Fenkl's account of childhood is a tale of two cultures and the gulf between them. His often absent father, a US army sergeant fighting in Vietnam, pulls him towards an illusory and prejudiced America, but the boy's roots are embedded in his Korean mother's war-destroyed land. Here is a place steeped in otherworldly mystery, ancient tradition and everyday cruelty: a beautiful, sad, dangerous playground where bullies brandish knives and half-remembered images haunt the protagonist like the ghosts from his uncle's stories. This lovingly detailed memoir burns with delicate poetry, a genuine sense of disenchantment and the pain of disenfranchisement.
