Pachinko

English language

Published Aug. 3, 2017

ISBN:
978-1-78669-137-8
Copied ISBN!

View on Inventaire

3 stars (3 reviews)

2 editions

Poignant historical fiction

4 stars

Pachinko is a longer book than I usually choose to read, but it swept past as I was fascinated by details of Sunja's life as a Korean woman in Japan. Thousands of Koreans emigrated to Japan in the early part of the twentieth century and made lives there even though they were very much looked down upon and discriminated against by the Japanese. Korean women's attitudes and expectations were (still are?) completely different to my own so I loved being able to learn more about their culture by immersing myself in this novel. Min Jin Lee is an observant writer and I felt that her historical details were both accurately researched and believably portrayed.

We follow Sunja's life and that of her family over several generations which makes this book quite the epic. I was moved by the family's eternal striving for better lives for themselves and especially for their …

A revealing history

3 stars

Content warning vague spoiler

avatar for wildwoila

rated it

3 stars