Memories of My Ghost Brother by Heinz Insu Fenkl
Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ 8/10
This book was unique because it told the story of a half-German, half-Korean boy growing up in Korea after the Korean War, when American GIs were still stationed throughout South Korea, and the Vietnam War was ongoing. It’s a time period I had never really read about, and to be honest, a geographical setting I hadn’t read much about either. The influences of Western occupation in South Korea still manifest in pop culture, so reading about the early stages of it was very interesting. Even in South Korea, there was a sort of racism against Korean-ness amongst the GIs, and an equal loathing for foreigners among the native Koreans.
The most salient point was what happens when logical and emotional instincts collide. For many Korean women, marrying a GI was their ticket to America, where they could start new (and better) lives. But to do so, they had to navigate the tricky social scene of dating outside their race, and into a very exclusive group of foreigners at that. Sometimes mothers had to choose between their child’s life and a chance at freedom. We get to hear this from a child himself, and we see how these tumultuous times affect his childhood and his path towards adulthood.
Peter's Life 