Pachinko
I love a good epic family saga. Especially one that deals with an area of the world or a part of history that I'm not all the familiar with. By watching a large cast of characters interact with and be affected by real historical events, I gain a better understanding of those events. I also have an easier time remembering all the people and dates when I have an emotional story to hang them on.
Pachinko tells the story of a family of Korean immigrants to Japan. The story begins when teenaged Sunja finds herself pregnant by a married man. In order to save face, she marries a minister who is passing through town on his way to Japan, where his brother lives. The book follows the ups and downs of this family of immigrants who do what they can to survive and even thrive in a country that doesn't want them when they have no home to go back to,
Before reading this book I had only a passing familiarity with the animosity between Koreans and Japanese. This book helps lay out all the history between the two peoples, from Japanese colonialism of Korea to it's refusal to allow those of Korean descent full citizenship - even those who have been in the country for generations. It's another diaspora in what's starting to feel like a never-ending list of diasporas that I'm learning about.
Lee follows a huge number of characters over the course of several decades. It took me a little while to get used to the third-person omniscient narration, which occasionally felt a little stilted. But Lee did a good job of making me sympathize with every character she introduced. That said, I feel like the book got a bit bloated towards the end, when she folded in some characters who weren't related to the central family. I understand why they were included, and they helped show another aspect of the culture, but that section didn't quite flow with the rest of the book.
All that said, I ended up loving this book, and I feel like I learned a lot from it. I'm really glad I came across it.
Pachinko tells the story of a family of Korean immigrants to Japan. The story begins when teenaged Sunja finds herself pregnant by a married man. In order to save face, she marries a minister who is passing through town on his way to Japan, where his brother lives. The book follows the ups and downs of this family of immigrants who do what they can to survive and even thrive in a country that doesn't want them when they have no home to go back to,
Before reading this book I had only a passing familiarity with the animosity between Koreans and Japanese. This book helps lay out all the history between the two peoples, from Japanese colonialism of Korea to it's refusal to allow those of Korean descent full citizenship - even those who have been in the country for generations. It's another diaspora in what's starting to feel like a never-ending list of diasporas that I'm learning about.
Lee follows a huge number of characters over the course of several decades. It took me a little while to get used to the third-person omniscient narration, which occasionally felt a little stilted. But Lee did a good job of making me sympathize with every character she introduced. That said, I feel like the book got a bit bloated towards the end, when she folded in some characters who weren't related to the central family. I understand why they were included, and they helped show another aspect of the culture, but that section didn't quite flow with the rest of the book.
All that said, I ended up loving this book, and I feel like I learned a lot from it. I'm really glad I came across it.
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