This was stunning. Made me incredibly emotional, and I couldn't even believe it - I am a foreigner who has never been even in the same continent, much less the country this is about, but it made me feel so many things so deeply. The author is incredibly talented, to be able to bring the emotion of separation of family, deep regret and longing so well through cultural, historical, political barriers (and a lot of that is also thanks to the amazing translators). This story will speak to anyone who has a heart. What's most heart-breaking is that the story is in big part based on the history of the author himself - I can't imagine the pain of people who have been separated for lifetimes, and persecuted for merely having a family connection "on the other side", even if they haven't seen them for decades. I feel like I'll carry this book in my heart for quite a while yet.

I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.

http://www.themodernnovel.org/asia/other-asia/korea/yi-mun-yol/meeting-with-my-brother/
http://www.themodernnovelblog.com/2017/05/11/yi-mun-yol-%ec%95%84%ec%9a%b0%ec%99%80%ec%9d%98%eb%a7%8c%eb%82%a8-an-appointment-with-my-brother-later-meeting-with-my-brother/

South Korea but I hadn't come across him before and found the comprehensive introduction not just illuminating but pretty much essential to appreciating the book. The narrator of the story hoped to be able to arrange a meeting with his estranged father who had defected to North Korea during the Korean War. The meeting takes so long to arrange that his father dies before it can take place but the fixer offers a meeting with the son of his father's new family in his stead. The meeting between these two men forms the core of the narrative and is both moving and engaging. Both brothers have suffered and been viewed with suspicion throughout their lives due to the father’s defection and are initially suspicious and resentful of each other, But as they talk the bonds of brotherhood seem to conquer the political divide and each learns from their conversations during their meeting. This small personal drama reflects the greater political and social drama of the divide between North and South Korea and the viability of possible reunification. In fact the narrator meets a man called “Mr Reunification” whose passion it is to promote such a possibility. Millions of Korean families are still separated, just like the two brothers, and without sentimentality the author manages to make their predicament – and the predicament of the whole country – compelling and haunting. The political made personal in a convincing and memorable way.

After the Korean War, Yi’s father had deserted his family in South Korea and defected to the North. Now, years later, as the two countries contemplate reunification, Yi has learned not only of his father’s death but that he had another family in North Korea. He decides to meet his half-brother. At first, the meeting seems unlikely to accomplish anything because of shared distrust but, slowly, as the two trade stories of their lives, interestingly often mirroring each other, they begin to realize that although there are clearly differences, perhaps much of what they thought they knew or were taught about each other was not the whole truth.

Meeting with My Brother was written by South Korean author Yi Mun-Yol in 1994 and translated by Heinz Insu Fenkl with Yoosap Chang. The novella is both a semiautobiographical account of Yi’s own life – his father defected to the North after the war - and an examination of the differences and similarities between the two nations and the effects that reunification might have on both sides. Today, as the US and N Korea seem to be facing off in a deadly game of chicken, this book gives a fascinating, and surprisingly nuanced and sympathetic view of North Korea questioning many of the stereotypes of both the North and the South.

Meeting with MY Brother is short and the pacing is slow but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a very interesting read. Not only did I enjoy it but of all the books I have read this year, it may be the most important. It has made me question most of what I though I knew about North Korea and, in his nuanced portrayal of a country painted black by the western press, it provides hope that a peaceful solution to the rising conflict can be reached. I cannot recommend it highly enough to anyone who is interested to see a different view of Korea than that portrayed in western media.

Thanks to Netgalley and Columbia University Press for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review

What a revelation about life in Korea! This book managed to capture the emotional aftermath of social and political conflict on family relations. Such brilliant insight is a rare gem!

Korea is divided and families are torn apart. What would it really be like to finally find the family you've never met? Would there be any common ground, or are the divisions between the two countries two great even for blood to overcome? Such are the questions explored in "Meeting with My Brother," the novella by Yi Mun-Yol, appearing here in a new translation by Heinz Insu Fenkl and Yoosup Chang.

I frankly acknowledge that my knowledge of Korean literature should be measured in negative numbers, and that my knowledge of Korean history and culture, my teenage study of Tae Kwon Do notwithstanding, is little better. So I was curious to see how much I would be able to get out of this story, especially as the reader is warned in the introduction that Yi's work "cannot be engaged superficially for the sake of entertainment or distraction," that Yi is noted for his "unusual use of language, particularly his method of layering thematic and psychological qualities under what appeared, on the surface, to be a rather straightforward and expository style," and that Yi has a "deep engagement with [Korean] tradition" that can be challenging even for contemporary Koreans, let alone Westerners.

Duly warned, I entered into the story with no little trepidation, but in fact on first read what stood out most strongly for me was Yi's "straightforward and expository style." Although this is not a story a Westerner would have written, it is at least on the surface level quite accessible to uninitiated readers like me. In fact, I would recommend it for anyone looking to dip a toe into Korean literature and not knowing where to start.

The plot is ostensibly simple, although it becomes more complicated under examination. A middle-aged professor from Seoul discovers that his father, who left the family during the war to join the North, is still alive and has a whole second family. It might be possible to set up a meeting in China, next to the North Korean border, but arranging it takes so long that the narrator's father passes away before the meeting can take place. Instead, the narrator meets with his half-brother. Initially, both men are suspicious, even hostile, towards each other, but then they discover common bonds of brotherhood.

In another writer's hands, the story could turn sappy, but Yi keeps the narrative controlled, almost dry, which only serves to heighten the emotions of the characters. Both of them are ambivalent about their families, their countries, and their current position vis-a-vis each other, and both find themselves at first concealing the truth from each other, and then letting it pour out as they perform a memorial service in their father's honor, before becoming estranged once again. And in truth, how else could a meeting like that go? The sorrow of the divided families/divided country of Korea is too profound to be aired out and resolved in a few short hours. Reconciliation and reunification are not going to happen overnight, either on the national or the personal level, something that is gently stressed by the appearance of the character Mr. Reunification, a dreamer who can't win over others to his cause. Even if there were to be a will, there would have to be a practical way to bring it about, and the other characters, looking at the examples from the Eastern Bloc/post-Soviet space (the novella was originally written in the mid-90s), are skeptical that reunification can happen quickly and easily. The business of practical arrangements and day-to-day living features in every aspect of the narrative, on every level, so that Professor Yi's too-short and unsatisfactory meeting with his brother stands in for the whole messy business of the two Koreas. "A Meeting with My Brother" is not tragic, but it has a gentle melancholy to it that is never, like the real life situation that inspired it, fully resolved. In the end, a beautiful story about the strengths and limits of family bonds.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Meeting With My Brother is a compelling story on two deliberately related themes as Yi Mun-Yol describes his first encounter with a younger brother he has never met. Towards the end of the Korean War Yi's father, an ardent supporter of the communist regime, fled into North Korea, leaving behind his wife and children in the hope that they would soon be reunited. As Korea remained divided this never came to pass and in trying to trace his father Yi discovers that he has remarried and raised a second family. It's a deeply personal narrative as Yi discovers that his father has recently died and is given the opportunity to meet one of his unknown siblings. The meeting is difficult and thought the narrative is restrained Yi manages to evoke the discomfort, the resentments, the misunderstandings and the uncertainty as two men bound by blood, but little else, jockey for understanding. It's an uncomfortable read but an affective one. Their culture, experience and politics are very different and they struggle to bridge religious and ideological gaps.

Alongside this exploration of the meaning of family runs a wider theme, that of the desirability and viability of a reunited Korea. This is addressed most directly in Yi's conversation with and about a pro-unificationist known as "Mr Unification". Interactions between this idealist and other more wary characters reveal the many challenges facing any plans for a united Korea. Mr Unifications calls on ties blood and a shared land and history, in short that a single "people" should have a single nation.

Yi's reservations about reunification based on such a romanticisation of a semi-historical, semi-mythological past are clear scepticism and caution and the practical difficulties and ideological tensions are openly discussed but they are most profoundly illustrated through his discussions with his brother. During these fraught exchanges there are some fascinating insights into Confucian and clan observations and rituals in South Korea and their equivalents (or lack thereof) in the North. The intricacies of family etiquette, particularly regarding the sons' relative responsibilities in honouring their dead father can occasionally be overwhelming but the confusion is actually a powerful support for the story as Yi's brother is equally unfamiliar with them and it becomes clear that a lack of an equally shared tradition shared ground causes suspicion and resentment. There is certainly a possibility for accord but the differences and challenges are starkly revealed.

Meeting With My Brother is a thoroughly realistic, personal and clear-sighted story. Yi is honest and clear about the the problems that dog both halves of Korea, from the economic problems of parts of North Korea to the corruption and exploitation in South Korea, openly admitting to his own collusion in the latter. It is a really admirable explication of the problems facing Koreans now and in the future and the emotional toll of unification on the small scale of two individuals powerfully illustrates the stakes.

Meeting with My Brother is a very intense read that will take a reader on a journey through Korean traditions and rituals and familial experiences and reconciliations. It was a definite page turner even when some of the lengthy descriptions on social issues seemed dry in comparison to other areas, the novella still held my overall attention.

Yi Mun-yŏl is one of Korea’s most respected authors. When he was a child, his father abandoned the family, defecting to North Korea. This shamed the family and left them impoverished as they were widely shunned as the family of a traitor. He quit school, contemplated suicide, and found his salvation in writing. In Meeting with My Brother, the main character is also named Yi, also the son of a defector, also the product of an impoverished struggle as the son of a traitor, also a man saved by writing, also famed throughout the world for his writing.

Yi Mun-yŏl thought for many years his father had died in one of the many North Korean purges, however after more than 30 years silence, he received a letter from his father telling him he had five siblings. In the novel, the fictional Professor Yi discovers his father is alive and travels to China where it borders North Korea in order to see his father who can be relatively easily brought across the border. Sadly, Kim, the man arranging it all was too slow and his father died, but Kim offers to arrange a meeting with his brother instead. The fictional Yi is surprised to learn he has siblings, two brothers and a sister, but agrees that he would like to meet him.

This is a quiet novel. It’s about the meeting between the South Korean and North Korean brothers, but also about the two countries and unification. There is even a character that Professor Yi calls Mr. Reunification who is there to proselytize. Yi is a subtle writer, planting quiet hints of revelations to come. Mr. Reunification and then a smuggler/tourist who personify a couple political positions toward unification as the brothers personify North and South Korea.

Unification is this dream/nightmare that haunts the Koreas. Families divided for decades dream of coming back together. Yet, those in the South fear the ideology and those in the North fear they will exploited. German unified but not without difficulty. Yemen unified and is now at war. The conversations are small, the story is small and yet, the themes are huge.

Meeting with My Brother will be released April 4th. I received an advance e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.


★★★★

Meeting with My Brother is a semi-autobiographical novella based on author Mun-Yol Yi's experience. Yi is a professor in South Korea. In the story, his father (as in real life) left South Korea on the heels of the Communist defeat and went to live in North Korea. His family that was left behind suffered terribly under the legal persecution of families who had a member who defected to the north.

Despite a childhood of extreme hardship and poverty, and constant moves to avoid retaliatory acts against them, Yi grew up to become a professor. His life now is a pleasant, somewhat affluent one. He decides to try to contact the father who abandoned him when he was a child. However, in the course of negotiating this meeting, his father dies. Instead, Yi decides to meet his half-brother, son of the family Yi's father formed in North Korea.

The meeting is intense. Both brothers come with baggage and resentments about each other. However, the connection they feel overwhelms their other feelings.

The heart of this book is the meeting between half-brothers, but there are also long sections commenting on the issue of reunification. I found the political discussions interesting but dryer than the emotional heart of the novel. I also felt at a disadvantage knowing only a little of Korean history. The book made me curious to learn more about the Koreas and the relationship between them.

On the whole, this was an emotionally powerful work that also seemed significant politically. I want to thank NetGalley, Columbia University Press and Mun-Yol Yi for the opportunity to read this fascinating work.

This is my first experience of Korean literature and, although a slim volume, I found it quite a challenging read as it contains a lot of detail about the history and politics of Korea, notably the separation of North and South Korea and prospects for reunification. There are a lot of allegorical features with characters representing particular aspects of ideological thought, such as Mr Reunification. Similarly the two brothers really represent the two parts of the divided nation. Only a small portion of the book covers the narrator’s meeting with his half-brother and, for me, these were the most successful aspects of the book with some interesting details of Korean tradition and rituals. The other parts I found quite dry. At times I felt the book verged on political essay rather than novel. What does comes across from the two brothers’ sharing of their experiences is that the people of each part of the divided Korea have suffered as a consequence of war, retribution (the law of “guilt by association”) and economic collapse. Ultimately, grief over their father’s death and this commonality of experience brings (albeit limited) reconciliation between the divided families.