Min Jin Lee

(37) How could I not have read this book before now? This is really exactly the type of book I love. Multi-generational family sagas that also transport to another time and place with historical context and subcontext. A story centered around a poor Korean woman who is impregnated by a married man and is married off to a kind sickly minister who is nursed back to health in the families rural boarding house. He moves with his wife to his new church in Osaka where they become one of the many show more Korean foreign nationals living in Japan - always looked down upon and systemically discriminated against forevermore despite becoming a successful family. In many ways it is a classic rags to riches story over several generations held together by the humble materfamilias. They make their money with a Korean style slot machine game called 'Pachinko.' I think it could have been called 'Casino' in America and been somewhat of an Italian-American story and would have the same connotation. It was a transcendent reading experience (much like Noa's obsession with the great novels of English lit) - rather like a Middlemarch or one of the chunkier Dickens like 'Bleak House.'

The writing is excellent. A half star off only because I felt that although we had multiple third person narrators throughout, there was not as much introspection or examination of motivations, etc. of each character. I think it was an artistic choice as opposed to lack of skill, but I would have preferred a deeper dive in some instances. The closest we got was Sunja's self realization that she lived for her sons and that maybe that wasn't right; almost a form of selfishness - I loved her mother's brutal honesty as she was dying. I also think the female characters were much more deeply portrayed than the male ones. But these are minor quibbles in what was otherwise a fine modern example of a traditional well written novel. No gimmicks. No OVERT politically correct diatribes. No deux ex machina or ridiculous magical realism nor post-modernism. Wonderful. It is so nice to know that there are young authors who have the ability and the desire to write like this.

Highly recommended for lovers of 19th century English lit., in addition to readers of some of our finest modern day story-tellers like David Mitchell, Jhumpha Lahiri, Vikram Seth. Bravo! show less

"History has failed us, but no matter" belongs up there in the pantheon of opening lines, and it's especially apt, given that this is not quite a "historical novel", but a novel which uses the vicissitudes of real history - the Japanese occupation and annexation of Korea, the migration of Koreans to Japan for work, the devastation of WW2, the partition of Korea - to follow an ordinary Korean peasant family from the very early part of the 20th century near to its end as successive generations show more experience poverty, fall in love, settle in Japan, try to make money, survive wars, encounter racism, and, most of all, try to turn their sorrows into fulfilling lives. Korean history is something I have large gaps of understanding in relative to Japanese and Chinese history, particularly prior to WW2, so I would have appreciated this novel even if it hadn't been so affecting. Many questions of Korean identity are raised repeatedly by Koreans, South Koreans, North Koreans, and Korean-Japanese; I don't have any special take on that, but for me the pleasure of the novel lies in how these lovingly rendered characters make their choices, and how those choices define their lives but also present new opportunities even when they're really painful. Pachinko is, of course, a popular game for gamblers, and the central idea that fate and freedom are present in every moment is very movingly presented here. show less

Pachinko is a sprawling multi-generational book spanning the 20th century, from when Japan colonized Korea before WWII, took people’s land and levied taxes, pretty much devastating Korea’s businesses, families and culture. The story speaks of misfortune, poverty and loss as it follows Sunja’s family. We meet her parents, then follow Sunja and her minister husband Isak and two sons as they move to Japan and start new lives. To complicate things, Sunja is also infatuated with a much show more older Korean man who also has moved to Japan. Isak gets a position in a church but Christianity is outlawed in Japan Christians are commanded to worship the emperor which leads to Isak’s arrest. Sunja and her sister-in-law start a business, and work hard to give Sunja’s sons a good start in life.

At first I was annoyed by all the information, all the characters and stories until I learned that the author had performed numerous interviews, then I felt like I was reading about actual lives. Many Koreans had emigrated to Japan after their country was devastated, and even after Japan becomes their homeland, generations live as “Korean-Japanese” who must periodically register as alien residents.

The characters who are flexible and meet the challenges presented by fate are able to adjust and find success on Japan’s terms. Sometimes this means they must align with gangsters, as when they work in the lucrative Pachinko business. Those who try to pass for Japanese may be the worst off. Women had limited social roles and were scrutinized and judged in all their actions. The game Pachinko is one of chance, though the business owners have some control and may even rig the outcomes. Like the game, a theme of fate and random chance runs throughout, and many of the characters do manage to change their destiny. But the book’s overriding theme is love. show less

I read this for the 2018 Tournament of Books; I probably wouldn't have picked it up otherwise and I'm very glad I did. In some ways Lee has written a standard family saga (three generations through immigration, war, social change, etc.) but also a very non-standard one. Her family are Korean immigrants to Japan, and the character who connects them through the generations is a woman. For readers who don't know much about the people or the period, Lee does an excellent job of describing the show more second-class treatment of Koreans and the prejudice and discrimination they faced. The outside world and the cataclysmic events of the second world war shape their lives, but they are mostly background, which makes sense given how hard it is for them just to survive.

The plot follows Sunja from her birth in a Korean fishing village through her unforeseen pregnancy, marriage, emigration to Japan, and life with her children and grandchildren. Sunja's oldest son is the product of a liaison with a wealthy Korean businessman who visits the village. Already married, he offers to take care of Sunja and the child, but she accepts the offer of a visiting Christian minister who knows the situation but wants to marry her anyway. They move to Osaka where he finds an appointment with his church and they live with her brother- and sister-in-law. Sunja has another son, and when her sister-in-law is unable to have children of her own, they raise Sunja's sons together. The rich Korean appears at opportune times to help out the family, whether Sunja wants him to or not. There's a lot of sorrow in the family's lives, but there is love and success as well. The title captures the opportunities and constraints of their journey: like Pachinko, they sometimes win big, but sometimes characters bet the house and lose. Japan is the house and Koreans are the Pachinko players: even when they control the game, there's only so high they can go.

Some readers found the writing style clunky, but I thought it matched the story and characters well, and I found it immersive and effective. It is very simple at times, but it reflects the educational level of the characters and perhaps also their way of looking at the world. Sunja isn't a simple person, but she thinks and speaks in straightforward, reduced sentences. For me that didn't lessen my sense of her complex interiority, but it may put some readers off. Try the sample; if that doesn't grab you, the book probably won't. show less