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. ( )

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 ( )

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/ ( )

The famed South Korean writer imagines meeting his North Korean brother after the death of his father--a defector to the North in the narrator's youth (a fact that parallels the author's life). The narrator, a professor of history who has suffered as a result of his father's defection, joins a tour group to Yenji, a chinese border town from which groups are allowed to see the famed Mt. Baektu and other North Korean sights. In this town, he meets his brother while at the same time encountering members of his group, who have their own agenda, political and economic. The narrative encompasses much discussion of unification along with many poignant episodes of cultural misunderstandings between the two brothers, who have an undeniable bond of brotherhood, despite years of resentment toward one another. Included in this story is an interesting explanation of the genealogical traditions of family namings, provided with a clarity and thoroughness I haven't seen before. Written in 1994, the novella is a snapshot of the politics of unification (prior to the Sunshine Policy) at that time.

An Appointment with My Brother opens with the main character learning of the death of his father, who abandoned the main character and his mother to defect to the North in the aftermath of the Korean War. Hoping for some sort of closure, the protagonist hires an ethnic-Korean Chinese facilitator to arrange a meeting with his half-brother, the events of which form the majority of the narrative. Although technically a work of fiction, An Appointment with My Brother is really a crash course on the lingering effects of the Korean War--betrayal, abandonment, separation, propaganda, survival--and the people--Communist sympathisers, human traffickers, smugglers, refugees, divided families--affected by the conflict. Although the majority of the novella's characters are ciphers rather than individuals and the main character the vehicle by which they are introduced to the reader, Yi's narrative is remarkable for successfully working so many big issues into such a small amount of page space, and for doing it in such a way that the ciphers don't seem like mere ciphers, or the exposition like mere exposition. If you're interested in the Korean peninsula and can get your hands on this volume, I definitely recommend it.