Alison’s review of Pachinko > Likes and Comments
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I hope you are enjoying this one so far!
Yes! I’m surprised. Once a book gets too popular, I get suspicious. But this is quite good.
Okay, maybe I need to bump this up the TBR! I have a copy; didn't have a plan for it. But I'm reading Lázár right now and it is by no means (imho) a successful multi-gen saga, though that is what it purports to be. Puzzlingly, many critics seem to think it succeeds. It hasn't won me over, and perhaps reading Pachinko after Lázár will help me sharpen my thoughts on the former.
I have had Lazar for months but have suspected it didn’t match the hype and keep putting it off. You’ve confirmed that suspicion. I got the sense it was fairly derivative (Roth, Zweig), but really should suspend judgement at least until I crack the spine!
You won't need to read far to formulate a judgment. The chapters are short, much time passes between them, & it's quickly evident Biedermann shan't provide a moment for the reader to touch ground in the story. The breakneck pacing (and consequent lack of detail) is just one issue—but from that issue fall others like dominoes (e.g., the distance at which the pacing & lack of detail hold the reader from the characters—they simply fly past in a blur, like so many carousel equestrians, and then they're gone—or, worse, not gone, but changed, without due consideration of why or how they've been changed).
Additionally, one has a right to quibble over veracity in a historical novel told in an at least semi-realist mode, and so I must, at times, e.g., when a character, in 1930s Vienna, undergoes, ostensibly, Freudian psychoanalysis—but it looks exactly like 21st century talk therapy. How Freudian psychoanalysis was done is easy enough to research; why an editor didn't help him get details like this correct I can't begin to imagine.
Lastly, I will say... it just feels like reading a kid. Precocious? I suppose. Talented? Maybe; hard to say. Worth watching as he gets older? Probably? Maybe? Not sure.
I will be curious what you think if you ever do pull it off the shelf! I, however, am not sold.
Alison, I am delighted to see that you loved this one too. I went down so many rabbit holes and learned quite a lot of Korean history of this time period as well as being introduced to the game of Pachinko. And still there is the universality of family and relationships.
"The artificiality of race juxtaposed with the real patterns created by heredity are probed here, with so much subtlety and skill that one never feels (I never felt) I was reading an essay or a didactic lesson rather than literature."
Well said!
I heard Lee recently on NPR discussing her new book, American Hagwon. I am excitedly looking forward to reading it after some of the hype dies down.
This was a great read for me. I appreciate your well written review.
I see you also have her new novel on your TBR. Looking forward to reading it as soon as my friend Libby delivers it.
I think this book deserved a 4-star rating from me. It has stayed with me over the years and that is a sign that it was a story well-told. Excellent review by you, of course!
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Lisa
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Sep 25, 2026 03:00PM
I hope you are enjoying this one so far!
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Yes! I’m surprised. Once a book gets too popular, I get suspicious. But this is quite good.
Okay, maybe I need to bump this up the TBR! I have a copy; didn't have a plan for it. But I'm reading Lázár right now and it is by no means (imho) a successful multi-gen saga, though that is what it purports to be. Puzzlingly, many critics seem to think it succeeds. It hasn't won me over, and perhaps reading Pachinko after Lázár will help me sharpen my thoughts on the former.
I have had Lazar for months but have suspected it didn’t match the hype and keep putting it off. You’ve confirmed that suspicion. I got the sense it was fairly derivative (Roth, Zweig), but really should suspend judgement at least until I crack the spine!
You won't need to read far to formulate a judgment. The chapters are short, much time passes between them, & it's quickly evident Biedermann shan't provide a moment for the reader to touch ground in the story. The breakneck pacing (and consequent lack of detail) is just one issue—but from that issue fall others like dominoes (e.g., the distance at which the pacing & lack of detail hold the reader from the characters—they simply fly past in a blur, like so many carousel equestrians, and then they're gone—or, worse, not gone, but changed, without due consideration of why or how they've been changed). Additionally, one has a right to quibble over veracity in a historical novel told in an at least semi-realist mode, and so I must, at times, e.g., when a character, in 1930s Vienna, undergoes, ostensibly, Freudian psychoanalysis—but it looks exactly like 21st century talk therapy. How Freudian psychoanalysis was done is easy enough to research; why an editor didn't help him get details like this correct I can't begin to imagine.
Lastly, I will say... it just feels like reading a kid. Precocious? I suppose. Talented? Maybe; hard to say. Worth watching as he gets older? Probably? Maybe? Not sure.
I will be curious what you think if you ever do pull it off the shelf! I, however, am not sold.
Alison, I am delighted to see that you loved this one too. I went down so many rabbit holes and learned quite a lot of Korean history of this time period as well as being introduced to the game of Pachinko. And still there is the universality of family and relationships."The artificiality of race juxtaposed with the real patterns created by heredity are probed here, with so much subtlety and skill that one never feels (I never felt) I was reading an essay or a didactic lesson rather than literature."
Well said!
I heard Lee recently on NPR discussing her new book, American Hagwon. I am excitedly looking forward to reading it after some of the hype dies down.
This was a great read for me. I appreciate your well written review.I see you also have her new novel on your TBR. Looking forward to reading it as soon as my friend Libby delivers it.
I think this book deserved a 4-star rating from me. It has stayed with me over the years and that is a sign that it was a story well-told. Excellent review by you, of course!