The Boy who escaped Paradise

The Boy Who Escaped Paradise by Jung-Myung Lee
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

After first few chapters I hoped I will rate this book 5. Close to the end I considered - 2.
First chapters - life in North Korea. I read a good number of books about German concentration camps and Soviet Gulags, I met and listened to many survivors. In this context I valued the book very high.
Things go astray when the boy escapes and moves to the free world - China, Macau, South Korea, Switzerland. For some time it was not so bad - it occurred to me that everywhere there are powers able and willing to squash an individual into a pulp.
But the trouble is MONEY, too much of it.
Gil-mo has a rare talent to operate with numbers, also with big numbers. He seems to attract big sums of money. It always ends badly and starts again, and again.
Important part of the book are numbers. Gil-mo lives in the world of numbers.
Author employed numeric puzzles and considerations from many popular books. They work quite well in monet depraved North Korea, they go completely berserk in the world of money.
Fortunately the last chapter brought for the first time some humour into the book.
Switzerland - Gil-mo's girlfriend just cashed $8 million, she excuses him for a minute to check if money transfer is OK. After 12.814 seconds she returns, with a pile of shopping.
Finally in familiar world.

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