Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨
Title: Pachinko
Author: Min Jin Lee
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: Busan, Korea / Osaka, Japan
Month Read: April 2022
Book Type: Hardcover
Publication: 2017
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Pages: 490
*Book of the Month Selection
TRIGGER WARNING-
Racism / Sexual Content / Suicide / Genocide / Murder / War / Misogyny / Abuse / Religious Persecution (there are more, these are the big ones)
"Fill your mind with knowledge—it’s the only kind of power no one can take away from you."
No Spoiler Summary:
Pachinko is a multi-generational tale about a Korean family who moves/is displaced in Japan in the early 1900s. You follow Sunja through history to almost present-day, and also follow the tales of her family- her mother and father, her children, and those she forges familial relationships with throughout the novel.
You are taken through the arcs of history, from the Japanese invasion of Korea, to the Pachinko parlors of Osaka and beyond, where Koreans tried to make a living that would take themselves out of the raging, devastating poverty they experienced in their new land.
Review:
I'm so glad I finally got around to reading this truly fantastic novel. Sweeping, multi-generational (feminist?) tales have sort of been my jam this year, and along with The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois, Pachinko did not disappoint. I also loved that this partially took place near where The Island of Sea Women took place, so I was a little familiar with the setting, which is always a nice surprise when reading about a country you're not super knowledgeable about.
The characters in this novel are incredible, and I felt like they always kept me engaged, and interested in their hopes, plights, successes, and grief. You really want Sunja, and later on, her family, to do well, and to be okay in as best a way they can given the extremely racially motivated hatred that the Japanese gave to Korean settlers.
The book is long, and it's a little slow to pick up, so I wouldn't recommend it if this isn't your cup of tea, but once the story starts to move, you're buckled in for a pretty wild ride- especially after arriving in Japan. I learned a lot from this novel, and I really can't wait to dive into some more books about Korea, and I'm glad to have been able to read it in time to watch the show on Apple+!
Recommendation:
Korean Historical Fiction:
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
Multigenerational Family Dramas:
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Booth by Karen Jow Fowler
"He was suffering, and in a way, he could manage that; but he had caused others to suffer, and he did not know why he had to live now and recall the series of terrible choices that had not looked so terrible at the time. Was that how it was for most people?"
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