Dear Reader

The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il

By: Michael Malice

Narrated by: Marcus Freeman

Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

No country is as misunderstood as North Korea, and no modern tyrant has remained more mysterious than the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. Now, celebrity ghostwriter Michael Malice pulls back the curtain to expose the life story of the "Incarnation of Love and Morality". Taken directly from books spirited out of Pyongyang, Dear Reader is a carefully reconstructed first-person account of the man behind the mythology.

From his miraculous rainbow-filled birth during the fiery conflict of World War II, Kim Jong Il watched as his beloved Korea finally earned its freedom from the cursed Japanese. Mere years later, the wicked US imperialists took their chance at conquering the liberated nation - with devastating results. But that's only the beginning of the Dear Leader's story.

In Dear Reader, Kim Jong Il explains:

• How he can shrink time
• Why he despises the Mona Lisa
• How he recreated the arts in Korea
• Why the Juche idea is the greatest concept ever discovered by man
• How he handled the crippling famine
• Why Kim Jong Un was chosen as successor over his elder brothers

With nothing left uncovered, drawing straight from dozens of books, hundreds of articles, and thousands of years of Korean history, Dear Reader is both the definitive account of Kim Jong Il's life and the complete stranger-than-fiction history of the world's most unique country.

©2014 Michael Malice (P)2017 Listen and Think Audio

Horrifying

Narration was perfect. The changing tone of the book perfectly captured. Michael Malice captures the personality cult of the North Korean regime and then gradually brings you into the real life horror film that is life in the DPRK.

The real North Korea

I great story compiled for North Korean History. Malice does an incredible job making this book feel like Kim Jong Il is telling you his personal story.

A great look into the DPRK

I learned so much about North Korea from this book. The perspective is especially helpful.

Fascinating

As a trucker I've got the "luxury" of allot of Windshield time... I've usually got several audio books, podcasts, YouTube downloads going, I'll get tired of one then jump to another... (I'm allot ADD that way) but this book keeps me engaged right to the end. Maniacally entertaining. I listened to it all in two shifts!

It's strange what you call learn about human nature from "the crazy like a Fox" mind of a hereditary dictator. Especially of who doesn't see himself as one. One who sees himself unapologetically as a nearly Christ like figure in his "perfection".

Many of his criticisms of the west are startlingly accurate unfortunately. He really points or the hypocrisies of western govts.

But his assessments of the "people's paradise" he and his God like father (in his eyes)
built in the DPRK are even more astoundingly, startlingly, psychotically divorced from reality... some serious rose colored VR goggles on this guy.

...that is until the end when the mask and goggles come off.

last paragraph is chilling, but dont skip ahead

read the entire book, laugh along the way, but be prepared for a hard dosr of reality

hilarious and horrifying

Loved it. Somehow Malice has managed to construct an informative read through a hilarious and absurdist lense.

The upside down world is rife with sorrow and the dark humor therein.

It will leave a distinct impression of what hell on earth is really like while making you laugh all the while.

The book is a paradox, but so is the DPRK, their Dear Leader Kim Jong Il, and their guiding principle of Juche.

Read the entire book thinking it was a real autobiography

I know that it is spelled out on the cover of the book that this was an "unauthorized" autobiography, but I had no idea that it was not written using any of his own words. Knowing this ahead of time would have completely changed my perspective while reading this book and it takes away some of the humor for me knowing that it is a satire. Still a good read, I was just a little disappointed when I found out.

Dear Reader meets Dear Leader

by Debra G. Dudley

Marcus Freeman hits near-perfect pitch with his exquisite narration of Michael Malice's 2014 work, "Dear Reader: "The Unauthorized Autobiography of Kim Jong Il."

From about two tons of books and other material that somehow disappeared from the North Korean capital and rematerialized around him, Malice constructs a Kim Jong Il avatar and steps inside. Jong-il is resurrected as a man who, though being the frequent butt of the world's jokes, is as rational and intelligent as anyone could be with a brain that has been marinating in a bath of philosophical cyanide since birth. Whenever Jong-il's sacred collection of wrong-headed ideas fails him, he doesn't seem to notice, or if he does notice, he doesn't notice that he's noticing.

Jong-il is a paradox of vainglory and humility; sob-sister sentimentality and casual cruelty; intellectual clarity and pig-headed brainwashery. He is a moral man with three wives, and an honest man who for years keeps the existence of his first child a secret from everyone, including his own father.

Jong Il is an expert on just about everything, from automotive repair to dance choreography. If the Dunning-Krueger Effect and Grandiosity had a baby, it would be Kim Jong Il.

While I felt like I was learning a lot about the history of the benighted land of North Korea and its relationship with the rest of the world, I kept reminding myself to consider the source. At times, Jong-il seems to simply be imparting unpleasant truths that don't exactly "whisper Louise" to the American ear. It's like "U.S. of A. -- the Dark Side." Jong-il is clearly full of it - even his bullshit is bullshit. Still, I had some trouble determining what was true or not -- a problem I'm sure North Koreans are familiar with.

For a book on such a bleak subject, "Dear Reader" contains a surprising amount of humor, conveyed with subtle perfection by narrator Freeman. My favorite moment was the embarrassing 2001 debacle in which Jong-il's eldest son, Kim Jong Nam, accompanied by his wife, four-year-old son and another woman, made an unsuccessful attempt to enter Japan using a fake passport, hoping he wouldn't be recognized. HAW. Japanese authorities hemmed him up for a few days, trying to ascertain the purpose of his visit, and eventually had to settle for Jong-nam's claim that he was going to Disneyland (not).

When Jong-nam was finally released and called his worried and mortified father from China, the senior Kim first asked if everyone was all right (after being in the clutches of the evil Japanese). The 30-year-old Jong-nam assured dear old Dad that they had been treated with dignity and respect -- "They took good care of us. It's not like it was back in the day."

Jong-il's fuming response, "It's exactly like it was back in 'THE DAY'!" and his confusion over why his son kept telling Japanese officials he was "going to Disneyland" (a popular American quip at that time) reveals a very human aspect of the many-splendored leader, an archetype familiar around the world: the aging, out-of-touch, out-of-date dad.

There might have been hope for North Korea if the more modern, worldly Jong-nam had succeeded Jong-il after his death, and it definitely would have been a cold day in hell, too. Of course, chip off the old block No. 2 son, Kim Jong-un, has been heading up this grim family business since late 2011.

As the book ended, I was bereft over the plight of the people of North Korea, as well as disgusted at the role the U.S. played in splitting a country in half with zero input from its people, who, despite being caught in the crossfire of big-bully warring factions, were trying like hell to mind their own business. And I was left with a strong, uncomfortable feeling that Jong-il's unflattering perception of America is shared by a substantial portion of the world. And the ring of truth pealing forth from some of these criticisms has left me with tinnutis.

And despite preachy closing remarks of foreboding that make Malice's Kim Jong Il mask slip, "Dear Reader" also left me with an unprecedented desire to immediately reread a book I've just finished. It is that good.

jaw dropping

funny at first interesting, absurd, then so dark I just sat still after it was over.

Malice is Brilliant

This is the most interesting, informative and cleverly-written book I’ve read on North Korea.