“Pachinko” Min Jin Lee (2017) Review | Zainichi Korean female epic

Pachinko
Min Jin Lee, 2017
US
512 pages
Read in 2021.10
check price on amazon.com


✔ Korean zainichi in Japan
✔ Historical fiction World War Two
✔ Mother and daughter relationship


🔽 Review summary 🔽

★★★★★ Life of a Korean woman who survived all the difficulties the life threw at her. And about her beloved ones, Korean or Japanese. Life is a Pachinko. It’s not fair. You’re bound to lose. But you keep playing. An epic.

🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

Life of a Korean woman who survived all the difficulties the life threw at her.
And about her beloved ones, Korean or Japanese.

By narrowing down the novel to one woman’s life, it tells about real struggles, somehow making it universal.
The history of Japan and Korea, or Japanese and Koreans, is not an easy one to fully grasp – because it’s still alive.
The war is partly to be blamed but it’s not that simple.
The book is rich, depicts how little luck or timing could change your life, it is probably difficult to understand if you’re not Asian beyond it being “fascinating”.

Again Koreans do better in storytelling.
It’s dramatic, but that’s how it was in Japan up to the early 90s.

Life is a party, Fellini says. But here this novel tells you, life is a Pachinko. It’s not fair. You’re bound to lose, but you keep playing.

🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Pachinko (National Book Award Finalist)

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Pachinko: The New York Times Bestseller 

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Pachinko. La moglie coreana (italiano)