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

There’s so much to unpack here.

Reading Pachinko is exhausting. From the first pages, you’ve already felt the wave of emotions ready to hit you. This is definitely not a feel-good book, Pachinko has a lot of moments of loss and misfortune. I was so afraid something bad would happen if a character was happy, because Pachinko is a prime example that life can turn you upside down without a warning. I wouldn’t say that reading Pachinko would be a pleasant experience because as much as I enjoyed this, the emotional baggage I have during and after reading the book was a little hard to get over.

The book is divided into three parts and each part tells one generation and their life in different places. We started from how Sunja’s parents met, then followed by teenaged Sunja and her mother, Yangjin, managing a boarding house. However, the story really started when Sunja met Hansu--and how one event leads to another. No matter how I despise him, Hansu was a key point of the story. It feels like the story would lead back to him eventually.

“History has failed us, but no matter.”

Pachinko portrayed the life of Koreans in Japan during and after World War II. The historical facts intertwined with the life of the Baek family and their relatives. The book also captured the life of immigrants and the experience and fear that follows after. Min Jin Lee herself is a first-generation immigrant and her background birthed the story of Pachinko. The theme and setting are important to read and explore, because other people’s history is equally important as ours, and sometimes history was put aside to support political propaganda.

THE PROS

- The writing! The book is long but the writing flows like a water; it was really easy to read and understand.
- Min Jin Lee is excellent in making her readers sympathize with her characters. I love Noa and Mozasu and it was both heartbreaking and heartwarming to watch them grow. Some characters really get on my nerves and I would fight them if they were real.
- I love how the story slowly unfolds as the characters progress. This is not a plot-driven story, so put this as your consideration if you don’t like character-driven stories.
- I know I said that this book is exhausting, but it is a result of an atmospheric story that shows the life and struggle of Korean immigrants in Japan. Pachinko explored the depth of discrimination, prejudice, and classism. There’s also a brief mention of other world’s issues.
- Last but not least, Min Jin Lee is a great storyteller. She knows how to play with her readers’ emotions, knows how to put heartbreaking scenes so they would hit right on her readers’ hearts.

THE CONS

- Min Jin Lee's writing is inconsistent. Book I and Book II were brilliant, the story built up a perfect arc which left me craving for more of it. It was a slow progress, but it was perfect. However, Book III was complete opposite. It was rushed and lack of development. The characters nor the story were not explored enough.
- The climax didn't feel like climax. Maybe because of the inconsistency of the writing, I felt like the climax wasn't really resolving everything. We still didn't get to know what happened to few characters and I just don't like it when authors leave unfinished business in a stand-alone novel.
- The open ending wasn't satisfying. Yes it was sad and I wanted to cry reading the scene that leads up to the ending of the book, but, it wasn't as satisfying as I expected. “So, that's it?” is how I feel with the ending.

“She could not see his humanity, and Noa realized that this was what he wanted most of all: to be seen as human.”

Overall, I really enjoy this book and I will purchase it (since I borrowed it from the library) just to devour words by words slowly. Maybe when I am not in the rush, I would appreciate Book III better.

Pachinko is a bittersweet story that tackles prejudice and discrimination, combined with identity struggles and poverty. The 5 stars rating is worth it because I feel really connected with the characters and the story itself is fascinating.

Buddy reading with a book club Shabrina invented