The Language of Blood

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 244 pages
• Published by: Graywolf Press June 23, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1555974260
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1555974268
• Book Dimensions: 8.4 x 4.9 x 0.9 inches
• Weighs: 11.2 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
Trenka remembers with gross delight headless chickens dancing around until collapse at her adoptive family's farm. She writes, "I wanted my head to be removed, a metaphor so strong that only later did I realize that it was not a death wish at all. What I longed for was wholeness, for my body to be as white and Northern Minnesotan as my mind." Original and gorgeously written reflections like these fill Trenka's memoir, a brave exploration of her identity as a Korean adoptee and pensive young lady trying to negotiate between two mothers and two lives. She traces her life from young, eager-to-please child to questioning adolescent. Once at college, she is stalked by an acquaintance with a sick fascination with her Asian heritage, forcing her to ask important questions about exoticization and violence. Finally, she brings readers with her to Korea, where she is reunited with her birth mother and homeland. Unlike some first-time writers, Trenka is unafraid with her prose and rarely falls into cliches, which is especially admirable given the subject matter. She brazenly dabbles with playwriting, screenwriting, crossword puzzles, myths and dream sequences throughout her account. Her journey, from the conservative Christian roots of rural Minnesota to her cramped and corrupt homeland of Korea, is winding, but it ends at an important place for both reader and writer: transformation. She writes, "I have made it my task to reconstruct the text of a family with context clues, and my intent is to trust in the mysterious; to juxtapose the known with the unknown; to collect the overlooked."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
Adoption memoirs are not rare, but this one stands out because of the quality of the writing and because of the aspect of adoption it portrays. Jane at six months and sister Carol, at four and a half, Korean by birth, were adopted by a Minnesota couple with strong German Lutheran roots. The girls were from a home beset by poverty and the drunken abuse of their birth father. Being sent away was an act of love by their Korean mother. Their adoptive parents loved the girls and raised them as their own. And here lies the problem for Jane. Their Korean identity was never addressed, leaving her with a strong sense of not belonging in either culture. Eventual contact with her birth family leads to a rift with her American parents. The author interweaves the account of her life, already tangled in time and place, with legends and plays, creating an incredibly introspective and moving piece. Perhaps not a comfort to transcultural adoptive parents, but thought-provoking reading on an important issue. Danise Hoover
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Reader Reviews
I really liked this memoir. It is about the adoption of a Korean baby by a Minnesota family and that adoption's consequences. I liked the juxtaposition of Jane going back and forth, in her mind and heart as well as in reality, between the U.S. and Korea. I have often wondered about the international adoptions of Asian children, and the practice continues unabated today with Russian children being adopted in America. I don't think anyone who hasn't been through the experience could possibly relate to the horror of being taken from your mother, and then from your homeland. How terrible it must be, even for those who appear to have made the adjustment perhaps better than Jane. It appears that Jane's Minnesota family had no instruction, or even interest, in learning about Jane and her sister's background, either prior to the adoption or in the many years following, and unfortunately I think Jane is correct in her final conclusion that the American mother can't love her beyond a certain point because she just simply is not the child that the American mother wanted. Very sad. The book has moments of history and of humor in a book whose structure goes beyond the typical memoir. I finished the book wishing that I personally knew Jane, because she sounds very human and wise and open-minded and loyal and appears to have all those traits that draw people to her. I will be interested to learn if she has children of her own...... Comment | | (Report this)