Book Review: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee | by Faiza H.

Faiza Hazarika
7 min readOct 27, 2021

--

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

The cover of the book Pachinko in blue and red featuring a woman in traditional attire
Book Cover

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee manages to cover in mere 500-something pages a story that spans at least four generations while also managing to fit in an intensely reflective and scathing political commentary regarding Japanese-Korean relations before, during, and after the Second World War.

Min Jin Lee takes a very sensitive topic and displays it in an unfiltered, unafraid, and in-your-face commentary that leaves you feeling intensely connected with each and every character introduced in the course of the book. To be able to bring so many different personalities to life, to be able to chart their growth as characters that are dynamic, ever-changing, and unpredictable– it is the mark of a good writer and that of a much better storyteller.

Summary

Blurb

This historical fiction novel is divided into three sections or “Books”. Book 1 features the years 1910–1933 and begins in Yeongdo, Busan, and starts with the story of an ageing fisherman and his wife who gives birth to Hoonie, a baby born with a cleft palate and a twisted foot. The reader is made to follow his daughter Sunja as circumstances force her to immigrate to Japan, and how she, and her family, struggle as foreigners in an unwelcoming land. Book 2, which charts the years 1939–1962, speaks of the families struggles during the Second World War, and especially as Koreans in Japan during the War. Book 3, the final part of the novel, follows the years 1962–1989 and offers a reflection on the aftermath of the War, and the effects it had on Japan, and the Koreans who remained in Japan, all through the lived reality of Sunja and her family.

Themes

I don’t believe that it is possible to gauge each and every complexity woven into the story with just a preliminary reading. However, the glaringly obvious themes in the book, that make their presence known unabashedly, have been summarised for the benefit of any future curious readers.

Racism

“It was still hard for a Korean to become a Japanese citizen, and there were many who considered such a thing shameful — for a Korean to try to become a citizen of its former oppressor. When she told her friends in New York about this curious historical anomaly and the pervasive ethnic bias, they were incredulous at the thought that the friendly, well-mannered Japanese they knew could ever think she was somehow criminal, lazy, filthy, or aggressive — the negative stereotypical traits of Koreans in Japan.”

This might be the most apparent theme. It stands at the very heart of the book, beating a steady drum and calling attention towards it. The Japanese annexation of Korea before the onset of the Second World War was hardly ever mentioned in any of the school-prescribed history books I was asked to study from. The Japenese treatment of Koreans, not at all. The themes of nationalism, identity, exclusion, and the struggle to be accepted by society cut deep into the story line. The acute awareness of every Korean in Japan during that time, of their alienness in a country that would not accept them, is captured hauntingly in the book. Racial stereotyping, ethnic conflicts, social isolation were evils that were present then, and are even present now, which is what makes most of the incidents that Sunja and her family face so very painful. As a writer from a country that was colonised and whose people faced similar rejection, humiliation, and social degradation from the hands of the colonisers, I was able to appreciate the uncensored and often uncomfortable reality that Min Jin Lee pushed into her narrative, which in her Acknowledgements she attributes to the interviews she took of the Koreans who lived in Japan at the time, and who faced similar, and worse treatment by the people who refused to be acknowledged as “their” people.

Resistance

“In Seoul, people like me get called Japanese b*stards, and in Japan, I’m just another dirty Korean no matter how much money I make or how nice I am.”

Seen in abundance in the female characters, and in one or two cases, even the men, the deep-rooted desire of Sunja, her sister-in-law Kyunghee, and later her sons Mozasu and Noa (amongst very many other characters, mind you) to survive, and not just to survive, but to live better, to dream bigger, to aspire for more, and to work towards it, together as a family, will create a lasting impression to anyone paying attention to them. The values of love and family are at the very forefront, and the struggles described, usually during the most hopeless of situations, is enough for anyone to be reaching for a tissue box. This book is raw in its treatment of hardship, success, and failure. It creates space for a free and fair discourse on mental health, bullying, personal struggles, identity crisis– but amongst everything that is crippling to the human soul there emerges a single strain of hope. I do not believe that this book sets out to be a life lesson, a moral lecture, or a string of motivational sentiments aimed to set you off in the right direction. I believe that this book merely documents life, what happens to most of us, how we feel, how we react, how we fail, how we succeed– and I think to accomplish this without it seeming like a happy pill forced down the reader’s throat, is commendable.

Social Behaviour

“We cannot help but be interested in the stories of people that history pushes aside so thoughtlessly.”

The main story arguably starts when Sunja is impregnated by her lover Koh Hansu who then reveals to her that he is in fact a married man with a wife and two daughters, and can therefore not marry her even though she is now carrying his child. The social opinions that exist both at the forefront as well at the periphery are interesting to read and take note of. Be it about a woman’s place in the workfield, a son’s opinion of his father, a man’s relationship with God, a daughter’s reaction to abandonment, or an ageing widow’s reaction to death. It is difficult to speak of each layer that exists within the story without giving out spoilers, even though I don’t believe that knowing about the events that occur in the book will take away from a reader’s experience of reading this particular one. The book throws up several different points of view at a time which makes it extremely multilayered. A tip: If you pick up the book, notice how the opinions and experiences change as the story progresses from one generation to the other and comes closer to the times that we live in today.

Class Warfare

“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.”

A main chunk of the story is about class disparities. Between poor Japanese people and rich Japanese people. Poor Koreans and rich Koreans. And of course between the Japanese and the Koreans themselves. It is interesting to try to place the struggles of the sons of Sunja who try to emerge from their defeated situation and break out into the new world. The worries that they have. The obstacles that they face. The significance that money plays in the entire social charade. It is also interesting to note the differences between those Koreans that have more influence and more money, like Koh Hansu, as opposed to those that have very little or nothing. The most touching aspect of this theme is how much the future generations value honesty, loyalty, and good work ethics above everything else, as they try to break through the stereotypes that have crippled the Korean position in the Japanese job market for decades and decades as a result of systemic oppression and the prejudices that stemmed from it that sustained over a period of four generations and then some. The author also introduces the Western position, both from the Asian perspective of the West (namely, job opportunities, education and standard of living), and the Western perspective of the East (namely, corruption, inherited racism, oppression and elitism).

Why Should You Read It?

Each character offers a different perspective. Each chapter offers something new. There are so many layers to explore. So many different personalities to meet. The story ebbs and flows and keeps you hooked. Characters come into their own, changing as the story changes, as their circumstances change, as they grow older, as loved ones leave, as the socio-political realities change. Each character is complex. Each experience is unique but disturbingly relatable. Each thought tears through the pages and echoes in your mind for hours after. If you aren’t interested in the particularities, then just read it for the story. I haven’t come across anything like this for years now.

--

--

Faiza Hazarika
Faiza Hazarika

Written by Faiza Hazarika

A student of English Literature with a love for books, and a stack of ideas she uses as bookmarks.

No responses yet