Pachinko

Very light spoiler that pertains to the progression of the book

I did really enjoy the view of history that I've not seen covered in a book before. I got through the first part pretty quickly due to not wanting to put the book down. But then it just started dragging. I was avoiding reading because I didn't want to be reminded that I had this on my phone waiting to be finished.

SPOILERISH I also got to the point that my first though when being introduced to a new character was "ok and how long until they die?" END SPOILERISH

This should have been a DNF for me, but I'm still going to give it 2 stars because I really did appreciate Min Jin Lee bringing forward the racism and disparity that Koreans faced during that time. I cannot begin to fathom leaving your birth country and then have no country want to claim you as a citizen.

I just wish some of the parts would have been slimmed down a little more.

The first third was easily engrossing. It was refreshing to learn about the history of Ikuno and about the Korean diaspora in Japan. The formula of family sagas is difficult to escape though. The older generations stoically live through readable hardship, while the younger generation is spoiled and ungrateful. I was actually expecting the youngest generation here to end up in America and to experience new discriminations, but the United States is maintained as a distant promised land. The novel holds the ideology too of work and wealth as virtue with no compunctions for example about swindling an old lady out of her home—and I nearly resented having to read through a banker bro poker game. Why are all the protagonists of the younger generation men? Both the narrator and the characters examine the structures of racism but none confront the misogyny, and the women who are granted long lives surrounded by devoted family members accept their lot as one to suffer—confines that are vocalised repeatedly across 470 pages.

Incidentally, if Phoebe and her disapproval of aspects of Japan were to be written more roundedly, the most salient affliction of living in Japan as a woman and expat is the omnipresence of pickup artist bullshittery and anti-feminist pageantry.

Overall I liked the book. The writing was clear and engaging from the start.
Although I felt that throughout the book women characters were painted as almost completely powerless and victims of others and their own shame, pinned into a small hole. It was at times hard to read and understand how they operated within these tight constraints without any outlet for release. Perhaps it was and may still be a reality.

There are some good parts and some strange parts.

I enjoyed because of the following:
The book clearly demonstrates the harsh standards for women in Korean and Japanese society.
Clear demonstration of unfair gender standards for men, the power and privilege pinned against carrying the load of the world on the shoulders and stumbling under it.
The issue of belonging, not belonging and fitting in.
Racism and xenophobia.
Personal shame with no means of dealing with it.
Insights into immigrant culture.

The things I didn't like:
There was some loosely relevant stories interwoven briefly and then dropped.
The second part of the book lost sight of the main & most interesting characters although they were still living.
The last part of the book felt less and less believable and did not draw me in emotionally the way the first part.
Crude language in narration of sex scenes was a bit jarring in a contrast to the literary language throughout.