Nilguen's Reviews > Pachinko

Pachinko is a novel that has been a once-in-a-lifetime reading experience to me!

Learning a great deal about Korean-Japanese people over a long time-span encapsulating three generations, I was very much moved by Min Jin Lee´s evocative and inspiring narration that revolves around life and purpose.

Much of the novel deals with the pressures immigrants face having a bi-lingual upbringing and multi-cultural identities. Historical facts around Korea and Japan are also very well researched, insightful in analysis and conveyed to the reader in bite-sized chunks.

The interplay of characters in this family saga is well described with the narrator´s perspective switching from character to character. This omniscient point of view narration helps me as a reader to empathize much deeper with each character. I was able to dwell in the minds as well as the behaviours of all characters.

I became very attached to Sunja, the protagonist of this great novel, whose plight in fate and despair as a woman moved me very much. I admired her magnetic beauty in her youth to her ever-resilient lifestyle as she ages. So much despair in the terrain of the unknown, and yet Sunja´s story is the catalyst of her family´s destiny spanning over decades!

Absolutely recommending this book 📕.

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