Pachinko, Min Jin Lee’s novel following multiple generations of a Korean family through most of the 20th Century, has received a lot of positive attention: finalist for the National Book Award, 10 best books of 2017 for the New York Times Book Review, Roxane Gay’s favorite book of the year (according to the Washington Post). And from what I’ve seen, the reviews here at CBR have been universally positive. So I’m at a bit of a loss, because I really didn’t enjoy it. At all. […]
Pure, undiluted story
The library makes so many books so very accessible for the low low cost of my tax dollars and I love it. Honestly, without it, I would probably stay safely in my niche, but because I have this access, I am exploring so many adventures and stories I would have only maybe heard of. Love your library, folks. Pachinko is a grand generational story, spanning decades and countries, following a single family from the once-united Korean peninsula to Japan. It took me into a history […]
She was honest enough to admit that her privacy cloaked a fear: the fear of being found out as a hypocrite.
So I read Pachinko last year, and pretty much think it was the best book to come out in 2017. It was incredibly strongly written, very compelling, and told a story that I wasn’t very familiar with or knowledgeable about. This novel does several of those things as well. It’s perfectly well-written and a compelling story. It’s a little well-worn territory, minus the fact that there are not remotely enough Korean-American voice working in contemporary fiction. This novel is primarily about Casey, a young Korean-American woman graduating […]
A Non-Western Immigration Story
Buzzfeed actually had a semi useful quiz a few weeks ago along the lines of, “answer these questions, and we’ll recommend a book.” My result was Pachinko so when I saw it prominently displayed at Barnes and Noble, I figured it meant I should go ahead and get it. Pachinko is one of those books that is always harder to review because while very well done, as a multi-generational family drama, there is a certain amount of familiarity to the general strokes of the story. “Poor […]