cult. The book is also entertaining, since it describes the various factional struggles inside the literary scene. The analysis of Han's novels is very wittily done. After reading this book, I felt that I knew the North Korea of the forties and fifties.
