Sorry, you must be a member of this group to do that.
From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…
Find A Copy At
Group Discussions About This Book
showing 2 of 2 topics
view all »
Other topics mentioning this book
Task #9: A book of colonial or postcolonial literature
By Book Riot · 195 posts · 2379 views
By Book Riot · 195 posts · 2379 views
last updated Dec 23, 2018 05:23AM
What Members Thought
Pachinko is a multigenerational saga about a family of Koreans who have to move to Japan because...reasons. Initially, Sunja, the beloved daughter of two older parents (older in that they were early 20s when she was born in the early 20th century), gets pregnant. Her lover, she discovers after it’s too late, already has a wife in Japan. One of the boarders at her parents’ boardinghouse, a preacher traveling to his new church, offers to marry her. She accepts and goes with him to make a new life
...more
Engrossing epic and a fascinating (and often heartbreaking) look at what long-term, generational immigration looks like in another country. I found the shifting focus in the second half of the book interesting and a bit unexpected, especially since she's so narrowly focused in the first. The initial shifts into the son's lives felt fairly natural, as the "action" moved there, but as the perspective scattered more, I felt like I was losing some of the power of the narrative. That said, there were
...more
I’m thankful I stuck with this book. The narrative style and the length wasn’t something I was ready to stick with at first, and I even took a break with another book. But, the history and the story and the characters are all still with me now. It’s been a while since I’ve read a family saga, and I’m glad I read this one.
I barely knew anything about the long history of relations between Korea and Japan—I learned so much from this book. The story and characters were also engaging, if at times sad or even devastating.
2 1/2 stars.
Feb 11, 2017
Chrissy
added it
4.5 stars
Nov 08, 2017
gremlinkitten
marked it as to-read-own
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2019-oct-library-book-sale
Nov 23, 2017
Samantha
marked it as to-read
Feb 03, 2018
Carrie
marked it as to-read
