Skull Water

Starred review from November 7, 2022
Fenkl returns a quarter century after Memories of My Ghost Brother with a mesmerizing narrative of a boy named Insu, whose mother is Korean and whose father served in the U.S. Army. After moving back to Korea from Germany in 1974, teenage Insu finds solace with his friends in rebellious acts like ditching school and selling stolen goods on the black market. Then Insu hears an ancient Korean myth from a monk that imbibing water collected from inside a human skull can cure any disease, prompting him to dig up a corpse in order to find skull water to cure his uncle, Big Uncle, a geomancer who suffers from a gangrenous foot and has been exiled to a cave to die. Fenkl elegantly weaves Insu’s quest, which doesn’t go quite as planned, with a parallel story of Big Uncle in the 1950s during the Korean War. Throughout, the author sustains an otherworldly sense of time and place, and brings to life conceits from Korean folktales (“Past and future—only the words are different, and if one disposes of them, all things become smooth and easy”). It’s a lovely achievement. Agent: Rob McQuilkin, Massie & McQuilkin.

January 1, 2023
An epic story that is as much about the modernization of Korea as the coming-of-age of its protagonist. It's 1974, the Year of the Tiger, and 14-year-old Insu--son of a Korean mother and a German American father stationed at Camp Casey--is determined to find the legendary "skull water" that he thinks will cure his Big Uncle's infected foot. His mission drives him through a series of adventures: He sells medical supplies and military equipment on the black market in Sinchon, has an experience at an ancestral grave that will haunt him and his friends, and embarks on a side quest through the shadowy network of Itaewon clubs, loan sharks, and dogfights to find his friend Miklos after his mysterious disappearance. Spliced between episodes of Insu's story are the experiences of Big Uncle, a geomancer who narrowly survived the Korean War in the '50s. Drawing from the author's life and the oracular structure of the Zhou Yi, an older form of the I Ching, the novel reveals that time is "elastic, like a lump of noodle dough, that you can stretch it out and fold it up and double and redouble it in dreams." Fenkl's writing is strongest in its meditations on karma, the lingering shadows of the Japanese occupation of Korea, the impending influence of American hegemony, the complexities of political and filial loyalty, and the struggle to feel at home. Early on, some scenes read as if they are vehicles for these meditations, but the novel comes into its own in the second half as it unites narrative power with philosophical musings with spectacular results. A courageous and profound novel.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from November 1, 2022
Korea, 1974. It's early summer in the Year of the Tiger, and 14-year-old Insu, his mother, and little sister An-na have returned to their native Korea, where Insu will soon be reunited with his friends Paulie, Miklos, and Patty. All four are mixed race, having white soldier fathers and Korean mothers. Speaking of mothers, Insu, in due course, will visit his mother's oldest brother, Big Uncle, who has a gangrenous foot with a stench that forces him to live alone in the woods. Concerned, the three boys learn of a superstition that if one drinks water from a skull, any illness they have can be cured, even Big Uncle's. But there is the problem of finding a skull. In the meantime, the story flashes back to 1950 and the Korean War, allowing readers to observe Big Uncle's adventures as a young man. There is much more to come in this incident-rich coming-of-age tale, which is informed by Insu's many losses and the pervasive air of melancholy they engender. There is also a hint of magic realism with the introduction of ghosts and a shaman. The result is a brilliant novel populated by a wonderful cast of characters and boasting a number of beautifully realized set pieces that will live in the reader's memory.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.