A New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year and National Book Award finalist, Pachinko is an “extraordinary epic” of four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family as they fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan (San Francisco Chronicle). NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2017 * A USA TODAY TOP TEN OF 2017 * JULY PICK FOR THE PBS NEWSHOUR-NEW YORK TIMES BOOK CLUB NOW READ THIS * … NEWSHOUR-NEW YORK TIMES BOOK CLUB NOW READ THIS * FINALIST FOR THE 2018 DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE* WINNER OF THE MEDICI BOOK CLUB PRIZE
Roxane Gay’s Favorite Book of 2017, Washington Post
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * #1 BOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER * USA TODAY BESTSELLER * WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER * WASHINGTON POST BESTSELLER
“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.”
In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant–and that her lover is married–she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son’s powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.
Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan’s finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee’s complex and passionate characters–strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis–survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history.
more
This book should have been shorter. It was great to a point, then about half-way through, the author seemed to throw in a bunch of stuff which should have been saved for a second book in this family saga. The second half of the book covered a totally different story line about the characters. I really liked the first half of the book. The author needed a better editor.
It’s always hard to read a well-written novel with deeply appealing characters who get treated terribly. The story of oppressed Koreans living in Japan. Pachinko as cultural touchstone and metaphor for peoples’ lives… worth reading.
This book got top scores from our book club. So much if the history I never knew. I loved this book.
Great read
War, racism, abject poverty, and crippling class systems are threads in this valediction to enduring family love and the indomitable human spirit. The book spans nearly 60 years and four generations, beginning with pre-WW II Korea and Japan in 1989. Sunja, the peasant girl who ties all the story, threads together, becomes pregnant by a man who can give her unimaginable wealth. She refuses to marry him. The one somewhat incredible plot point that drives the whole story is her subsequent marriage to a minister who takes her out of Korea to Japan. The life of hardship that follows supports Sunja’s belief that a woman’s fate is to suffer. Overriding all else is being Korean in Japan. Sunja’s journey is filled with work from dawn to dawn with a child adopted by her husband but kept secret from the child and his half brother. That secret, of course, will have far-reaching consequences. What keeps Sunja going is her fierce love for her sons. She never really wavers from believing that all her sacrifices were worth the better life for her children and grandson. My only quibble with the book is the title–a apt metaphor for what plays out in this unforgettable story. During this time of COVID-19, the book gives me hope that despite the upheaval to our lives, we may yet find comfort in the amazing stories of courage like Sunja’s. Highly recommended.
One of the best books I’ve ever read. Helps you understand what immigrants go through and feel.
Saga about a Korean family living in a Japanese culture. Spans many generations.
One of the best books I have read in a long time. The author has a talent for making her characters and the story jump off the page. You feel you are there part of the story. You become immersed in the story and can’t put it down because you come to know and like or despise the characters and want to know what happens. And there are many surprises that you never see coming. She a true gift for making you feel and you can see everything because of her descriptive writing but she’s not overly wordy.which I hate! She has just the right balance. Get this book now it’s so worth it.
It was eye opening for me, about cultures I knew little about.
A good look at the cultural differences between Korea and Japan.
Hands down, one of the very best books I have ever read! Amazing!
If the historical part is true, very interesting to learn about what the Japanese inflicted upon Korea. It’s really tragic.
So much to learn about the 2 cultures described in this book – Japan and Korea.
It was a wonderful read, generated much discussion about the lives of the Koreans in japan, the effect of being an immigrant population in a dominant society.
Despite the title, this is NOT a story about a popular Japanese arcade game. Instead, it is a multi-generational story of one family that the author uses to explore the complex relationship between native-born Koreans and native-born Japanese.
Beginning in Korea in 1910 with a couple of peasant farmers (just as Japan is about to occupy the Korean Peninsula), author Min Jin Lee traces their descendants across seven generations (until 1989) as they work toward bettering their lives in Japan, using opportunities provided by religion, education, and business. However, this is not a typical rags-to-riches story. Because at the heart of every relationship each family member has along the way is the deeply rooted prejudice native Japanese have toward non-natives. Even after they have lived in Japan for many generations.
Japanese prejudice against Korean seems particularly acute, perhaps because so MANY Koreans moved to Japan, many because of the Korean War, and wound up doing many of the jobs Japanese weren’t interested in. (sound familiar?) The discrimination they experienced was and still is manifested in attitude, housing, employment, custom, and law — establishing, in effect, a class system which limits the kind of life non-native can establish in Japan.
On the plus side I learned a great deal about both Korean and Japanese cultures including their abiding respect for elders, the unfailing importance of politeness, much ingrained sexism, and the value placed on extended family. I found the story of Sunja — the teenage daughter of poor innkeepers who unknowingly gets involved with a shady businessman — particularly compelling.
On the minus side, as Lee began to tell the later stories of younger family members, I felt the book lost some focus. Instead of a single central character I came to care about, there were many more stories threads to track. And the chapters often skipped years so I began to feel that I was following the family saga through a series of vignettes, instead of reading one continuous story.
Nevertheless, a very worthwhile and educational novel.
Takes place in a small portion of Korea where the locals are second class citizens in their own country due to Foreign occupation that leaves few options open to them. Quite informative and historical weaving a very interesting story.
I loved reading about such courageous, strong women living in a society I knew nothing about.
An Impactful Book.
I read this much more than a year ago and it continues to challenge my mind, my world.
learn a little history
Very original – loves books that draw you in and introduce you to something completely new to you. Highly recommend!
Great storyline. Interesting, sad and informative.