Language of Blood: A Memoir [Hardcover]

Jane Jeong Trenka (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 8, 2003

An adoptee's search for identity takes her on a journey from Minnesota to Korea and back as she seeks to resolve the dualities that have long defined her life: Korean-born, American-raised, never fully belonging to either. For years, Korean adoptee Jane Jeong Trenka tried to be the ideal daughter. She was always polite, earned perfect grades, and excelled as a concert pianist. She went to church with her American family in small-town Minnesota and learned not to ask about the mother who had given her away. Then, while she was far from home on a music scholarship, living in a big city for the first time, one of her fellow university students began to follow her, his obsession ultimately escalating into a plot for her murder. In radiant prose that ranges seamlessly from pure lyricism to harrowing realism, Trenka recounts repeated close encounters with her stalker and the years of repressed questions that her ordeal awakened. Determined not to be defined by her stalker's twisted assessment of her worth, she struck out in search of her own identity-free of western stereotypes of geishas and good girls. Doing so, however, meant confronting her American family and fighting the bureaucracy at the agency that had arranged for her adoption.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Trenka remembers with gross delight headless chickens dancing around until collapse at her adoptive family's farm. She writes, "I wanted my head to be removed, a metaphor so strong that only later did I realize that it was not a death wish at all.... What I longed for was wholeness, for my body to be as white and Northern Minnesotan as my mind." Original and beautifully written reflections like these fill Trenka's memoir, a brave exploration of her identity as a Korean adoptee and pensive young woman trying to negotiate between two mothers and two lives. She traces her life from young, eager-to-please child to questioning adolescent. Once at college, she is stalked by an acquaintance with a sick fascination with her Asian heritage, forcing her to ask important questions about exoticization and violence. Finally, she brings readers with her to Korea, where she is reunited with her birth mother and homeland. Unlike some first-time writers, Trenka is unafraid with her prose and rarely falls into cliches, which is especially admirable given the subject matter. She brazenly dabbles with playwriting, screenwriting, crossword puzzles, myths and dream sequences throughout her account. Her journey, from the conservative Christian roots of rural Minnesota to her cramped and corrupt homeland of Korea, is winding, but it ends at an important place for both reader and writer: transformation. She writes, "I have made it my task to reconstruct the text of a family with context clues, and my intent is... to trust in the mysterious; to juxtapose the known with the unknown; to collect the overlooked."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Adoption memoirs are not rare, but this one stands out because of the quality of the writing and because of the aspect of adoption it portrays. Jane at six months and sister Carol, at four and a half, Korean by birth, were adopted by a Minnesota couple with strong German Lutheran roots. The girls were from a home beset by poverty and the drunken abuse of their birth father. Being sent away was an act of love by their Korean mother. Their adoptive parents loved the girls and raised them as their own. And here lies the problem for Jane. Their Korean identity was never addressed, leaving her with a strong sense of not belonging in either culture. Eventual contact with her birth family leads to a rift with her American parents. The author interweaves the account of her life, already tangled in time and place, with legends and plays, creating an incredibly introspective and moving piece. Perhaps not a comfort to transcultural adoptive parents, but thought-provoking reading on an important issue. Danise Hoover
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Borealis Books; 1 edition (September 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873514661
• ISBN-13: 978-0873514668
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,436,694 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To An Adult Adoptee, this book is like a bible., March 8, 2004

By 

Michael McDonald (New Brunswick, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Language of Blood: A Memoir (Hardcover)

I actually met Jane Jeong Trenka before reading her book. She's one of the nicest, most understanding people I've ever met and reading her book only makes her more human and therefore more lovable.

As a Korean Adult Adoptee trying to break new ground with support groups and helping adopted childrens' programs in the North East, I find this book to be a wonderful escape from the "sugar-coated" world I present adoption through to the kids I work with, because I can so closely relate to it.

It is for this reason that I recommend this book to any adult adoptee or any person who is a relative or close friend of any adult adoptee. It gives us a glimpse of what we feel: longing, sadness, loss, curiosity, anger, resentment, and many more feelings beyond those that words can describe.

This book is an important milestone in the journey of our development for adult adoptee support groups and should be regarded as such. There are no words to describe how much this book will mean to some of us.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, October 12, 2005

By 

Emma E. Woods (Wellesley, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Language of Blood (Paperback)

I first became aware of this book after I began researching my own adoption.I grew up in a very white suburban area, and was one if not the only minority in the area. I found this book extremely helpful in helping me come to terms with my own adoption and identity. An Asian American adoptees' voice is rare in the literary world, but Trenka does a beautiful job in describing and retelling the life of an adoptee.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Modern Twist on Memoir Proves Successful, June 28, 2005

By 

J. Moores (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Language of Blood (Paperback)

Jeong Trenka's memoir succeeded in being everything but a typical memoir. These are no mere stories. Her life is no mere series of events. By mixing her prose with drama, poetry, and imagined interactions, Jeong Trenka creates a journey much like that of Maxine Hong Kingston's "Warrior Woman": a blend of legend, history, and true life. Emotionally genuine, spiritually alive, fresh and new. A great read.