Pachinko by Min Jin Lee Book Review

Pachinko (2017)

By Min Jin Lee 

Genres : historical fiction, japan, Korea, ww2 

Rating 5/5 😍😍😍

This book is a National Book Award finalist. 

I am going all gaga over this book and gushing over it like I haven't done in a while. I just loved it. Reading this is like flipping pages in a photo album. Happiness,sadness,surprise,jolts of shock all come and go .. while life is happening outside and independent of them. 😏 I think the essence/soul of this story is a thriving love between Hansu and Sunja that supercedes the passage of time, distance,status, power and doesn't bother about wrinkled faces, sun blotches hands, shrinking body frames etc. 

I took my sweet time reading this wonderful concotion .. savoring every well formed sentence and making notes all over the text. Its a very engaging book and although there is no oppressive/fretful ambience like in 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' ,the suspense is riveting nevertheless. I wanted nothing but good things to happen to the family of the main characters and an occasional tear would slide down my cheek whenever Hansu was there on the scene saving the day for the family of Sunja. 😍

I got very deeply invested in the life and events of Sunja that the change of generations, times,customs and practices in Japan from the 1910s to the 1980s made little difference to me. I devoured the book and had it not ended, would have kept going! The world and character building are simply superb. The writing and prose are so extremely gripping and unique. And while there are several descriptions of explicit sexual scenes, there is no cringefest like I feel reading a Haruki Murakami book. 

I have learnt so much from this book .. about the lifestyles of Koreans, Japanese and how much suffering both had to face during the WW2 and subsequent recuperation, assimilation of Koreans into the mainstream Japan .. through observing generations of one family of Sunja Baek.