Pachinko

This is a good old fashioned family epic, telling the story of a Korean family that makes its way to Japan for work and ends up staying there because of World War II, the Korean War, and all the changes these upheavals brought. Children are born, and then grandchildren, and because of Japan's citizenship laws and Japanese attitudes towards Korean people, generations of Koreans grow up as “foreigners” in the land of their birth.

While this lovely novel tells the stories of the individuals who make up this particular family, it also tells the story of the Korean people who lived and worked, were born, grew up in and were part of Japan–and still are. At times it seemed like characters were introduced only to drop away after a while, and I found that disappointing. Viewing the story from the perspective of the primary character, Sunja, who is born at the beginning of the novel and is a very old woman at the end, makes that dropping away seem more natural, since some of the characters are more central to her life than others. Also, viewing this as an historical epic where individuals play their parts and then drop out is a way of understanding this aspect of the novel.

I recommend this for the historical information represented in the novel, and a compelling, enjoyable story about a family's struggle to stay together and thrive in very tough circumstances.

Story: 5.0 / 10
Characters: 7.5
Setting: 8
Prose: 7

A long-view portrait of the life of a family that didn't feel long. The writing style is semi-detached; people enter the story and are discarded when their story is done without much fanfare, but man does Ms. Lee know how to kill you dead with her sharp pen throughout this book. Noa's death! My goodness, I just didn't have any words for how perfect and perfectly devastating that sentence was that ended that chapter.

I learned A LOT during this book - despite my fascination with WWII, I have never read anything from the Japanese perspective on the war. I did not know about the Japanese colonization of Korea before it became two countries, and the continued bigotry issues between the Japanese and Korean people living in Japan, who are often multiple generations deep into life in that country after being displaced from Korea before or during WWII. And it broke my heart, knowing what we know now, about one character leaving Japan to go back to Pyongyang in North Korea, because he couldn't have known there was likely even less there for him than there was in Japan.

I don't really know that I have a lot to say about the story, other than I thought it was excellent. I liked the family and wanted good things for them, as the country and their lives continued to evolve - the sheer unfairness of life as an immigrant. Showing the family and every day life up against the backdrop of huge historical changes and growing pains was brilliant. My only issue was Hansu. I didn't like him, and other than the beginning part of the book, I thought he was moderately unnecessary. I was never thrilled when he showed back up in the narrative. Like, he didn't have much to do in the second half of the book that related to the family at all, so why did he keep popping up and bothering Sunja when clearly she wasn't interested?

The first third was easily engrossing. It was refreshing to learn about the history of Ikuno and about the Korean diaspora in Japan. The formula of family sagas is difficult to escape though. The older generations stoically live through readable hardship, while the younger generation is spoiled and ungrateful. I was actually expecting the youngest generation here to end up in America and to experience new discriminations and ones that are inescapable being unable to pass amongst the reigning racial supremacists. But the United States is maintained as a distant promised land. The novel holds the ideology too of work and wealth as virtue with no compunctions for example about swindling an old lady out of her home—and I nearly resented having to read through a banker bro poker game. Why are all the protagonists of the younger generation men? Both the narrator and the characters examine the structures of racism but none confront the misogyny, and the women who are granted long lives surrounded by devoted family members accept their lot as one to suffer—confines that are vocalised eight times across 470 pages.

Incidentally, if Phoebe and her disapproval of aspects of Japan were to be written more roundedly, the most salient affliction of living in Japan as a woman and expat is the omnipresence of pickup artist bullshittery and anti-feminist pageantry.

It started out strong, and I really got into the cast of characters as the book follows the family through the years. I sort of lost interest 2/3rds of the way through, however, because the book never really feels like it's going anywhere. The author is talented and knows how to write engagingly, however.

A story of immigrants that spans for over 100 years and portrays the immigrant experience in Japan.

The first half is so well-written and the characters jump out at you. But, the second half sort of wanders around and the characters be one quite bland. So, worth a read just for the first half, but not great.

Probably 3.5 stars. In many ways a fascinating book with a lot going on and a lot to think about. The first 2/3 of the Nov were brilliant. The last third seemed to lose a little direction, with some storylines that didn't seem to fit in the larger narrative, while the central storyline seemed somewhat unconvincing... Solomon's choices seemed contrary to his personality and upbringing.. Perhaps there is more to it that people in the community would understand, but the exposition was quite vague. I also thought that, given the central role of women in the epic, thier characters (with the exception of Sunja) seemed under developed.

This is the story of 4 generations of a family that immigrated from Korea to Japan in the early 20th century. We follow their battles with hunger, war and prejudices, and witness how mistakes early in life can have long lasting repercussions. Besides the family connections, Korean culture and traditions, the other thread through the book is the very informative history of the ongoing discrimination of Koreans in Japan.

The writing was fantastic, the multi-generational story was told in short chapters each depicting a moment in life, yet it never felt too episodic. The writing style somehow has weight and levity at the same time, and I especially loved how the last sentence/paragraph of each chapter, and the way it was left hanging, often had a very poetic quality to it.

The reason I don't give it 5 stars is, that despite all the good above, I never quite found my emotional connection to it. Or I would have wished for it to be longer, to reach the magnitude of a historical epic.

Pachinko, a multigenerational saga of a Korean family living in Japan between the 1930s and 1980s, is a book heavy on grief. Min Jin Lee has written characters so real that you wish you could reach out and, well, give them a hug or something.

The story unfolds slowly, but I couldn't put the book down and I likely won't stop thinking about the rich and varied themes for a long while.

Very solid + enjoyable reading experience. Fascinating historical / present day realities of Koreans living in Japan. It sounds like Min Jin Lee did a ton of research. I think my readalike suggestion might be Angela's Ashes or A Tree Grows in Brooklyn?

Interesting read. The biggest takeaway for me was the marginalization of Koreans in Asia was very reminiscent of the marginalization of African Americans in America. It's very interesting to see racism in another country and how the people of that time survived/transcended that situation, for some it was death and other it was denying their ethnicity.

I enjoyed seeing the evolution of these characters. I would definitely recommend this book.

Pachinko takes quite a long time to set the premise for its actual “pachinko” part, and even after the turning point, it deliberately takes its time to cultivate the title metaphor - an endgame that thoroughly impressed me.
I had read about Zainichi Koreans before, but I had no knowledge of the link between their outcast condition and what we westerners usually think is just a Japanese silly game-craze.
All in all, Pachinko taught me something new.
No matter how much I read about Japan, though, I can never even begin to understand the reasons/scope/real nature of what still looks to me like an astoundingly resilient brand of psychological rigidity.

Very well written, I have loved Sunja, Hansu and Isak. Other characters aren't as well-rounded and complete. A couple of gratuitous sex scenes popped up in places where they didn't really add much to the plot or depth of the characters involved. Other than that, quite a fine book.

ETA: After pondering this book more, I'm bumping it from 4 to 5 stars. The plot has stuck with me in unexpected ways.I was about halfway through reading this book when I remembered that Min Jin Lee had a debut novel called [b:Free Food for Millionaires 709734 Free Food for Millionaires Min Jin Lee https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328038874s/709734.jpg 3343234]. I looked it up on Goodreads to add it to my TBR, only to realize I had apparently read it – and hated it.It didn't taint my enjoyment of this book though. I loved this multigenerational saga about a Korean family (and those who become family) that spans most of the 20th century. There is so much that happens over the course of this book that to summarize it would be doing it injustice, but I would recommend reading the first chapter and seeing what you think. I also enjoyed how Lee wove political and historical events into the book but without spending too much time going in a separate tangent, which many authors tend to do.Lee also tends to have something major happen right before she switches to a different character's perspective or a new time period, which takes a little getting used to.

Told in chronological order, this book spans 4 generations and nearly a century of time and focuses on Zainichi or ethnic Koreans living in Japan. These Zainichi are essentially stateless citizens registered to Joseon or a unified Korea that hasn't existed since the Korean War. Up until recently they had to apply for alien registration cards that required fingerprinting every three years and were rarely granted passports making overseas travel impossible. In Japan, ethnic Koreans are seen as second class citizens and even now are still shut out of higher positions.

We follow a Korean family struggling to survive in that environment. The language is plain and unadorned but wields tremendous emotional heft. There are parts that just destroyed me but it never descends into misery porn. And while it moves at a languid pace through time I could have happily stuck around for another 300 pages.

This is a beautiful story of family and notions of home that feel even more relevant in today's political environment. It touches on aspects of passing, of not only surviving but succeeding in an adopted country that can be hostile to your very identity. Quite simply, I loved these characters and the book just blew me away.

Very enjoyable. It's a big family saga, spanning decades, starting with a tiny fishing village in Korea and ending up in the financial markets of late 80s Tokyo. We follow several generations of a family as they suffer under the Japanese occupation of Korea, move to Japan in time for World War Two and then the turbulent post war years. There's a lot of sadness and grim outcomes over the course of the novel, but the thing I remember most is the acts of kindness throughout. The plot hinges on a remarkable act of sacrifice, and there is a sense of, I don't know...decency? throughout. It's a very pleasing book, and one I was sorry to finish.