The Law of the Heart

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was a touching story of forbidden love between US citizen, Theo, and North Korean citizen, Min. While the budding romance was very predictable, I really liked that Min's life was the focus. The narrative unfolds in time with Min's backstory, starting with her grandmother, who lived before the Korean War and experienced a deep and passionate love with her husband who died in the war. Cuckoo, the grandmother, then raised her son as a single mother and never remarried, always holding a torch for her lost Kwang Sik. Their son, Chul Woo, grew up fully under North Korean communist regime, resenting life without a father, putting that need for acceptance into his participation in being a proper citizen. This is reflected in his wife, Han Na, being the building inminbanjang in charge of random searches of all apartments on their block and knowing everything about everyone. Chul Woo's and Han Na's only child is Min, our lead protagonist. She is in her early 20's, oblivious to her own beauty, perfectly conformed to the strict observance and teachings from her parents, and an accomplished tour guide. The gist is that the tour guides focus on tourist propaganda, taking tourists to the highlights of North Korean accomplishment for the amazing life in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) under the leadership of the Great Leader, Kim Il-sung, and Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il. The underlining message throughout being that Min has accomplished the optimal outward expression of neutrality so her emotions never give away what she's supposed to do or say. Min is on the path for optimal accomplishment within this life until her father is assigned to design a grand theme park. To enhance this theme park, they want the tallest roller coaster in the world to be built. This is where Theo comes in. He just happens to be the best roller coaster engineer in the world. And more importantly, he grew up in a cold and loveless family who beat him down to have no emotional connections to other humans. He is not a smooth talking, highly accomplished engineer with love interests across his life. The perfect candidate to survive working in North Korea without stirring the pit through some other character flaw. He instead is the most straightforward and honest person who the DPRK leaders want specifically to aid their propaganda of North Korea being the best place in the world. Min and her guide partner, Yun Seok, are assigned to accompany and translate everything for Theo during his nine month stay in North Korea.

The rest is pretty predictable. They dislike each other at first, but slowly by physically being in each other's presence all day every day for nine months, fall in love. The allure for Min being that Theo's transparency and focus on his task makes him the sole person in her life who has ever been open and honest with her. As well as displaying kindness, genuine interest, and no ulterior motives to use her in some way. In reciprocation, Theo seems oblivious to Min the woman until he realizes her chameleon-like behavior, which we are led to believe all N Korean citizens would portray, is disarming enough that he feels safe revealing dark and personal details about himself because of his dismissal of her power and temporary nature of her presence in his life. This trope is not my favorite. I dislike the idea that they develop a bond so strong, worth holding onto the rest of their lives, like Min's grandmother, when the message is that Theo never really appreciated Min until after she literally put her and her family's lives in jeopardy to make a move on Theo. Min responding to sentiments and behaviors from Theo that mark the most basic of standards for interacting with humans. While that “connection” gets played out in other books ad nauseam, it works here due to the portrayal of life under the DPRK regime. What I appreciate is that the story is still following Min's growth as a person. Her fondness for Theo revealing the flaws of her life and the hypocrisy of the propaganda she's built her life around.

Ultimately I really liked this book because so much focuses on Min and her inner thoughts, needs, desires. Her spark of rebellion and understanding and ability to gain new perspectives. In essence, her humanity. Theo's character was less well developed and lacking as much conviction for me. I also really loved Cuckoo's character, though I'd have liked more backstory from her perspective as well as the father's, Chul Woo. But that's simply because I wanted to know more about how those characters worked, all to better understand Min more.

Overall I recommend this book. A bit of history, a bit of romance, and a compelling main character. Worth the read!