Pachinko, Min Jin Lee – Book Review

Hello and welcome from London.

I received Pachinko as a gift last summer and I have to say I’m really glad that I finally read it.

This is novel is an epic and lengthy so be prepared to forget about what you have scheduled. It’s a real page-turner!

Pachinko was written by the Korean born writer Min Jin Lee and the subject of the novel makes her the ideal person to pen such a novel.

PACHINKO

Sunja is a teenager when she falls pregnant by an wealthy older man. She would have been happy to be his wife, except he was already married. And it’s this detail that instigates the whole story. By luck, her mother who runs a boarding house rents a room to a good-natured but sickly pastor who is on his way to Japan to join his brother. Upon hearing about Sunja’s plight he offers to marry her knowing full well she is carrying another man’s child. This is Korea in the 1930s where people held strong traditional values.

Together Sunja and her new husband the pastor Isak travel from Korea to Japan to start a new life. She has the full blessing of her mother Yangjin who is a character in herself!

However, when Sunja and her husband arrive in Japan it is to be met with cultural hostility, where the Japanese treat the Koreans disparagingly. And this is the point the novel takes off in my view. They share a humble dwelling with Yoseb the pastor’s colourful older brother and his devoted wife Kyunghee. Together they attempt to make a life as a family, dealing daily with the battles facing an immigrant family in Japan.

Sunja, eventually has two sons Noa and Mosazu whose lives prove to be just as complicated, like their mother Sunja.

To tell you more dear readers would make me guilty of spoilers. This is an epic, a journey! You also get a good look at the interior world of Sunja, including her thoughts, feelings and motivations.

Pachinko is primarily a novel about survival. It is a novel about loyalty, sacrifice, duty, the plight of less fortunate women. I would add here, that there are some untimely deaths which I personally hated!

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time

Sharon

Ps: It has been made into a TV drama series, try Apple TV.