Review – Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 546 pages
Publisher:‎ Grand Central Publishing
Release Date: February 7, 2017
ASIN: B01GZY28JA
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed ebook from Library
Rating: 4/5 stars

” In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger. When she discovers she is pregnant–and that her lover is married–she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son’s powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.”

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on ebook from the library.

Thoughts: This reminded me a lot of “Wild Swans” by Jung Chang. I liked this book, but I enjoyed “Wild Swans” more. While “Wild Swans” is a memoir that focuses on three generations of women in China, this story is a historical fiction that focuses on multiple generations of Koreans that result from a Korean woman migrating to Japan.

Most of the story is somehow connected to Sunja, a teen Korean girl who gets pregnant from a lover in the early 1900’s. Sunja decides to marry a weak and ill pastor who offers to pose as the child’s father in exchange for marrying Sunja and having her migrate to Japan with him. This sets off a whole series of events for both Sunja, her resulting sons, and her grandson.

I really enjoyed learning more about the history of Korea and Japan. This is an area of history I don’t know a lot about, but it was interesting to learn about. It was also very interesting (being an American) to see the perception of historical events in Korea and Japan from the early 1900’s to the 1990’s from a Korean perspective.

The story is engaging and easy to follow. I really enjoyed maybe the first two thirds of the book. The last third is a lot more disconnected from Sunja and spends more time with her grandson, Solomon. This started to feel very disconnected from the original story to me and felt unnecessary. It made the book feel longer than needed, and I started to wonder what the point was.

While I struggled with a lot of decisions the characters made here, I appreciated how real they seemed to me. A lot of decisions here were made to satisfy the abstract notion of honor rather than the more concrete notion of survival. For example, I cannot imagine a husband forcing his family to starve because he is not willing to let his wife work…especially when she has a perfectly respectable way to make an income (in this case selling food to a restaurant). The story definitely shows a lot of examples of strong women and the men that try to hold them back.

You can’t help but compare this to “Wild Swans” by Jung Chang (I would highly recommend Wild Swans if you enjoy this kind of historical fictions). I enjoyed Wild Swans more for a few reasons; it is a memoir…so non-fiction, it deals with a lot more tumultuous historical events in a head-on way, the characters are more engaging and intriguing. Pachinko takes more of a “day in the life” approach. The characters here live through and are somewhat aware of important historical events but they aren’t as present and are more focused on their day to day lives. Sunja having a connection with a “yakuza” also shelters these characters from many harsh realities happening; she has a sort of diabolical angel on her shoulder protecting those and those she loves. Wild Swan’s characters are very much in the thick of everything and the author doesn’t shy away from the horrible things they had to endure.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I liked this and am glad I read it. It was intriguing to learn more about the history of Korea and how Japan subjugated the Koreans and to see the events of this time period from a Korean perspective. I did think the book went on a bit too long. As we shift to the perspective of Sunja’s grandson things are less interesting and seem a bit disconnected from our main character. I would also recommend reading “Wild Swans” by Jung Chang if you are intrigued by historical China and women’s roles in that era.