Writers resist selling out happily ever after

Call it the Amy Tan problem. The Chinese-American author has been so successful that every publisher wants their own Amy Tan - and no other style of Asian-American writing will do.

Oriental eyes, foreign food and language plus some mysticism or even barbarity about their origin country are needed, Asian-American writers say. And those who want to move on from that get short shrift from publishers.

Heinz Insu Fenkl thinks of himself as a patient man, but he was getting to the end of his endurance after 10 years spent trying to get his first novel published.

The problem with Memories of My Ghost Brother, which was finally published this spring, was that it did not 'fit' the Asian-American stereotype. In other words, it was not a cheerful, accessible immigrant novel where quaint, plucky characters go to the United States from somewhere in Asia and after some initial difficulties with the language and curious local customs, live happily ever after.

'It's a Korean-American novel but it's not the typical assimilation narrative. Most said 'the writing's good but we don't think we can sell it',' says Fenkl, who lectures in Asian-American literature at Vassar College in New York.

'It didn't fit into the Asian-American category because it doesn't address identity, immigration or assimilation issues in the way that most successful Asian-American books do. I do address those issues but from a different angle - in a way that is a problem for the genre.

'Also, it's set in Korea, not the US. Some publishers said it would be 'richer' if it was narrated from the US looking back on Korea. By the time I had finished the book I had taught Asian-American literature for three years and I noticed that almost all Asian-American novels were US-centred, and I wanted to add something to that catalogue that was not. I didn't want it to be an immigrant novel.