Pachinko

Having lived and taught English in South Korea, I know a bit about the Japanese occupation and the resulting animosity between Koreans and Japanese. This sweeping family saga tells an even lesser-known side of the story, that of Koreans who immigrated to Japan during the occupation, and then found themselves essentially stuck, without a homeland, living as second class citizens.

Beginning in 1910, Pachinko follows five generations of one family through to 1989. I don't want to give too much away, because the beauty of this book is watching the events unfold, even when too many of them break your heart. Ms. Lee's writing is an interesting combination of simple and poetic, with characters and plot equally sharing the spotlight. I tend to show more be a very fast reader, but I found myself taking more time with this one, savoring each chapter. show less

Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko is a sprawling, multigenerational saga tracing a Korean family’s journey through most of the 20th century, from Japanese-occupied Korea to postwar Japan. The novel begins in a small coastal village, where Sunja, the beloved daughter of a simple fisherman and modest innkeeper, becomes pregnant by a wealthy and married fish broker. Her decision to reject the life of a kept woman, instead marrying a gentle Christian minister and emigrating to Osaka, sets in motion a sweeping family story shaped by hardship, perseverance, and stoic dignity. Over four generations, we follow Sunja, her relatives, and her friends as they navigate poverty, racial discrimination, and questions of identity in a country that never fully show more accepts them. The struggles of the family mirror the shifting tides of time, from colonial rule and war to modernization and the evolving social hierarchies of Japan’s industrial boom.

Structurally, the novel offers a nice balance between intimate personal stories and the often cruel arc of history. The author’s prose is straightforward and realistic, yet the tale moves with the inevitability of fate, all the while echoing the book’s central metaphor: pachinko, the Japanese gambling game designed to offer the player “small gains and slow losses.” Through interwoven narratives and shifting character perspectives, Lee illuminates the Zainichi experience—ethnic Koreans living in Japan—whose lives are impacted by both imperial policies and the brutalities of everyday prejudice. The historical context—from annexation to the aftermath of World War II—anchors the story’s emotional pull. Lee’s deliberate and measured storytelling avoids sensationalism, opting instead for a patient buildup of detail that gives full weight to the pain and endurance of her protagonists.

Overall, I enjoyed reading Pachinko, perhaps more for the historical aspects it contains than for the family saga itself. I simply did not know much about the many atrocities and injustices that the Korean diaspora endured—and continues to deal with—during the era depicted in the story. As I was reading the novel, I found myself also looking up background information on many of the critical events portrayed in the fictional setting (e.g., Japan’s occupation of Korea, the firebombing of Osaka during the war, the unspeakable conscription of “comfort women” by the Japanese military), which provided great context for understanding what the characters in the story were experiencing. If I have a criticism of the book, however, it would be that the anti-Japanese sentiment it conveys is quite heavy-handed; there definitely is an accumulation in the rhetoric that detracts from the story by the end. That aside, this is an impressive and rewarding work that certainly merits the widespread acclaim it has received. show less

In 1910 the Japanese occupied Korea, beginning a decades-long colonization that only ended at the conclusion of World War II. Throughout this time, as life in Korea became increasingly difficult and food scarcities more widespread, many Koreans emigrated to Japan to seek a better life, but for most Koreans, life in Japan was equally harsh, and the discrimination they faced was daunting. Even second- and third-generation Korean Japanese were denied citizenship and struggled to find acceptance. Pachinko parlors were one of the few places where Koreans could find jobs. Although gambling is illegal in Japan, pachinko parlors were, and remain, big businesses, often associated with the yakuza.

Pachinko begins in the early 1900s and ends in show more 1989, three generations later. The novel opens in Jeongda, an island off Busan, where Hoonie the fisherman is more concerned about feeding his family than the politics of colonization. His daughter, Sunja, meets a sophisticated Japanese-speaking businessman, and her innocent life is set on a new trajectory. She marries a Christian minister, who takes her to Osaka, where she and her family will live throughout the rest of the occupation period, World War II, and the Korean War. Buffeted by historical events, economic hardships, and discrimination, her children and grandchildren struggle to find success and happiness in a culture that never fully accepts them.

There was much about Pachinko that I loved. The author did years of historical research and interviews with Koreans living in Japan, and her efforts show. The plot touches on many of the events of the time without seeming forced, and the themes of assimilation, what it means to be successful, generational conflict, and being a minority Christian are handled deftly. The characters are well-developed and vivid, and I had no trouble keeping track of who was who, unlike in some family sagas. The tone was of quiet strength, exemplified by the women who held the family together. Some readers felt the last third of the book, dealing with the third generation of characters, was less interesting or engaging. I felt like it was a natural development, as the old mores gave way to foreign education and modern sensibilities. It may not have been as romantic, but it felt real.

My only quibble is that I found myself putting it down for long periods of time before picking it up again, but I think the fault lies with me not the book. If I had read it at a different time, perhaps I would have remained better engaged. show less

To begin with, I learned so much from this book about Korean and Japanese history in the early 20th century. That alone made it a very worthwhile read. In addition, the characters are so realistically drawn that I felt they could have existed. At the same time, their social and economic situations were so miserable that I had a hard time believing that their experiences were typical of every Korean who moved to Japan in that time period.
The fact that the original focus was on women explained some of the isolated feelings I got. There was sexism, a language barrier, an economic barrier to overcome, and religious prejudice against Christians. However, even when the focus shifted to the sons of the next generation who learned the language show more and made more money, the feeling of isolation continued. Perhaps I need to read more about Korean-Japanese (Japanese Koreans?) to determine if the situation has changed. show less

“Living everyday in the presence of those who refuse to acknowledge your humanity takes great courage.”

“There was consolation: The people you loved, they were always there with you, she had learned. Sometimes, she could be in front of a train kiosk or the window of a bookstore, and she could feel Noa's small hand when he was a boy, and she would close her eyes and think of his sweet grassy smell and remember that he had always tried his best. At those moments, it was good to be alone to hold on to him.”

“In Seoul, people like me get called Japanese bastards, and in Japan, I'm just another dirty Korean no matter how much money I make or how nice I am. So what the f*ck?”

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee has gotten mixed reactions on LT, show more but I fall into the camp of those who greatly enjoyed it. It's a multi-generational story of a Korean family, beginning in the 1920s. In an afterword, the author explains that it was 30 years in the making, and that she scrapped it completely and started over in 2008 after interviewing many Koreans living in Japan and finding her first draft was off target.

I didn't know that Korea was occupied by Japan during WWII (my bad), or that Koreans historically have been looked down upon by many Japanese. (Amazing how prejudice can take so many different forms). This story begins with good-hearted but cleft-palated Hoonie, who normally would never get married because of his deformity, but does because of the dire economic times. His daughter Sunja grows up carefully watched over in their boarding house near the port city of Busan. When at age 15 she becomes coveted by Hansu, a sophisticated businessman, her life changes, and then changes once again when a Christian priest enters her life and the family moves to Osaka, Japan.

There are lovely moments and terrible ones, and many hardships overcome, often through family effort. Sunja proves hard-working and resilient, and her family the same. All the characters are skillfully drawn, and the writing is smooth - drafts of the book apparently were run by what seems like a cast of thousands, including early enthusiast Junot Diaz. If you're looking for a reading experience set in a different part of the world, with an interesting clash of cultures and memorable characters, this one fits the bill. Yes, like many long books, it could have been shorter without harming the story, but I'm one reader who says, so what. show less

Lee enlightens the reader about the humiliations inflicted upon the Koreans by the Japanese. The story is told through an extended family that first feels the harsh effects of discrimination in Korea after Japan takes over Korea in 1910. Most of the novel recounts the harsh realities of being a nationless people living in Japan from about 1939 to 1989. Koreans are less than immigrants since they have no country from which they have emigrated or to which they can be deported. After 1945 when World War II ends, their country has been split in two. Koreans' treatment by the Japanese is deplorable in every way. Their situation is hopeless and there seems to be no way up in the Japanese society if one is Korean.

The story is engaging and show more well-written in crisp prose, with a few Korean words thrown in for effect. A young unmarried girl in Korea finds herself pregnant with a wealthy married man's baby. He turns out to be unsavory. She is lucky to find another man, a Christian pastor, to marry her who takes her to Japan where he will be the head pastor of a church, where they live with his brother and family.

Lee handles gut wrenching loss with grace. Her characters are deep and show humility, a mother's love, loyalty, refusal to forgive, coping with life changing mistakes, and acceptance. The way the family suffers is both deeply painful and beautiful because the characters cling to ideals.

The novel dragged in the middle but the protagonist was interesting enough to keep me turning the pages. This is one of those novels where I learned something I didn't know. show less

I have been puzzling over how to review/rate this book, but I settled on 4 stars because I really did find the plot lines and the setting compelling. Some of the characters are richly developed over the course of the saga, but others introduced in the last part of the story fell short on depth. I would place it in the historical fiction genre because the background history is so important to the development of the characters and the plot. The writer introduces a family living in Busan, South Korea in 1910 and follows their descendants to Osaka, Japan through to 1989. Racial and ethnic discrimination is the primary theme of the story, but concurrent themes are poverty and women’s role in society. Along the way the background history of show more Korea and Japan plays a key part in the progress of the plot. The reason this book didn’t rise to a five star on my scale is that the writer opted to include some scenes that seemed irrelevant to the story at hand. I do believe she was trying to share as much as she had learned about the Korean society in Japan and therefore overshared a bit. Overall, I had expected it to be a 5 star read, but it made it to 4 which is still very worthy of recommending. show less