Book Review: "Pachinko" by Min Jin Lee
*Spoiler warning!*
This book has been on my to-read list for a long time, and when my cousin lent it to me recently, I finally read it. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee tells the story of a fictional Korean family over four generations, from their roots in Korea to their immigration to Japan. I don't feel that my words can do this beautiful, sad story any justice, but I will do my best.
Sunja, smart and sensible, yet curious, succumbs to the charms of an older married man, Koh Hansu, whom she met at the market. She quickly realizes that she is pregnant, but when she shares this news with her lover, he reveals he has a wife and three daughters in Japan. Sunja spurns him after he offers to make her his wife in Korea, while keeping his other wife in Japan. She doesn't want to be bought.
She sees a second chance when a sickly Presbyterian minister named Isak Baek (Isak after Isaac in the Bible) passes through the boardinghouse on the way to Osaka. After learning of Sunja's situation, he offers to marry her and bring her to Japan, so that her child would grow up with a father. Sunja agrees, and the young couple moves to Osaka, Japan.
Sunja and Isak move into a house in a Korean neighborhood (Ikaino) with Isak's brother, Yoseb, and wife, Kyunghee. Amidst all the poverty and frequent discrimination shown to Koreans, they manage to have hope. They worked hard to make a living, and it seemed like they would be able to leave their chidren, Noa and Mozasu, in a much better position to have good lives. Yet, during WWII, Isak and other Christian ministers are arrested for defiance at compulsory ceremonies to pledge allegiance to the Emperor.
"Sunja-ya, a woman’s life is endless work and suffering. There is suffering and then more suffering. It’s better to expect it, you know. You’re becoming a woman now, so you should be told this. For a woman, the man you marry will determine the quality of your life completely. A good man is a decent life, and a bad man is a cursed life—but no matter what, always expect suffering, and just keep working hard. No one will take care of a poor woman—just ourselves."
Two years pass, where in desperation, Sunja, Kyunghee, and Yoseb scramble to provide for the family, minus Isak's meager income, and keep Noa and Mozasu in school. This leads to Sunja and Kyunghee selling kimchi at the market to supplement Yoseb's sparse earnings, where they meet Kim Changho, a restaurant owner with connections to Koh Hansu. There finally is some stability in the family income with the women working at the restaurant--unaware at first of the relationship between Kim and Hansu.
Then, Isak reenters the story in the most heartbreaking way. On death's door after poor treatment in the Japanese prison, he crawls his way home, scaring everyone because of how unrecognizable he's become after his abominable treatment. Not long after, Isak passes, leaving a shattered family in his wake. Sunja truly loved him and it devastated her to have lost a person who had treated her with such love and respect. Yoseb struggles to find work, and finally finds a promising position in Nagasaki.
I gotta say, the women in this story suffered so much, especially Sunja and Kyunghee. Through their perspectives, I think I understood why Lee Min-jin chose the title for the book. Like the game of chance, their lives were similarly unpredictable, but they had to keep playing, to keep going, while there was a chance to succeed. Some in life win, while so many others don't have the same luck as others. Where and when you are born, and the socioeconomic status of your family, act as nearly insurmountable barriers to keep you from making better lives for your descendants.
I firmly believe that Isak's, and then Yoseb's, deaths scarred the family so much that Noa and Mozasu were inevitably destined to scatter to the four winds. Noa runs away from Osaka to start an anonymous life in Nagano, ashamed of his biological father's connection to the yakuza. His children, I don't think, ever meet the other members of their extended family, as they stay away at Noa's funeral.
Meanwhile, Mozasu's little family is shattered when his wife, Yumi, passes after being hit by a taxi driven by a drunk driver. She pushed her son, Solomon, out of the way just in time. Solomon grows up in the shadow of his mother, who he didn't know very well. Etsuki, a single mother, enters their lives, and Solomon adopts her as a mother figure. (By the end of the book, it's a will-they-won't-they, with Mozasu and Etsuki teetering on the edge of marriage.) Solomon doesn't have many friends, and when Etsuki's troubled daughter, Hana, enters his life, he finds in her his first real friend. Which made it even harder when Hana passes away after contracting what I suspect was HIV/AIDS.
This poor family just can't catch a break. And yet, life goes on, must go on. Sunja is determined to make it so.
"History has failed us, but no matter."
This poignant familial epic is one I would highly recommend for everyone to read. Just make sure you have a box of tissues with you while you do so.
Happy reading!
--Book Owl
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