SKULL WATER

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.