Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - Pachinko

Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

76 reviews

jiwiz's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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maria_elizabeth_harden_pope's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

I loved this book for so many reasons. I loved that the characters are so busy being real people that they can't always do what you feel like they should do. I love that even minor characters get a little bit of exploration. I love that even as the number of characters multiply by the chapter you don't feel like you lose the connection to earlier characters. I love that the book sometimes just chooses plain exposition rather than elaborated emotional description. Sometimes the narrator can only report what the people are doing, not why they are. And I think the characters are maybe having a similar experience. I love that everything feels a little bit coincidental and random, which I think is actually really hard to achieve for such a large novel. Why not five stars? I don't know.... I think maybe you leave feeling like you have shared people's lives, but in the end its nothing more than that? But maybe that in and of itself is profound. Idk idk

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laurajenkins's review against another edition

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I kept hoping something would happen. Nothing but gratuitous sex. No plot.

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hoolen's review against another edition

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inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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lanid's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

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jkunke's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

3.0

This book is beautifully written but it’s trauma porn. The author clearly did a lot of historical research but doesn’t write as if she has experience working with people who have experienced trauma. Instead many of her characters come off as two-dimensional stereotypes. And many people describe one of the main characters as a love interest but there is nothing romantic about him or about their relationship; he and their relationship are terrible, manipulative and abusive.

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accidentalfolklore's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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? Yes

4.5

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emmaopaline's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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scrapeen's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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kenzieburns's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

A truly touching story spanning 4 generations of love, loss, and everything in between. I'll start by saying: this book is definitely a slow build kinda read, but I was so entranced with the story and the characters that I hardly noticed the lack of action until reflecting on each part. I think the author did a good job of balancing storytelling/immersion in the characters with small tidbits of revelation of deeper meaning/symbolism behind somethings. There were times in the book where I wanted to throw one (or more!!) of the characters against the wall, or shake them and say "why are you being so stupid???" but I think that's a sign of really well-written characters. I also appreciated learning more about the Korean immigrants' experience and struggle in living in Japan during the 20th century. Noa's story is particularly heartbreaking, and I stared at the page where

he shot himself for a bit too long, thinking "wait, what? no! what? for real? no!!" and the way that it wasn't really talked about anymore after the fact?? Like, he really truly died. Heartbreaking.

The author also balanced transitions really well, as in switching from focus on one generation/characters to the next. I felt like I was growing with the characters, and by the time narrative focus shifted to the next generation, I was ready to move on to their perspective. I also have to take a moment to reflect on the title and how it played into the story:

"Pachinko" didn't really come up until midway through the book, and even then it was just a job for Mozasu at first. And, Mozasu was written to be a bit unlikable, in my opinion, until Noa rejected his heritage and you really only had Mozasu to support. The symbolism of Noa's suicide, even when he was the "good" child, but Mozasu's prosperity thanks to embracing his heritage as Korean is particularly striking. Also, Soloman's eventual rejection of Western life to instead run the pachinko business really speaks to the whole idea that you can't escape your heritage, and maybe you shouldn't try to. And that sometimes, the only choices life gives you are "bad" ones.

One thing I'm left thinking about is how the characters in this novel were constantly delt hard hands, from Sunja's struggles bearing a bastard child to a minister to <spolier> Solomon's termination because of "bad looks" , and it was so, so hard for them to get by, let alone get a leg up. Like, they had to make some of the "bad" decisions they did, because there was no way for them to survive otherwise. It really put some perspective on the immigrants struggle for me, in a light I hadn't really seen it before. Like, the playing field is never level, and everyone's choices need to be taken in context of the rest of their lives, because they truly might not have had any other options.

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