Memories of My Ghost Brother [Paperback]

Heinz Insu Fenkl (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1997

Heinz Insu Fenkl is the son of a German-American soldier who married a Korean woman when he was stationed near Seoul. In this haunting novel he explores the coming-of-age of an Amerasian in Korea, torn between his mother's worldhaunted by ghosts, fox demons, and the specter of Japanese occupationsand his father's transplanted America. Young Insu grows up in the chaotic streets of Pupyong, a district in the city of Inchon, the site of General Douglas MacArthur's historic invasion. His mother trafficks in everything, skilled in manipulating the black market to support her family. Insu's arrival at the orderly American school does little to resolve the conflicts between the cultures in which he must live. He may learn the language, but his eyes will never be blue, nor his hair yellow like his father's. And always, there is the memory of his lost half-brother, the baby that his mother sacrificed to marry his father, who refused to raise another man's child. With its ghost stories, folktales, mother-father conflicts, strange joys and violent tragedies, Memories of My Ghost Brother resonates with literary works like Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior, Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird , and Gus Lee's China Boy. Evocative and compelling, and introducing a unique new voice in American fiction, Memories of My Ghost Brother provides a rare, beautiful, and sometimes painful glimpse of the creation of one young man's identity. * Finalist PEN/Hemingway Award for First Fiction. * Finalist 1996 Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ghosts and goblins are part of the 1960s Korean experience for this autobiographical novel's young protagonist. So are alcoholism, prostitution, racism and war. Insu (or Heinz, as he is known to his American schoolteachers) is the son of an American father, a blond G.I. stationed near the city of Inchon, and a Korean mother, a black-marketeer. Despite his marriage, Insu's father lives on-base, far from the haunted house the boy and his mother share with a handful of relatives. Insu encounters many spirits in dreams or in dreamlike episodes; perhaps the most enigmatic of these is the Japanese colonel who literally opens the boy's mind. Insu grows up wild, running with a pack of boys who splatter frogs on rocks, indulge in petty larceny and get into knife fights. His alcoholic uncle tells Insu long, terrifying anecdotes about goblins who gang-bang matrons and vampiric fox demons disguised as beautiful women. None of these, however, are as difficult for Insu to understand as is the Sunday-school world his father pushes at him. Insu's mixed blood causes him perpetual ambivalence, making him feel "caught here in the boundary between the two Koreas, caught between North and South and East and West with my own blood mixed from the blood of enemies." Although the book's story line is too episodic and its structure?broken into segments that alternate between childlike point-of-view and omniscient adult interpretation?a bit rigid, this is a stately, mature and understated first novel written with great sensitivity and assurance.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Fenkl's first novel is based on his boyhood in Korea. Born to a Korean mother and an American GI father, he contrasts a childhood influenced by an extended Korean family and the American way of life as represented by the hamburgers, hot dogs, and Coca-Cola of his father's army base. Elements of this novel are reminiscent of Mishima's writing?young boys portrayed as both emotionally sensitive and cruel, and beyond adult control. Fenkl's own character, however, exhibits compassion and thoughtfulness toward others as he attempts to cope with the consequences of his biracial heritage and the many tragedies that occur among his friends and family. The narrative voice shifts between child and adult, reflecting on the events of childhood?a strategy that is not completely successful. Certain potentially significant parts of the story are not introduced well or not fully developed. For instance, the "ghost" brother does not appear until the end, with no build-up. Despite its weaknesses, this book is a worthwhile addition to academic and public library collections.?Rebecca A. Stuhr-Rommereim, Grinnell Coll. Libs., Iowa
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Plume (November 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452277175
• ISBN-13: 978-0452277175
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #801,168 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars powerful, moving, April 24, 2000

By 

Charse Yun - See all my reviews

This review is from: Memories of My Ghost Brother (Paperback)

I don't know why I like this "novel"/memoir so much, but it is a terribly moving and poweful story. Much of it is written in the deceptively simple prose of a child-narrator, though the older self "looks back" in reflective, lyrical passages that reminded me of Hemingway. I was at first put off by the first chapter: elements of haunting, mysticism, a child narrator. . .uh oh, where are we going? But as the story rolls along, I found myself more and more immersed in the story of a young, biracial child growing up near a US military base in Seoul. Descriptions of life at school, in the streets, in the GI camp were engrossing, and Fenkl's refusal to transliterate and translate some Korean words or expressions and not others was fascinating for me as a Korean American. The ethnographic folklore included here are always grounded in the harsh reality of a dim bulb in a spare room, the humanized character of a drunk, coarse uncle, and through all the traces of American culture that have infiltrated Korea. There are psychological and literal "displacements" described here that have produced painful cleavages in the family. The personal impact of social and historical realities are portrayed here in all their harshness, but this is absolutely not a sentimental "victim" story of oppression. I found myself identifying with the child-narrator, absorbed by his story, and in the end, powerfully moved.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fenkl's simple and beautiful writing transports the reader, May 8, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Memories of My Ghost Brother (Paperback)

Although I did not know him well, Heinz and I graduated Vassar College together in 1982. Apparently, Heinz was a better student of Professor William Gifford than I was. Fenkl's story of a young Korean-American growing up in Korea after the war is simple and honest, a child's non-judgmental view of a unique time and place. But the reader should not confuse Heinz' writing style from his precious content. We are drawn to the boy (is that a picture of young Heinz on the cover?) and his story, part horific, part fabulous fantasy, part loving tribute. We are also witness to post-war Korea, a setting virtually unknown to us, full of interesting people, events and ideas. I eagerly await Heniz' next book -- perchance another installment of the same story? I hope so.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars But for the grace of God go I..., October 24, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Memories of My Ghost Brother: A Novel (Hardcover)

Having been born in Korea and adopted by an American family I bring some bagage with me as I read of the authors life in Korea. You see I'm someone's ghost brother. The child given up.... My favorite passages are folk tales woven into the narative.... A Must read for Korean Amerasians....David in LA