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If you dont know about the Japanese occupation in various countries, this could be eye opening/informative while including characters that you either love or hate.
Personally as someone who has family affected by the Japanese occupation, I already knew a lot of the negatives of Japan during that time and thought some parts/descriptions were gratuitious.
There were also a lot of characters to keep track of and some parts of many of their stories felt too rushed because there were so many. I felt that we didn't get enough time with one tragedy before immediately moving on to another (which I understand that in life, especially during war and immediately after, tragedies can come right after another without giving the sufferers enough time to even process it but as a reader, it would've been nice to sit with certain things longer than a brief 2 sentences and a brief few sentences afterwards at the end. So I would've preferred cutting down on characters and expanding on certain tragedies and how the characters cope/lived with it).
Read content warnings because there is a lot.
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Ableism, Cancer, Drug abuse, Dementia, Abortion, Deportation
The characters are complex and multidimensional, the prose is beautiful and careful in how it describes each event and each decision made by the characters. The historical context is given without it being overwhelming or dry and it makes it all feel urgent.
I breezed through this book and I'll definitely pick up other works by Min Jin Lee. Highly recommend!
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation
Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Classism
Moderate: Suicide
Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Terminal illness, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Racism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Classism
Moderate: Bullying, Death, Misogyny, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Suicide, Violence, Alcohol
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Xenophobia
Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Bullying, Abortion, Alcohol
Graphic: Colonisation
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment
Minor: Child death, Torture, Police brutality, Trafficking, Alcohol, War, Deportation
Minor: Ableism, Bullying, Suicide, Abortion, Colonisation, War
By page five I knew this was going to be my favorite five star read of the year. Pachinko is a sweeping story of a Korean family in Japan that spans four generations -- from 1900 to 1989. Sunja, the main character of the book is a young girl when she finds herself pregnant and unmarried. What follows is an incredible story of love, resilience, family, and heartbreak. I think this story was also really connective for me because of my time spent in Japan. It was easy for me to draw up my own memories there. I can still hear the pachiko parlors as I walked up the side street to the train station in Yokosuka.
Min Jin Lee did a phenomenal job writing a story that was painful and sad at times without making you feel complete obliteration (I'm looking at you A Little Life). While parts of the book are gut wrenching (August 1945) the theme of resiliency rings true. Despite colonization, political strife, racism,
This book made me cry, twice actually. Five stars.
Graphic: Xenophobia, Grief
Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Pregnancy, War
Minor: Ableism, Cancer, Infertility, Car accident
Graphic: Colonisation
Moderate: Hate crime, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cancer, Infertility, Abandonment