Author: Min Jin Lee
Genre: Historical Fiction
One of the New York Times “10 Best Books of 2017,” this Historical Fiction spanning more than half a century, follows the journey of four generations of Koreans through Korea and Japan whose struggles for survival otherwise wouldn’t have found a place in the annals of history. The life of the protagonist Sunja as a young girl in a shabby town in Korea during Japanese occupation, her relocation to Osaka, Japan as a married and much-pregnant woman under unexpected circumstances, her hope for a better life being quashed at every step with her husband being taken as a prisoner, her fight for survival with many challenges like poverty, racial discrimination, and World War II, is a gripping saga of human perseverance and a lesson in Korean-Japanese history.
Pachinko, the title of the book, is intertwined with the lives of all the main characters in the book. Pachinko, the gambling parlors owned and run mostly by immigrant Koreans in Japan, was usually owned by the Korean/Japanese Mafia – Yakuza. It was illegal, and running or working in these parlors was looked down upon by the Japanese. However, these parlors were the way to financial freedom for Koreans rotting in poverty.
The story opens in a fishing village in Korea with the grandparents of Sunja who runs a small boarding house and leads a peaceful life and ends with Sunja’s US-educated grandson making his life-changing decision. Sunja’s first crush on a flamboyant Yakuza, her pregnancy out of wedlock, her marriage to a kind-hearted priest, and then relocation to Osaka, doesn’t change her future for the better, at least not initially. Rather, racial discrimination and phobias of people around make her life all the more miserable. What is noticeable here is her determination to fight her fate, ably assisted by her sister-in-law, Kyungi. After her husband’s imprisonment and death, the two women start a small business of selling Kimchi on a pushcart much against her brother-in-law’s ill will. Fighting against gender discrimination, they are able to provide food and education for Sunja’s children. World War II and discrimination against Koreans add to their woes. Her sons’ and her lives get entwined with the Pachinko parlors and the Yakuza, much against her wish.
Early on in the book, the protagonist rejects the offer to be the other woman even as an unwedded, much-pregnant, helpless, young girl, t giving a glimpse of her innate strength to survive; however, this single decision of hers reverberates in her family through three generations.
Every character in this historical saga reveals one or the other face of those Koreans struggling against racial and financial discrimination under the Japanese.
Sunja’s elder son, Noa, born to a Yakuza father though he is unaware of it, was a brilliant young man doing all right things until he finds out about his real father. Broken and trying to hide his Korean yakuza identity, he leads an anonymous life managing a Pachinko parlor which he hated all through. All through he pretends to be Japanese. His paranoia is representative of the mindset of ethnic Korean immigrants wanting to be recognized for their work and not by their origin.
His younger brother, the street-smart Mozasu, works, owns, and earns from his Pachinko parlors as a Korean and provides livelihood to as many Koreans as possible. In spite of being an honest businessman, Mozasu never earns the respect or status he deserves, but he learns to take it in his stride.
The next-generation child of Mozasu, US-educated Solomon, even after experiencing the worst kind of racial discrimination on the job front, likes to believe that racism is an exception rather than a rule. Of course, he changes his mind after a bitter experience and decides to run his father’s Pachinko Parlor rather than being employed at a Multinational Bank.
Almost all women characters, including the protagonist Sunja, are portrayed as strong women fighting against gender discrimination with quiet determination. Sunja and her sister-in-law Khynghee who bond better than siblings, have to overcome umpteen hurdles to start a miniscule business of their own. The women do not mind struggling against all odds to give good education and better lives to the two boys.
This book is the story of human resilience, especially of the women characters who would rise to every challenge to put food on the table for the children and to ensure a good education for them.
In spite of the fact that Min Jin Lee has, at times, dragged the book to all timelines confusing her readers, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to immerse himself/herself in a good historical fiction.
Made into a television series, Pachinko amassed many awards in 2022. Rating for a book of that caliber can’t be less than *****
Sudhas_Musings 