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4.36 AVERAGE
4.36 AVERAGE
I totally recommend the book.
It was heartbreaking, interesting, so many characters and I learned so many things about that part of the story
It was heartbreaking, interesting, so many characters and I learned so many things about that part of the story
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This book dealt with a lot of racism/xenophobia issues and I learned a lot about Koreans in Japan in the 20th century. The historical perspective was a good one, and I'm glad I chose to read this well-loved story for the SG Genre Challenge prompt "Historical fiction that takes place somewhere other than the US or UK." That said, Pachinko didn't touch me like some other multi-generational sagas have, and I'm not sure exactly why. I was always interested enough in the characters' own struggles to keep reading, but there were some...choices about what to include and what to ignore that confused me.
The family's story is rife with poignant moments and hard lessons, but there were some loose ends that I was hoping would be addressed. Namely,I wanted more about Noa and his children. I understand why Sunja didn't want to go to the funeral and introduce herself but the readers could have been let in a little.
I also HATED Hansu. Which is good. It's good to have a villain, better to have a mobster villain, but I wanted him toget his just desserts. Or at least die. Or really maybe I just wanted a little chapter about what happened to him.
I don't think anything from this story will stay with me as much as the time that Hansubeat the shit out of his girlfriend in the car outside Yumi's funeral I mean - WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT? IT was so descriptive and disturbing that it sticks in my mind as I write this.
The family's story is rife with poignant moments and hard lessons, but there were some loose ends that I was hoping would be addressed. Namely,
I also HATED Hansu. Which is good. It's good to have a villain, better to have a mobster villain, but I wanted him to
I don't think anything from this story will stay with me as much as the time that Hansu
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Xenophobia
Minor: Drug use, Rape, Abortion
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
"i talk to the dead although i don't believe in ghosts. but it makes me feel good to speak with them. maybe that is what god is. a good god wouldn't have let my babies die. i can't believe in that. my babies did nothing wrong."
so many thoughts about this book! i thought the writing style was lovely - it was almost factual in terms of its tone. describing things unbiasedly in order of events as though they were fact and i think it really worked well for the story MJL was setting out to tell and the time period it was based in.
it was really interesting learning about the japanese occupation in korea and how heavily they were involved in displacing a lot of families and then rejecting them, forcing japanisation of korean names... all things i didn't know about before reading this book. feel very grateful to understand a little bit more about the world.
something i am stealing from reddit is that this book feels epic and intimate to which i'd agree, i loved the scale and loved the characters you felt when you closed the book that they were people you were really going to miss.
now onto some things i disliked about pachinko. honestly, i am an atheist and find reading characters who are heavily religious a bit grating sometimes because i just don't understand how they feel at all haha. especially during the lives of our poor characters in pachinko because like the first quote i picked said: "a good god wouldn't let my babies die. i can't believe in that" and like there is nothing quite like delving into ww2 fiction or reading about events that happened at that time (or any time in human history, to be honest) for me to be like yep - this REALLY makes me a non believer because either god is a psychopath or actually hates his own creations.
anyway, goodreads is not the place to chat theology but that is something that detracted from the book for me.
another thing was HONESTLY pachinko was TOO bleak for me. most people read books for escapism (myself included) but sometimes i also read sad books to feel seen. for example i really like books about sad women in a rut because it makes me feel seen (eg, conversations with friends, sorrow and bliss, norwegian wood). but honestly yeah this was too sad, and i file it under a similar feeling to a little life. i wish the poor ladies had some respite from how cruel the world is and i feel that just wasn't really shown.
i think it's expressed that the years where sunja has both mozasu & noa and they're living contentedly in osaka with baek isak could be maybe what i was searching for? but later on in the book when one of the children is lost it feels like an unnecessary plot point to just elevate the suffering of sunja for no reason.
i don't mind reading suffering because everyone grieves and the human experience is learning to grow from what knocks us down but yeah, please give these hardworking korean ladies a break please, it was hard to keep reading sometimes.
as much as the above part seems negative, i really still enjoyed this book and i am excited to watch the apple tv adataption. i think it's always good to reflect on what i liked and didn't like about books otherwise they become hard to discern in my mind if i read a lot in a year.
in conclusion, the tenacity of women and their endurance is a fucking marvel. the female characters in this book were excellent. they were ruthless, complex and multi faceted in their fight against a society that places them into a box of duty and subservience. “a woman's lot is to suffer.” and suffer they did; for better or for worse.
"every morning mozasu and his men tinkered with the machines to fix the outcomes - there could only be a few winners and a lot of losers. and yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones. how could you get angry at the ones who wanted to be in the game? etsuko had failed in this important way - she had not taught her children to hope... pachinko was a foolish game, but life was not."
so many thoughts about this book! i thought the writing style was lovely - it was almost factual in terms of its tone. describing things unbiasedly in order of events as though they were fact and i think it really worked well for the story MJL was setting out to tell and the time period it was based in.
it was really interesting learning about the japanese occupation in korea and how heavily they were involved in displacing a lot of families and then rejecting them, forcing japanisation of korean names... all things i didn't know about before reading this book. feel very grateful to understand a little bit more about the world.
something i am stealing from reddit is that this book feels epic and intimate to which i'd agree, i loved the scale and loved the characters you felt when you closed the book that they were people you were really going to miss.
now onto some things i disliked about pachinko. honestly, i am an atheist and find reading characters who are heavily religious a bit grating sometimes because i just don't understand how they feel at all haha. especially during the lives of our poor characters in pachinko because like the first quote i picked said: "a good god wouldn't let my babies die. i can't believe in that" and like there is nothing quite like delving into ww2 fiction or reading about events that happened at that time (or any time in human history, to be honest) for me to be like yep - this REALLY makes me a non believer because either god is a psychopath or actually hates his own creations.
anyway, goodreads is not the place to chat theology but that is something that detracted from the book for me.
another thing was HONESTLY pachinko was TOO bleak for me. most people read books for escapism (myself included) but sometimes i also read sad books to feel seen. for example i really like books about sad women in a rut because it makes me feel seen (eg, conversations with friends, sorrow and bliss, norwegian wood). but honestly yeah this was too sad, and i file it under a similar feeling to a little life. i wish the poor ladies had some respite from how cruel the world is and i feel that just wasn't really shown.
i think it's expressed that the years where sunja has both mozasu & noa and they're living contentedly in osaka with baek isak could be maybe what i was searching for? but later on in the book when one of the children is lost it feels like an unnecessary plot point to just elevate the suffering of sunja for no reason.
i don't mind reading suffering because everyone grieves and the human experience is learning to grow from what knocks us down but yeah, please give these hardworking korean ladies a break please, it was hard to keep reading sometimes.
as much as the above part seems negative, i really still enjoyed this book and i am excited to watch the apple tv adataption. i think it's always good to reflect on what i liked and didn't like about books otherwise they become hard to discern in my mind if i read a lot in a year.
in conclusion, the tenacity of women and their endurance is a fucking marvel. the female characters in this book were excellent. they were ruthless, complex and multi faceted in their fight against a society that places them into a box of duty and subservience. “a woman's lot is to suffer.” and suffer they did; for better or for worse.
"every morning mozasu and his men tinkered with the machines to fix the outcomes - there could only be a few winners and a lot of losers. and yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones. how could you get angry at the ones who wanted to be in the game? etsuko had failed in this important way - she had not taught her children to hope... pachinko was a foolish game, but life was not."
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Miscarriage, Suicide, Death of parent, War
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
One of my fav books this year!! My eyes were truly opened to how Koreans were treated in Japan, when simply trying to keep their families safe and fed. One of my favorite parts of this book was how food/cooking food was so beautifully written. 🤤I could practically smell the hot barley rice!! I want to eat pumpkin taffy! The vulnerability of the kimchi business (and Noa getting teased about his lunch) ripped my heart out.😭 I wanted to take Sunja and give her the biggest hug and tell her what an amazing, amazing job she was doing. She made that shit work, raised a beautiful family, stayed true to her values, opened a business, and stayed kind!! What really stuck with me through this book was how hard the women worked, up until their death. AND THEN EVEN THO THEY SAVED THEIR FAMILIES TIME AND TIME AGAIN AND PAID OFF DEBTS AND KEPT EVERYONE FED THEY GOT TALKED DOWN TO BY MEN. I’m gonna need Hansu to stfu and leave our girl alone. 😡 exception for Esak, who was a literal angel man and good communicator and understanding soul. 🫶 I loved Chonghee and Sunja’s sister relationship, and I just wanted someone to tell Sunja it wasn’t her fault. 😭 I also loved Mozasu and Solomon’s relationship (very Esak coded ❤️)
In the conversation of six star books, I think this would be a six star read for me. I can’t breathe because the ending made me cry so hard. While this book is long, I was completely enveloped in it the entire time and thought about it constantly. I think it’ll be in my mind for a long time to come. I’m still working through my thoughts on it, but I absolutely adored this book.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Sexual assault, Suicide, Abortion, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Classism
Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Grief, Fire/Fire injury
i finally finished!!! I really liked this one! i’m not usually a historical fiction person, and as a very slow reader it was a challenge to get through the length. but with how VAST this story is, it felt appropriate. fitting an 80 year long story of four generations of a family in one book is crazy impressive to me.
there are so many smaller characters introduced (lots towards the end) that touch the family who are incredibly interesting, but at times it was hard for me to get attached to them because they’re present in the story for such a (relatively) short amount of time.
overall i would recommend it!! i’m in love with sunja’s story, and I was in tears at the end <3
there are so many smaller characters introduced (lots towards the end) that touch the family who are incredibly interesting, but at times it was hard for me to get attached to them because they’re present in the story for such a (relatively) short amount of time.
overall i would recommend it!! i’m in love with sunja’s story, and I was in tears at the end <3
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Amazing
I loved this story and how it was written a powerful story what a fantastic journey it takes you on - I learnt alot
I loved this story and how it was written a powerful story what a fantastic journey it takes you on - I learnt alot
