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jess_segraves's review
4.0
4.5 stars. I picked this novella up on a whim as part of trying to learn more about Korean history, and it's excellent. Although sold as fiction, it has a very autobiographical feel and there's a lot to unpack about family, abandonment, political conviction, and ideology.
bookish_arcadia's review
4.0
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 easy 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.
Thank you to Columbia University Press and Netgalley for providing a free advance copy of this work.
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 easy 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.
Thank you to Columbia University Press and Netgalley for providing a free advance copy of this work.
reemable's review
4.0
الرواية قليلة الصفحات كما هو واضح بالطبع.
كما هو مكتوب في غلافها الخلفي فإنها تتحدث عن لقاء خيالي بين الراوي الذي يعيش في كوريا الجنوبية وأخيه لوالده الذي يعيش في كوريا الشمالية في فترة ليست بعيدة عن انفصال الكوريتين.
الترجمة كانت جيدة، والأسلوب كان بسيطًا. برغم اعتباري لهذه الرواية كوجبة خفيفة إلا أن ما أعجبني فيها العرض.
كيف عرض الكاتب وجهه نظر مؤيدي الوحدة ورافضيها، وكيف يمكن أن يرى الإخوة بعضهما البعض في ظل ظروف سياسية ما. كيف يمكن للسياسة أن تؤثر في مشاعر البشر تجاه بعضهم البعض!
كما هو مكتوب في غلافها الخلفي فإنها تتحدث عن لقاء خيالي بين الراوي الذي يعيش في كوريا الجنوبية وأخيه لوالده الذي يعيش في كوريا الشمالية في فترة ليست بعيدة عن انفصال الكوريتين.
الترجمة كانت جيدة، والأسلوب كان بسيطًا. برغم اعتباري لهذه الرواية كوجبة خفيفة إلا أن ما أعجبني فيها العرض.
كيف عرض الكاتب وجهه نظر مؤيدي الوحدة ورافضيها، وكيف يمكن أن يرى الإخوة بعضهما البعض في ظل ظروف سياسية ما. كيف يمكن للسياسة أن تؤثر في مشاعر البشر تجاه بعضهم البعض!
sisa_moyo's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
shinee666's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
tonstantweader's review against another edition
4.0
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.
★★★★
http://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2017/03/17/9780231178648/
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.
★★★★
http://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2017/03/17/9780231178648/
arirang's review against another edition
3.0
Perhaps that is what reunification is, only on a grander scale and all at once: meeting a brother whose face you've never seen.
이문열 (Yi Mun-yol) is perhaps my favourite South Korean author from the post-war generation, based on his classic My Twisted Hero, his first novel, The Son of Man, which was one of my favourite reads of 2016 (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1488409068) and the excellent The Poet (see https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2099293567).
He was born in Seoul in 1948. His father, an intellectual, was jailed by the Japanese for his activism and politically was a member of the Korean Worker's Party. When, during the Korean war, Seoul was re-captured by the American and Southern forces in 1950 his father fled, leaving the family behind, to the North, where he lived out the rest of his life. His family were later to hear in the mid 1950s that, due to his ongoing Southern connections, the elder To had been purged, and had presumed he was dead, only to receive a smuggled letter from him in the mid 1980s, that he had survived, although imprisoned for many years, and had started a new family with 5 children from his new, second, wife.
Yi Mun-yol's family suffered similarly: "because of a guilt-by-assocation system, we were restricted from being part of mainstream society". This history impacted Yi's fiction in two clear ways. Firstly, the concept of the outsider or wanderer and the themes of estrangement and division is endemic to his themes, albeit usually any references to his own situation are purely implicit or metaphorical. Second, and my his own admission: "the resulting fright led me to remain mute or compliant to the political circumstances of the early 1980s - that has been a big burden on me."
아우와의 만남 published in 1994, was his attempt to address this history more directly. The novella is fictional but highly autobiographical. The South Korean first person narrator Professor Yi, has a very similar family background to the author. Through a broker he attempts to arrange a meeting (illegal in both South and North) with his father in a Chinese city near the border with North Korea. Before the meeting can be fixed, word comes that his father has died, but the broker offers to arrange instead a meeting with one of his half-brothers from the North. As the novella opens he is waiting for this brother to arrive and the book is set over the following days describing the conversations that follow their meeting.
[It should be noted that Yi Mun-Yol himself didn't have such a meeting, this is his attempt to come to terms with his situation by imagining such an encounter and its consequences.]
The novella was originally translated (as Appointment with My Brother) in 2002 by Suh Ji-Moon. It has been re-ranslated as Meeting with My Brother by Heinz Insu Fenkl with his student Yoosup Chang. Fenkl's aim in retranslation, which was done in very close collaboration with the author, seems to have been twofold:
- to add (written by Yi Mun-Yol himself and then translated by Fenkl) some small glosses and one whole new passage of 5 pages, the latter describing the events of 1948 causing his father to flee North, to add context for non-Korean readers; and
- to bring out the entomology particularly of family names that is key to the story, particularly to the connection between the two families of the elder Yi.
There is also a very personal and poignant connection for Fenkl with his own novel Memories of My Ghost Brother based on his own upbringing in South Korea, son of a Korean mother and German-American US army father, and his own separation from his half-brother.
As the opening quote suggests, as well as exploring the personal, Yi's novella also explcitly sees the meeting with a half-brother as a metaphor for Korean reunification. And this is a warts-and-all rather than starry-eyed, view of the difficulties involved in each encounter, as well as a balanced critique of both societies. Towards the novel's end Professor Yi addresses his brother, albeit in his mind rather than verbally:
You know the present is not ideal, but don't let that make you impatient for an unrealistic future. Don't be tempted by a revolution without thinking through the consequences. The time will come.
Overall, rather less literary than Yi Mun-Yol's other works due to the more direct and autobiographical nature of the story and the more overt, albeit even-handed, politics. But vital to understand his other - wonderful - works. 3 stars.
이문열 (Yi Mun-yol) is perhaps my favourite South Korean author from the post-war generation, based on his classic My Twisted Hero, his first novel, The Son of Man, which was one of my favourite reads of 2016 (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1488409068) and the excellent The Poet (see https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2099293567).
He was born in Seoul in 1948. His father, an intellectual, was jailed by the Japanese for his activism and politically was a member of the Korean Worker's Party. When, during the Korean war, Seoul was re-captured by the American and Southern forces in 1950 his father fled, leaving the family behind, to the North, where he lived out the rest of his life. His family were later to hear in the mid 1950s that, due to his ongoing Southern connections, the elder To had been purged, and had presumed he was dead, only to receive a smuggled letter from him in the mid 1980s, that he had survived, although imprisoned for many years, and had started a new family with 5 children from his new, second, wife.
Yi Mun-yol's family suffered similarly: "because of a guilt-by-assocation system, we were restricted from being part of mainstream society". This history impacted Yi's fiction in two clear ways. Firstly, the concept of the outsider or wanderer and the themes of estrangement and division is endemic to his themes, albeit usually any references to his own situation are purely implicit or metaphorical. Second, and my his own admission: "the resulting fright led me to remain mute or compliant to the political circumstances of the early 1980s - that has been a big burden on me."
아우와의 만남 published in 1994, was his attempt to address this history more directly. The novella is fictional but highly autobiographical. The South Korean first person narrator Professor Yi, has a very similar family background to the author. Through a broker he attempts to arrange a meeting (illegal in both South and North) with his father in a Chinese city near the border with North Korea. Before the meeting can be fixed, word comes that his father has died, but the broker offers to arrange instead a meeting with one of his half-brothers from the North. As the novella opens he is waiting for this brother to arrive and the book is set over the following days describing the conversations that follow their meeting.
[It should be noted that Yi Mun-Yol himself didn't have such a meeting, this is his attempt to come to terms with his situation by imagining such an encounter and its consequences.]
The novella was originally translated (as Appointment with My Brother) in 2002 by Suh Ji-Moon. It has been re-ranslated as Meeting with My Brother by Heinz Insu Fenkl with his student Yoosup Chang. Fenkl's aim in retranslation, which was done in very close collaboration with the author, seems to have been twofold:
- to add (written by Yi Mun-Yol himself and then translated by Fenkl) some small glosses and one whole new passage of 5 pages, the latter describing the events of 1948 causing his father to flee North, to add context for non-Korean readers; and
- to bring out the entomology particularly of family names that is key to the story, particularly to the connection between the two families of the elder Yi.
There is also a very personal and poignant connection for Fenkl with his own novel Memories of My Ghost Brother based on his own upbringing in South Korea, son of a Korean mother and German-American US army father, and his own separation from his half-brother.
As the opening quote suggests, as well as exploring the personal, Yi's novella also explcitly sees the meeting with a half-brother as a metaphor for Korean reunification. And this is a warts-and-all rather than starry-eyed, view of the difficulties involved in each encounter, as well as a balanced critique of both societies. Towards the novel's end Professor Yi addresses his brother, albeit in his mind rather than verbally:
You know the present is not ideal, but don't let that make you impatient for an unrealistic future. Don't be tempted by a revolution without thinking through the consequences. The time will come.
Overall, rather less literary than Yi Mun-Yol's other works due to the more direct and autobiographical nature of the story and the more overt, albeit even-handed, politics. But vital to understand his other - wonderful - works. 3 stars.
avalinahsbooks's review against another edition
5.0
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
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.
Book Blog | Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter
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.
Book Blog | Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter
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