Pachinko

Gostei muito de ler este livro. É muito criativo e a escrita vale muito a pena. Só achei que, a certa altura, se tornou um pouco monótono, porque íamos mudando de foco de personagem, e víamos o que de mal lhe acontecia. Claro que isto é baseado em coisas reais e a vida muitas vezes é uma merda, mas achei que o livro passou a depender demasiado desses momentos. Também gostava que certas personagens tivessem sido mais exploradas.

Pachinko is a longer book than I usually choose to read, but it swept past as I was fascinated by details of Sunja's life as a Korean woman in Japan. Thousands of Koreans emigrated to Japan in the early part of the twentieth century and made lives there even though they were very much looked down upon and discriminated against by the Japanese. Korean women's attitudes and expectations were (still are?) completely different to my own so I loved being able to learn more about their culture by immersing myself in this novel. Min Jin Lee is an observant writer and I felt that her historical details were both accurately researched and believably portrayed.

We follow Sunja's life and that of her family over several generations which makes this book quite the epic. I was moved by the family's eternal striving for better lives for themselves and especially for their children. This pattern repeats across the generations as is particularly poignant as we see the obstacles thrown in their way. Natural events and wartime disasters play a part, but the majority of their misfortune seems to result from remaining second class citizens in Japan. Even children born and raised in Japan are forced to register as Korean, the result of which leaves them excluded from much of Japanese society, employment, housing and personal relationships.

Lee uses the gambling game of pachinko (a type of pinball) as employment for one of Sunja's sons, Mosaszu, but also as an accurate metaphor for the lives of our central family. Mosaszu manipulates his pachinko machines every day by subtly tapping pins in and out of alignments so the gamblers can never learn a particular machine well enough to guarantee winning, regardless of how much effort (and money) they put in. Life repeatedly plays the same trick on Sunja and her family.

A bit of a slow start, but once I settled in I was captivated to the very end. Beautiful book. Racism was handled with nuance and care.

Some good quotes, too:

"In the end, your belly was your emperor."

"Life is shitty, but not all the time."

This book provides a moving portrayal of being Korean in Japan in the twentieth century as it traces through the hopes and experiences of several generations. It starts in Korea prior to World War II and continues to after the Korean conflict. It includes experiences of Korean Americans and Koreans born in Japan who studied in the United States. It is a very useful lens for looking at how people from dominant cultures treat people from marginalized cultures. Highly recommended.