Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

In this New York Times bestseller, four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan–the inspiration for the television series on Apple TV+.

In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger. When she discovers she is pregnant–and that her lover is married–she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.

Profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty.

A fascinating look at Koreans dealing with war and fleeing to Japan.
Spans decades.

Wow. Just WOW! Once this book got going, I could not put this book down. Incredibly riveting, deeply emotional, and it made me want to read more Japanese and Korean literature.

I'm a sucker for reading something before watching a movie or television adaptation, so when I heard good things about this year's Pachinko series on Apple TV+ I decided I had to read this.

This is a multi-generational drama set in a culture and period that I did not have a lot of familiarity with. I actually somehow had no idea that Japan had annexed Korea for the better part of the first half of the 20th century, so seeing a representation of racism and oppression in that setting was something new to me and drove me to a bit of further reading on the history.

Between the writing and the narration of the audiobook I listened to, the whole book had a stoic matter-of-fact quality to it that worked a lot of the time in a somber “life trudges forward” sort of way, but at other times made the story feel a bit long and drawn out. Time passes effortlessly and characters age drastically from one moment to the next, which in some cases made them feel like someone I knew intimately and in some cases I felt as if I never had a chance to understand them. It was a bit frustrating at times though it did also add a lifelike quality to the whole thing.

I'm really interested to see what the show is like now, because it does not feel like a straightforward thing to adapt and I'm curious to see what angle they come at it, and I think I'm glad I read this first to be able to analyze the show in that way. We'll see!

Probably 3.5 stars. In many ways a fascinating book with a lot going on and a lot to think about. The first 2/3 of the Nov were brilliant. The last third seemed to lose a little direction, with some storylines that didn't seem to fit in the larger narrative, while the central storyline seemed somewhat unconvincing... Solomon's choices seemed contrary to his personality and upbringing.. Perhaps there is more to it that people in the community would understand, but the exposition was quite vague. I also thought that, given the central role of women in the epic, thier characters (with the exception of Sunja) seemed under developed.