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A review by art_humaniser
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
5.0
Book 1: Hometown
A life filled with nostalgia of one sensory experience, pungency. The pungency of sweat resulted from hard labour, fear, betrayal, the grief of the lost loved ones, and last but not the least marinated cabbages. People generally scrub their skin to red to remove such stench, but what if instead of denying the reality of life one accepts it, maybe even embrace it. Becomes comfortable with the brown dirt marks under the cuticles, understands that a woman's life is suffering.
"The decent father had begged the matchmaker to find grooms for his unmarried daughters, since it was better for virgins to marry anyone than to scrounge for food when men and women were hungry, and virtue was expensive"
Book 2: Motherland
1 out of 113 people on earth is a refugee. Who decides the boundaries between human beings. Who decides that living among pigs or selling one's humanity out of necessity is a desperate measure for survival, not a lazy act of greediness? Who decides that God is fair?
“Noa—because he obeyed and did what the Lord asked. Noa—because he believed when it was impossible to do so.”
"There was nothing else he could think of, and he wanted to spare her the cruelty of what he had learned, because she would not believe that she was no different than her parents, that seeing him as only Korean—good or bad—was the same as seeing him only as a bad Korean. She could not see his humanity, and Noa realized that this was what he wanted most of all: to be seen as human."
"How could she defend gangsters? There were organized criminals everywhere, she supposed, and she knew that they did bad things, but she knew that many of the Koreans had to work for the gangs because there were no other jobs for them. The government and good companies wouldn’t hire Koreans, even educated ones. All these men had to work, and there were many of them who lived in their neighborhood who were far kinder and more respectful than the men who didn’t work at all. She couldn’t say this to her son, however, because Noa was someone who had studied, labored, and tried to lift himself out of their street, and he thought all the men who hadn’t done so weren’t very bright, either. He would not understand. Her son could not feel compassion for those who did not try."
Book 3: Pachinko
Who decides that years worth of honest hard labour, could be blanketed under a slur? 3 Generations swept under the war of who deserves natural citizenship. Who decides which country is great and which, is lousy? No wonder regardless of how broken it is, people still have their American dream.
PS: learning has no age, no boundaries.
"There’s nothing fucking worse than knowing that you’re just like everybody else. What a messed-up, lousy existence. And in this great country of Japan—the birthplace of all my fancy ancestors—everyone, everyone wants to be like everyone else. That’s why it is such a safe place to live, but it’s also a dinosaur village. It’s extinct, pal. Carve up your piece and invest your spoils elsewhere. You’re a young man, and someone should tell you the real truth about this country. Japan is not fucked because it lost the war or did bad things. Japan is fucked because there is no more war, and in peacetime everyone actually wants to be mediocre and is terrified of being different. The other thing is that the elite Japanese want to be English and white. That’s pathetic, delusional, and merits another discussion entirely.”
“Mozasu, don’t you think it would be wonderful to live in New York City or San Francisco?” she’d ask him occasionally, and it was his job to say that he couldn’t decide between the two coasts.
“There, no one would care that we are not Japanese,” she’d say. Hello, my name is Yumi Baek. This is my son, Solomon. He is three years old. How are you? Once, when Solomon asked her what California was, she had replied, “Heaven.”
“I grew up eating pizza and hamburgers. And lots of Kentucky Fried Chicken. I love the KFC corn on the cob.” She smiled. “Mom worked in my dad’s medical office as his office manager and was never home before eight o’clock.”
The women nodded, trying to understanding this.
“Mom was always working. She did all the medical paperwork at the dining table next to us kids while we did our homework. I don’t think she ever went to bed until midnight”
A life filled with nostalgia of one sensory experience, pungency. The pungency of sweat resulted from hard labour, fear, betrayal, the grief of the lost loved ones, and last but not the least marinated cabbages. People generally scrub their skin to red to remove such stench, but what if instead of denying the reality of life one accepts it, maybe even embrace it. Becomes comfortable with the brown dirt marks under the cuticles, understands that a woman's life is suffering.
"The decent father had begged the matchmaker to find grooms for his unmarried daughters, since it was better for virgins to marry anyone than to scrounge for food when men and women were hungry, and virtue was expensive"
Book 2: Motherland
1 out of 113 people on earth is a refugee. Who decides the boundaries between human beings. Who decides that living among pigs or selling one's humanity out of necessity is a desperate measure for survival, not a lazy act of greediness? Who decides that God is fair?
“Noa—because he obeyed and did what the Lord asked. Noa—because he believed when it was impossible to do so.”
"There was nothing else he could think of, and he wanted to spare her the cruelty of what he had learned, because she would not believe that she was no different than her parents, that seeing him as only Korean—good or bad—was the same as seeing him only as a bad Korean. She could not see his humanity, and Noa realized that this was what he wanted most of all: to be seen as human."
"How could she defend gangsters? There were organized criminals everywhere, she supposed, and she knew that they did bad things, but she knew that many of the Koreans had to work for the gangs because there were no other jobs for them. The government and good companies wouldn’t hire Koreans, even educated ones. All these men had to work, and there were many of them who lived in their neighborhood who were far kinder and more respectful than the men who didn’t work at all. She couldn’t say this to her son, however, because Noa was someone who had studied, labored, and tried to lift himself out of their street, and he thought all the men who hadn’t done so weren’t very bright, either. He would not understand. Her son could not feel compassion for those who did not try."
Book 3: Pachinko
Who decides that years worth of honest hard labour, could be blanketed under a slur? 3 Generations swept under the war of who deserves natural citizenship. Who decides which country is great and which, is lousy? No wonder regardless of how broken it is, people still have their American dream.
PS: learning has no age, no boundaries.
"There’s nothing fucking worse than knowing that you’re just like everybody else. What a messed-up, lousy existence. And in this great country of Japan—the birthplace of all my fancy ancestors—everyone, everyone wants to be like everyone else. That’s why it is such a safe place to live, but it’s also a dinosaur village. It’s extinct, pal. Carve up your piece and invest your spoils elsewhere. You’re a young man, and someone should tell you the real truth about this country. Japan is not fucked because it lost the war or did bad things. Japan is fucked because there is no more war, and in peacetime everyone actually wants to be mediocre and is terrified of being different. The other thing is that the elite Japanese want to be English and white. That’s pathetic, delusional, and merits another discussion entirely.”
“Mozasu, don’t you think it would be wonderful to live in New York City or San Francisco?” she’d ask him occasionally, and it was his job to say that he couldn’t decide between the two coasts.
“There, no one would care that we are not Japanese,” she’d say. Hello, my name is Yumi Baek. This is my son, Solomon. He is three years old. How are you? Once, when Solomon asked her what California was, she had replied, “Heaven.”
“I grew up eating pizza and hamburgers. And lots of Kentucky Fried Chicken. I love the KFC corn on the cob.” She smiled. “Mom worked in my dad’s medical office as his office manager and was never home before eight o’clock.”
The women nodded, trying to understanding this.
“Mom was always working. She did all the medical paperwork at the dining table next to us kids while we did our homework. I don’t think she ever went to bed until midnight”