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A review by sanfriedchicken
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
dark
emotional
informative
sad
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? No
3.0
*FINALLY! SOME GOOD FUCKING FOOD!*
I liked this one. This big big book follows three generations of the Korean Baek family from Yeongdo, an island south of the peninsula in the early 20th century during Japanese occupation, to Japan in the 1980s where everything is different. Sunja, who I’m going to call the book’s main character, marries a Korean preacher and moves to Osaka after getting pregnant by a Yakuza in Yeongdo. From there, a story of perseverance, love, family and loss unfolds over 500 pages.
I liked this a lot. There were so many characters, but i felt that they were still characterised fairly well, even though we see each for what is sometimes just a short time. The book felt more solid in the beginning, then felt choppier as it got into the middle, exploring Noa and Mosazu’s lives.
Koh Hansu floating around the Baek family for literally the whole book felt… a little too good to be true. Like, their fate would have been dire if they didn’t have him around and that really grounded this book in the world of fiction for mer. No hate, and I’m not one to say fiction needs to be ‘realistic’. I just felt that with so much loss and the theme of ordinary folk being lost to history, the omnipresent, anonymous benefactor just seemed a little out there.
This book is long which isn’t a complaint. IMO it wasn’t long enough because there was one detail they didn’t follow up on, which i am VERY upset about. WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENS TO NOA’S KIDS AND WIFE AFTER THE SUICIDE? Wow got prohibited-level step-sibling fucking but we didn’t get an update on them??
I actually hate that Isak went out like that. The spaces in time between scenes were sometimes jarring. Sometimes felt like they could have been good if filled out a little. The ending was… unsatisfactory but i get it. I love how Sunja stared as an illiterate daughter of peasants and became a woman who leaves her Saint Laurent purse on the ground outside like its nothing lol.
I liked this one. This big big book follows three generations of the Korean Baek family from Yeongdo, an island south of the peninsula in the early 20th century during Japanese occupation, to Japan in the 1980s where everything is different. Sunja, who I’m going to call the book’s main character, marries a Korean preacher and moves to Osaka after getting pregnant by a Yakuza in Yeongdo. From there, a story of perseverance, love, family and loss unfolds over 500 pages.
I liked this a lot. There were so many characters, but i felt that they were still characterised fairly well, even though we see each for what is sometimes just a short time. The book felt more solid in the beginning, then felt choppier as it got into the middle, exploring Noa and Mosazu’s lives.
Koh Hansu floating around the Baek family for literally the whole book felt… a little too good to be true. Like, their fate would have been dire if they didn’t have him around and that really grounded this book in the world of fiction for mer. No hate, and I’m not one to say fiction needs to be ‘realistic’. I just felt that with so much loss and the theme of ordinary folk being lost to history, the omnipresent, anonymous benefactor just seemed a little out there.
This book is long which isn’t a complaint. IMO it wasn’t long enough because there was one detail they didn’t follow up on, which i am VERY upset about. WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENS TO NOA’S KIDS AND WIFE AFTER THE SUICIDE? Wow got prohibited-level step-sibling fucking but we didn’t get an update on them??
I actually hate that Isak went out like that. The spaces in time between scenes were sometimes jarring. Sometimes felt like they could have been good if filled out a little. The ending was… unsatisfactory but i get it. I love how Sunja stared as an illiterate daughter of peasants and became a woman who leaves her Saint Laurent purse on the ground outside like its nothing lol.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Suicide