Biographies Archives — Page 2 of 2

BACKGROUND

Henry Fonda and James Stewart are acting legends from Hollywood’s golden age. Today both men are still highly respected for their body of work and for careers which they managed to sustain for decades. But unbeknownst to many, they also maintained a lifelong friendship beginning prior to their years on the screen which spanned the course of their lives. This book explores that friendship as well as their personal lives and individual careers.

Due to their difference in politics, Stewart was a Republican and Fonda a lifelong Democrat and their onscreen personas some might be surprised that they were able to form such a close and lasting relationship. But at heart they were very similar and those similarities greatly outweighed their differences. Continue reading “Book Review -Hank and Jim: The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart”

SUMMARY

The harrowing true story of one man’s life in—and subsequent escape from—North Korea, one of the world’s most brutal totalitarian regimes.

Half-Korean, half-Japanese, Masaji Ishikawa has spent his whole life feeling like a man without a country. This feeling only deepened when his family moved from Japan to North Korea when Ishikawa was just thirteen years old, and unwittingly became members of the lowest social caste. His father, himself a Korean national, was lured to the new Communist country by promises of abundant work, education for his children, and a higher station in society. But the reality of their new life was far from utopian.

In this memoir translated from the original Japanese, Ishikawa candidly recounts his tumultuous upbringing and the brutal thirty-six years he spent living under a crushing totalitarian regime, as well as the challenges he faced repatriating to Japan after barely escaping North Korea with his life. A River in Darkness is not only a shocking portrait of life inside the country but a testament to the dignity—and indomitable nature—of the human spirit. Continue reading “Book Review -A River in Darkness: One Man’s Escape from North Korea”