78
secret language of knowing glances and inside
jokes. That was something that only yellow-
haired soldiers could do. I would be forever
tainted by a Koreanness.... (253–254)Memories of My Ghost Brother was well received
by both critics and readers, and was named a PEN/
Hemingway finalist in 1997. Fenkl collaborated
with another writer for his second novel, Shadows
Bend: A Novel of the Fantastic and Unspeakable
(2000), which was published under a pseudonym.
Fenkl is the coeditor of Kori: The Beacon Anthology
of Korean American Literature (2002) and Century
of the Tiger: One Hundred Years of Korean Culture
in America (2003). He has also published numer-
ous short stories, translations of Korean fiction
and folklore, and articles on folklore and myth.
Currently, Fenkl is working on Skull Water—the
sequel to Memories of My Ghost Brother—and on
Old, Old Days When Tigers Smoked Tobacco Pipes, a
book on Korean myths, legends, and folktales.
Bibliography
Fenkl, Heinz Insu. Memories of My Ghost Brother.
New York: Dutton, 1996.
———. Heinz Insu Fenkl, Director, ISIS. Specta-
tor interview by Piya Kochhar, “The Making of a
Novel.” Available online. URL: http://www.geoci-
ties.com/area51/rampart/2627/fenklpage.html.
Accessed September 21, 2006.
Kim, Elaine H. “Myth, Memory, and Desire: Home-
land and History in Contemporary Korean Amer-
ican Writing and Visual Art.” In Holding Their
Own: Perspectives on the Multi-Ethnic Literatures
of the United States, edited by Dorothea Fischer-
Hornung and Heike Raphael-Hernandez, 79–91.
Tubingen, Germany: Stauffenberg-Verlag, 2000.
Hyeyurn Chung
Fifth Book of Peace, The
Maxine Hong Kingston (2003)
Like MAXINE HONG KINGSTON’s first two books,
The WOMAN WARRIOR (1976) and CHINA MEN
(1980), The Fifth Book of Peace is a mix of fiction
and nonfiction, autobiography and legend. The
book’s central topic is the potential connection be-
tween literature and nonviolence. Its first section,
“Fire,” chronicles the Oakland Hills Fire in Octo-
ber 1991, which resulted in California’s largest-
ever wildfire-related home loss, with more than
2,000 residences destroyed. Kingston had been
working on a manuscript entitled “The Fourth
Book of Peace” for nearly a decade, but when
she returns to her gutted home after the fire, she
finds that the entire manuscript—all print copies
and backup computer files—has been reduced to
ashes and melted plastic.
The second section, “Paper,” presents the Chi-
nese legend surrounding the three “Books of Peace,”
manuscripts produced at various times through-
out Chinese history for the purpose of promoting
peaceful resolutions to cultural conflicts. Accord-
ing to legend, the “Books of Peace” were burned
by government officials who wished to perpetuate
state-sponsored violence so that the pacifist teach-
ings contained in the books would not be made
available to the Chinese people. Kingston also dis-
cusses the long tradition of “the literature of war”
in Asian and European cultures, and suggests that
a fully developed “literature of peace” would assist
cultures in developing nonmilitaristic ways of re-
solving conflicts.
“Water,” the third section, is an attempt at re-
constructing Kingston’s lost manuscript. A self-
contained novella, “Water” takes up the story of
Wittman Ah Sing, the protagonist of TRIPMASTER
MONKEY (1989), immediately after the ending of
that novel. Ah Sing, his wife, Taña, and their son,
Mario, move from California to Hawaii in an at-
tempt to keep Wittman from being drafted and
sent to Vietnam. In Hawaii, Wittman and his fam-
ily find themselves at the center of a growing anti-
war movement and help set up a “sanctuary” at the
Church of the Crossroads. After weeks of living at
the sanctuary, Wittman hears rumors that the U.S.
military is preparing to raid the church and arrest
the residents. The antiwar community braces for a
confrontation with prowar forces, while Wittman
and Taña make plans to ensure that Mario will
never have to face a similar threat when he reaches
draft age.78 Fifth Book of Peace, The