Reviews with content warning for Chronic illness - Pachinko

I read this book in two forms: hardcover and audio. I preferred listening to it. It's a beautiful, mostly sad, story of a Korean family living in Japan. The struggle of Koreans who were not fully accepted into Japan, either legally or socially, was new to me. I'm glad I read this and learned about this piece of history.

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lschmidt's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This is a historical family saga set in Korea and Japan throughout the 20th century. It follows four generations of a Korean family through the political turmoil of Japanese colonization, the hardship of wartimes, seeking a new and better life in Japan, and witnessing the home they left become divided into two countries they hardly recognize.

As someone who knows very little about Korean history, this book ... teaches us a chapter of modern history we might not have been aware of.

Many Koreans found themselves forced to move to Japan to find jobs for their families, but they faced discrimination and disgusting living conditions when they arrived. Pachinko, we soon find out, is a kind of Japanese arcade game, and working in a pachinko parlor was considered a typical job for a Korean looking to get ahead. Many Japanese looked down upon pachinko parlor workers, viewing them as shady and dishonest, and owners of pachinko parlors were often referred to as "gangsters".

It was both interesting and deeply saddening to hear about what these people went through, how easy it was for Koreans to be imprisoned indefinitely without trial. And after years of hardship and discrimination, after pushing through and finally earning enough money to have stability, many could never go back. Korean-Japanese (third, fourth, fifth generation even) were refused citizenship in Japan but most came from North Korea, a place they could no longer safely return to.

The fictional characters the author creates come sparking off the page - from the resilient Sunja who once foolishly believed in the love of an older man, to Noa who will never quite recover from the dishonor of his lineage, to Solomon who is still trying to escape the negative stereotypes associated with Koreans many years after his grandmother arrived in Japan. It is a heartbreaking story and, sadly, much of this book was the reality for many Koreans.

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mckenziecampbell's review against another edition

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reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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emmagreenwood's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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n_asyikin_'s review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

An intergenerational story that follows the effect of displacement from colonialism & war. Complex & nuanced, it follows multiple characters in a way that at once shows depth, but done in a mostly straightforward, observational way. Sometimes, the writings do feel slightly detached, in such that rarely do we get to explore the characters introspectively. That being said, Lee was a masterclass at engaging me as the reader, to comtemplate the unsaid aspects of the story, especially in terms of the formation of identity & sense of belongliness while exploring the racialized world.

That being said, there were definitely tendencies to skimmed past certain events, or role a character plays; the appearance & disappearance of certain characters tend to be abrupt. It left me feeling as if some of their stories were incomplete or unsettled. But it isn't really that glaring to the point that it significantly disrupts the reading experience. In fact, it rather fits the detachment that seemed to colour the narration. Though this may irks some readers.

Consider this book as reading the history involving one family & the people who are significant in their lives. Each of them has their own life & experiences to tell; making Pachinko a book consists of varying stories weaved by their connections to Sunja & her family. It's explorative, rely on the readers' ability to extract its depth. And it's moving in a way that I think captures Sunja best - a quiet & subtle way that were significant only in hindsight.

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bobbijopmh's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A long, meandering family saga set in Korea & Japan spanning several generations of the same family.

I'm not normally one for historical fiction, but I found Min Jin Lee's writing to be very engaging and the characters to be complex. Overall it was a very enjoyable (but long) read. There were a few missing time periods that I think would have been interesting, but obviously a book can't cover everything and still be a publishable length.

It was very enlightening on some historical aspects I was unaware of, too.

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nothingforpomegranted's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This sprawling family saga follows a Korean family from 1910 through four generations across Korea and Japan, exploring themes of devotion, discrimination, class, poverty, and family.

Hoonie is born with a limp and a cleft lip in a small town in rural northern Korea in 1883, causing tremendous distress for his family who feared he would be unable to work or to marry; Hoonie manages to do both. He and his wife Yangjin run a boardinghouse and adore their daughter Sunja, whose life takes us into the rest of the novel.

After her father's death, Sunja works with her mother to serve their guests and provide a positive experience that they can all be proud of. When she meets and becomes pregnant by a middle-aged man who turns out to have a wife and children back in Japan, Sunja is saved by a sickly pastor who offers to marry her and bring her with him to his brother's home in Japan. Isak, Sunja, Yosef, and Kyunghee live a stoic, quiet, humble life, working desperately to provide for themselves, Isak's new church and the coming children. Noa is born, then Mozasu, and the family grows tighter and more reliant on each other, taking over the kitchen to make kimchi and candy to sell. As the boys mature, their lives in school and at work begin to diverge, and the introduction of the fourth generation takes the story in a tragic direction.

Min Jin Lee's writing is spare, using short sentences and very little imagery, and I found it difficult to be immersed in the story because the choppy language just didn't pull me in. Though I was intrigued by the characters, their range of personalities and their relationships with each other, I expect more texture from a family saga, and I didn't get that from Pachinko. I learned a lot about Japanese and Korean culture, and I appreciated the deft way Lee explored history--including the bombing of Nagasaki at the end of the Second World War--through the eyes of her characters, not making a big deal of big events, but addressing them as her contemporaneous characters would understand them. Indeed, there was plenty that I was prompted to research after reading (though Lee might have taken it a bit too far in that direction, because sometimes I wasn't even sure what to look up).

For those who are curious about the history of this region during this extended time period but do not usually read literary family sagas, I think this is an accessible one to pick up. Given the many other reviews I've read, it seems that my lukewarm attitude is an unpopular opinion, so take it all with a grain of salt.

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