Dea's Reviews > Pachinko

The writing was simple, often unfocussed. The main characters from the beginning of the novel get lost as time progresses until they just disappear from the story altogether, while minor characters are sometimes given a POV chapter and then never seen again. The book feels emotionally withholding; seemingly important scenes like a character’s death or a man in Nagasaki during the bombing are given only a few paragraphs or worse, cut entirely. Instead, the book has pages of TV show descriptions. In fact, the reader doesn’t witness any character’s death, and after someone dies, the book immediately glosses over the character and they are rarely mentioned again. The time jumps here are awkward. (view spoiler)[ For example, a man meets his girlfriend and at the end of the chapter, declares his love for her. In the next chapter, we learn through another character that they’ve gotten married and suffered two miscarriages. The next time we meet this couple, they are on their third pregnancy, then the story jumps immediately to the man learning from the police that his wife and child have been in a car accident, and his wife is dead. Instead of fleshing out this couple’s marriage, Lee spends five pages on the wife’s funeral. Honestly, it felt like the author thought it would be easier to write a funeral than actually develop a marriage. (hide spoiler)]

What I really did like was the very core of the story: generations of a Korean family struggling to make it in Japan. The racism, prejudice, and bigotry are very clearly laid out here, and as an American, the tensions between Korea and Japan are never taught in schools. This is a piece of world history that I think few Americans know or understand, so this definitely has an important message.

Ultimately, the book lost me for two reasons. One, Lee has introduced far too many characters than she can control. Two, the scenes that would encourage me to care for the characters are missing. The story and the characters are superficial and shallow, unfortunately, and no one gets the closure they deserve.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-galley.