Jeanette's Reviews > Pachinko

Just having finished this behemoth in the last hour, I want to put a disclaimer first. That reading this over a longer period of time than I would usually read a book, even of this length, probably made me MORE analytic than for my usual review. Or reaction. More critical. Because I truly wanted to give it a higher star value. I really did! But I cannot. So don't be scared away from reading it, because I am specific or amused for some of the tangents she took. Take it with a grain of salt. Especially if you are not the kind of reader that is bothered by vastly changing style of approach within one book. I am!

The first third of this book is nearly a 5 star perfection for character development, place reality, era feel, and boding wars of surround. In cultural mix and clash, in politico straining for the working day existence in Korea (Busan) under Japanese governmental domination.

Isak is a saint. His landlady and Sunja- they are sublime and so real. You know them as you have known a Scarlet O'Hara or a Dorothy in Kansas. I'll remember them. And those two married couples and their ultimate striving, movements and eventual Osaka, Japan bound lives. Leaving Korea and the death sentence that Christian belief insured. The world at war a mere background, but closer wars and constant work their every breath.

And then the second third of the book. The boys' stories. Hansu, yes- but mainly the boys' years of their growing up in Osaka. The Japanese defeat years within Japan with their Korean ethnicity. This is clear and yet convoluted. Not linear and direct as the first part. But yet, it is 4 star in the friends of each, the characters of mentoring, the parents and the Aunties' core purposes. The differences of languages and custom and most of all- for association and work. It's a good wider tale, and well done, kept my interest. Which gives out eventually in this parsing for a wider look at Osaka and the upcoming Pachinko connections for family support. Just a game in a parlor! But in doing so, the epic length and detail for this family is becoming broader, although shallower- much like a river near its delta- it's becoming defused and silt laden. The pure core of clearness for the first Korean situation is getting more progressively lost.

And then the last third of the book from the late 1960's onward to its conclusion! This is barely a 2.5 star read. It jumps. Relationship and context become abrupt. Many tangent issues of intersect to the story become sketchy. Is this new character or that one introduced to merely become an example for a group label or thesis issue? We find none of the individual character self-realizations or deep core connection coming from text connotation or the visuals (as went so beautifully within the first third of the book). But instead any clarity, if any, is coming from conversations of the bemoaning failure or nasty hanger on. Dialog becomes harsh. Style is jagged and changes abruptly as well. Description quickly becoming 10 pages of angst or venting conversation for a character who is then "dealt out" of the context or continuation of this plotting within a mere 3 lines somewhere in the next chapter? Huh!

Whatever was the style causation for this last third of the book- it was a mistake. She had too much to say? The grandchildren's stories should have been a separate book. The great-grandson's with the ultimate Phoebe dichotomy QUESTION of vast location decision for identity of placement- the crux pivot. This decision on where to live FOR that identity of the individual- quite another whole book. That last would have made a great story if she would have followed the style of nuance and purity for those first 2 couples who lived within Busan and knew who they were. That one could have potential to be superb. Not added within 3 paragraphs, or as an afterthought for a partial closure.

So- how do you judge this book? Not in 40 words, that's for sure.

I enjoyed the first half much more than the last. But I did read every word and read this slowly. There was an absolute intrigue for me- to answer a question "to or for" myself about how these people would "self-describe". Are they Korean? Are they Japanese. They hold passports from South Korea, even those who have never been there. And getting Japanese citizenship? Well, you decide if that is a realistic possibility. Japanese want to be "the same" at their very cores- difference can and does equate to unmannerly and "wrong".

As much as I did enjoy the factual minutia of these times and places, and the mix of modes and fads displayed by those who lived them. I also became quite aware that this essentially, in the last 50 or 60 pages of the book- holds a very anti-Japanese animus. Which became more and more openly revealed. I would say it is a prejudice, just as equal to the one the Japanese held for Noa.

So I can only give it 3 stars. It's a tremendous effort. Places and characters here are often superbly detailed. Min Jin Lee just bit off far more than she could chew, IMHO. Trying to get every victim or condition "label" issued for a human being since the middle of the last century into some action or subplot was also not a wise move.