Book Review: Pachinko

Mariana

8 min readApr 21, 2021

By Min Jin Lee

Hi everyone,

It’s been a while since my last post, sorry! Things have been a bit busy.

I hope you enjoy today’s recommendation!

mariana

Why did I read this book?

I can’t really remember how Pachinko ended up on my reading list, but I probably added it because I saw it recommended everywhere. It immediately caught my attention given that the plot develops in Korea and Japan, two countries that fascinate me.

What is the book about?

Life as outsiders: Pachinko is the story of four generations of a Korean family living in Japan. Through its characters, the story explores the difficulties Koreans faced (e.g. lack of opportunities, sacrifices, discrimination) as outsiders in Japan, during the beginning of the last century and after WWII.
Belonging: Min Jin Lee explores the intricacies of belonging from multiple angles. For example, she explores the complexities of immigration and its effect on cultural and personal identity, as well as the repercussions of not being able to find a sense of belonging within your society. Is it possible to be a foreigner in the country you consider your home? Can you feel that you belong to more than one place or that you don’t belong anywhere?
Survival instinct: How much are people able to put up with in order to survive? How can some people keep creating and finding new opportunities to do so? What are women willing to sacrifice to keep their families safe? This book also explores the choices that people make whenever we have to do whatever it takes to survive.

“Living everyday in the presence of those who refuse to acknowledge your humanity takes great courage.”
― Min Jin Lee, Pachinko

Why should you read it?

If you want to learn about Korean and Japanese history: Between 1910 and 1945, Korea was a unified country, part of the Japanese Empire. Pachinko walks us through what the political situation translated to in Korean’s everyday lives. It also talks about how things changed after WWII. Have you ever wondered why there’s North Korea and South Korea?
If you enjoy multigenerational novels: I love stories that span across multiple family generations, because it’s easier to appreciate changes over time, and family dynamics fascinate me. If you’re into this sort of book, you’ll probably enjoy Pachinko.

“As pastor, you’ll get a chance to see how the Koreans live here. You can’t imagine: a dozen in a room that should be for two, men and families sleeping in shifts. Pigs and chickens inside homes. No running water. No heat. The Japanese think Koreans are filthy, but they have no choice but to live in squalor. I’ve seen aristocrats from Seoul reduced to nothing, with no money for bathhouses, wearing rags for clothing, shoeless, and unable to get work as porters in the markets. There’s nowhere for them to go.”
― Min Jin Lee, Pachinko

Links to buy the book

Always try to support your local bookshop instead of using Amazon :-) If you’d like me to add any bookshops to the list, let me know.

Spain

Mexico

Italy

Amazon IT
Open Door Bookshop
Almost corner bookshop
The Anglo American Book Co.

Favourite quotes

//The purpose of this section is to share some of my favourite book bits, so you can come back to them when you finish a book, if you wish to do so. I’ve put in bold my favourite ones, in case you want to read a few (or all) ahead of the book.//

“Home is a name, a word, it is a strong one; stronger than magician ever spoke, or spirit answered to, in strongest conjuration. — Charles Dickens”
“Of course she is! Sunja-ya, a woman’s life is endless work and suffering. There is suffering and then more suffering. It’s better to expect it, you know. You’re becoming a woman now, so you should be told this. For a woman, the man you marry will determine the quality of your life completely. A good man is a decent life, and a bad man is a cursed life — but no matter what, always expect suffering, and just keep working hard. No one will take care of a poor woman — just ourselves.”
“You and I are from islands. One day, you’ll understand that people from islands are different. We have more freedom.”
“It was his way to ask many questions when he wanted to know someone’s mind. Most people told you their thoughts in words and later confirmed them in actions. There were more people who told the truth than those who lied. Very few people lied well. What was most disappointing to him was when a person turned out to be no different than the next. He preferred clever women over dumb ones and hardworking women over lazy ones who knew only how to lie on their backs.”
“He believed that if the Koreans could stop quarreling with each other, they could probably take over Japan and do much worse things to the Japanese instead.”
“People are rotten everywhere you go. They’re no good. You want to see a very bad man? Make an ordinary man successful beyond his imagination. Let’s see how good he is when he can do whatever he wants.”
“Her father had taught her not to judge people on such shallow points: What a man wore or owned had nothing to do with his heart and character.”
“It was hard to imagine a woman’s body changing.”
“Spirits existed in the world — she believed this even though her father had not. After he died, she felt that he was with her. When they went to his grave for the jesa, it was easy to feel his comforting presence. If there were many gods and dead spirits, then she felt that she could love his god, especially if his god could encourage Baek Isak to be such a kind and thoughtful person.”
“The world judges girls harshly for improprieties — and even accidents. It’s wrong, but it is the way this sinful world works.”
“There’s no better choice than education, of course; our country needs a new generation of educated people to lead us.”
“I’ve seen this many times. Girls think they’ll have the upper hand because these kinds of men seem so pliable, when in fact, the girls are the ones who end up paying bitterly for their mistakes. The Lord forgives, but the world does not forgive.”
“As pastor, you’ll get a chance to see how the Koreans live here. You can’t imagine: a dozen in a room that should be for two, men and families sleeping in shifts. Pigs and chickens inside homes. No running water. No heat. The Japanese think Koreans are filthy, but they have no choice but to live in squalor. I’ve seen aristocrats from Seoul reduced to nothing, with no money for bathhouses, wearing rags for clothing, shoeless, and unable to get work as porters in the markets. There’s nowhere for them to go.”
“Sunja said nothing. In the market, say very little, her father had taught her.”
“At the crowded bar, men were drinking and making jokes, but there hadn’t been a soul in that squalid room — smelling of burnt dried squid and alcohol — who wasn’t worried about money and facing the terror of how he was supposed to take care of his family in this strange and difficult land.”
“He would forgive. It was too late for anything else.”
“Why did men get to leave when they didn’t get what they wanted?”
“Just study,” Hansu had said. “Learn everything. Fill your mind with knowledge — it’s the only kind of power no one can take away from you.” Hansu never told him to study, but rather to learn, and it occurred to Noa that there was a marked difference. Learning was like playing, not labor.”
“He knew well enough from schools past that the Japanese didn’t want much to do with Koreans, so Noa kept to himself, no different than when he was a boy.”
“Yoseb could understand the boy’s anger, but he wanted another chance to talk to him, to tell Noa that a man must learn to forgive — to know what is important, that to live without forgiveness was a kind of death with breathing and movement.”
“Man, life’s going to keep pushing you around, but you have to keep playing.”
“Both men had made money from chance and fear and loneliness. Every morning, Mozasu and his men tinkered with the machines to fix the outcomes — there could only be a few winners and a lot of losers. And yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones. How could you get angry at the ones who wanted to be in the game? Etsuko had failed in this important way — she had not taught her children to hope, to believe in the perhaps-absurd possibility that they might win. Pachinko was a foolish game, but life was not.”
“Her job was to rest before dying. All she had to do was nothing at all. At best, she had a few days left.”
“Illness and dying had revealed her mother’s truer thoughts, the ones her mother had been protecting her from.”
“The Japanese said that Koreans had too much anger and heat in their blood. Seeds, blood. How could you fight such hopeless ideas? Noa had been a sensitive child who had believed that if he followed all the rules and was the best, then somehow the hostile world would change its mind. His death may have been her fault for having allowed him to believe in such cruel ideals.”
“In a way, Solomon was Japanese, too, even if the Japanese didn’t think so. Phoebe couldn’t see this. There was more to being something than just blood.”
“No one is clean. Living makes you dirty.”
“We cannot help but be interested in the stories of people that history pushes aside so thoughtlessly.”
“There was consolation: The people you loved, they were always there with you, she had learned. Sometimes, she could be in front of a train kiosk or the window of a bookstore, and she could feel Noa’s small hand when he was a boy, and she would close her eyes and think of his sweet grassy smell and remember that he had always tried his best. At those moments, it was good to be alone to hold on to him.”
“There’s nothing fucking worse than knowing that you’re just like everybody else.”
“Patriotism is just an idea, so is capitalism or communism. But ideas can make men forget their own interests. And the guys in charge will exploit men who believe in ideas too much.”
“You are very brave, Noa. Much, much braver than me. Living every day in the presence of those who refuse to acknowledge your humanity takes great courage.”