''Brother Fish'' is a

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

written by

Bryce Courtenay Arthur Bryce Courtenay, (14 August 1933 – 22 November 2012) was a South African-Australian advertising director and novelist. He is one of Australia's best-selling authors, notable for his book '' The Power of One''. Background and early ye ...

that was published in 2004.

Plot summary

Brother Fish is a story spanning four continents and eighty years, though the bulk of the narrative takes place in Australia and

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republi ...

. The book deals with the friendship of Jacko McKenzie, a native of the (fictional) Queen's Island in the

Bass Strait Bass Strait () is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland (more specifically the coast of Victoria, with the exception of the land border across Boundary Islet). The strait provides the most direct wat ...

, and James ‘Jimmy’ Pentecost Oldcorn, an orphaned American ex-soldier. The two have been meeting at the Gallipoli Bar of the

ANZAC The Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was a First World War army corps of the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. It was formed in Egypt in December 1914, and operated during the Gallipoli campaign. General William Birdwood comm ...

Hotel, Launceston,

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

, for 33 years, ever since their release from a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of ...

camp in

. A key feature of the novel is Jacko's recounting of his army days, first as an infantryman who enlisted too late to see any service in World War II and then as an infantryman in Korea. It was during this time that Jacko met Jimmy, an American soldier, and the book delves into the background of the latter.

Major themes

The

Korean War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Korean War , partof = the Cold War and the Korean conflict , image = Korean War Montage 2.png , image_size = 300px , caption = Clockwise from top: ...

is a major theme of the first third of the book - in particular, its status as "the forgotten war", the poor performance of American troops, the brutality of the

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n regime of

Syngman Rhee Syngman Rhee (, ; 26 March 1875 – 19 July 1965) was a South Korean politician who served as the first president of South Korea from 1948 to 1960. Rhee was also the first and last president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Ko ...

, and the crimes against POWs. Another common theme throughout the novel is music, specifically the

mouth organ A mouth organ is any free reed aerophone with one or more air chambers fitted with a free reed. Though it spans many traditions, it is played universally the same way by the musician placing their lips over a chamber or holes in the instrument, a ...

, which Jacko and his family are rather adept at playing. Jimmy repeatedly reminds Jacko that this music possibly saved both of them from near-certain death in Korea. The novel explores the

White Australia policy The White Australia policy is a term encapsulating a set of historical policies that aimed to forbid people of non-European ethnic origin, especially Asians (primarily Chinese) and Pacific Islanders, from immigrating to Australia, starting ...

by way of the obstacles Jimmy encounters trying to secure permanent residency in Australia. In a similar vein, references appear throughout the book to Australia's racist history and its treatment of the

aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

population as second-class citizens.

Dedication

* Dedication: "For Owen Denmeade and Geoff and Phyllis Pike. Also, all the veterans of the Korean War"

Critical reception

Writing in ''

Australian Book Review ''Australian Book Review'' is an Australian arts and literary review. Created in 1961, ''ABR'' is an independent non-profit organisation that publishes articles, reviews, commentaries, essays, and new writing. The aims of the magazine are 'to ...

'' Gillina Dooley noted: "Jacko, of course, is the narrator. A first-person narrator can express all sorts of views that are ironically undercut by the author's implied values. But I can see no sign of this in ''Brother Fish''. Perhaps this is, finally, the secret of Courtenay's success. He doesn't bother his readers with any of that liberal stuff about what you can and can't say. He takes us back to a time when nobody would object if you labelled all women as manipulative and all Asians as inscrutable. As long as you say you're not racist, or sexist, then you're not. The very language is nostalgic, full of old-fashioned Australian colloquialisms and what present-day television authorities would call 'medium level coarse language'."

Publication history

After the novel's initial publication by Viking in Australia in 2004 it was reprinted as follows: * 2005

Penguin Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...

, Australia * 2007 Michael Joseph, UK * 2008

, Australia

References