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.
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Human problems of cultural identities, discrimination, and family in an uncommon setting. Well-written.
Pachinko is a family saga that spans almost 90 years. Handicapped Hoonie enters an arranged marriage with Yangjin, and after a number of miscarriages, they finally conceive and have Sunja. Sunja grows up to be a responsible, hardworking young lady who helps her mother run a boarding house after Hoonie dies. Koh Hansu, a local merchant, has eyes for Sunja, and things get complicated. It follows their lives and Sunja’s children & grandchildren as they struggle to be accepted in Japan. A well-written book with well-developed characters!
Don’t be daunted by the number of pages. This is a great saga that moves quickly. Summaries can be found on various websites, but this is well worth your time.
the descriptions of the characters and places were very evocative. I learned a great deal about the troubled relationship between Koreans and Japanese people
Not only was the story engaging and well written, I found the background history of Japan, the two Koreas and China to be very informative. I learned a lot.
Important and completely unknown (to me) part of Asian history that permeates today’s cultures. Well-told saga of 4 generations of a Korean family from 1910 when Japan first occupied Korea through WWII and beyond. Painful consequences for the occupied people, including those who relocated to Japan, and lived there for generations, without any rights of citizenship.
Allows the reader to absorb the Korean experience in Japan before and after WW2 while being thoroughly engrossed in the story, and inspired by the characters who work hard and are decent in situations which would turn most people into beasts.
A Wonderful Book. Just read the first page and you will wish the book continued without end.
This book left me thinking about it long after it ended
Brilliantly written
What a powerful insight into Korean life in Japan. Beautiful written
Very enlightening account of the abrasive historic relationship between Korea and Japan.
Amazing story of discrimination between the Korean & Japanese people before and after WW2 and Korean War. Incredible story of how people survived with little to nothing and the value of education. Besides, it a great story.
this was such an interesting, well written book with many nuances. Great learning not just about Korean culture, but the challenging relationship between Koreans & Japanese cultures, much of which still exists today.
Excellent
Good character development. Historical background woven into an interesting plot.
An interesting story, very informative about the lives of Koreans in Japan both on the farm and out in the world, over 3 generations. The author portrays the ethnic tensions in the culture as a whole, and brings alive the nastier aspects of the mannerly culture of Japan.
As a child, I was fascinated by the Pachinko machine in my grandparent’s basement, with its pinging balls, steady rhythms, and mysterious writing (kanji, I learned much, much later). No doubt, these memories drew me to Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, whose title caught my eye immediately.
I am embarrassed to say, I initially thought Pachinko was a foreign book. As is true of many foreign books, it starts a bit slowly, meandering through an unfamiliar landscape, the language close and the characters lilting. The National Book Award designation might have clued me in, but sadly I didn’t notice it until I was nearly finished. No matter. The “foreign” feeling that infuses Pachinko is a testament to Lee’s writing, that she so captures her characters and their environs that I truly *believed* they were foreign.
So who are these characters? Pachinko begins with the story of Hoonie and Yangjin, boardinghouse owners eking out an existence for themselves and their young daughter, Sunja, in the early years of the Japanese occupation of Korea. Over the course of nearly a century, and across the generations, Lee traces the triumphs and trials of their progeny, who leave Korea early to work menial jobs in Japan. Through their eyes, the reader experiences the Depression, World War II, the Korean War and subsequent cleaving of the country, on through Japan’s emergence as one of the world’s dominant economies.
To say “triumphs and trials” sounds trite, but Lee imbues her characters with such humanity that Pachinko is anything but. Additionally, I was fascinated by the plight of ethnic Koreans in Japan, a topic about which I was completely ignorant. (And for good reason as Lee explains int he afterward, in which she describes the lengths to which Koreans go to hide their ethnicity, even those whose families have lived in Japan for four or five generations.)
Another aspect of the book I loved was the evolution of Japan over the course of almost the entire twentieth century. From being encouraged to fight the Americans with bamboo spears and grappling with the fallout from the atomic bombs, to the role of women and the rules around Japanese identity and citizenship, and even the place and power of the yakuza, Lee captures the disparate sensibilities that make Japan Japan even today.
Pachinko is an outstanding read, whether one has an interest in Japan or not. For those who do, Pachinko is simply that much more rewarding.
(This review was originally posted at http://www.thisyearinbooks.com/2018/02/pachinko.html)
Absolutely loved it. Had the privilege of reading a galley before it was published because Min Jin Lee, the author, was going to be speaking at an event I was attending. I couldn’t put it down.
Great story about the history of japns invasion of Korea and discrimination suffered by Korean immigrants. A educational and very interesting novel. The characters are well developed and the reader has a heart felt relationship with them. Highly recommened
Loved this book. Loved the characters. Much history of Norh and South Korean people, and how they were regarded by the Japanese as the book spans a time period when the Koreans left their country because of hardship and went to Japan where their lives were not any better.