Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

I love the voice in this novel, which spans generations of a Korean family in no time, crying out about the inequities in terms of gender, race, and politics.  This was one of the New York Times five best novels of 2018, and I see why.  This is the fourth of the five that I have read and it is my favorite.

The book tells the story of Korean immigrants living in Japan between 1910 and today, a family saga that explores the effects of poverty, abuse, war, suicide, and the accumulation of wealth on multiple generations. When the novel opens, we are introduced to Hoonie enters into an arranged marriage with Yangjin and they are bound together by their shared love for their daughter Sunja.

It is Sunja who is the character in the novel. As a teenager, she is seduced by a yakuza, Hansu, leaving her pregnant and unmarried, but when a sympathetic young missionary asks for her hand, it seems her disgrace will be avoided. She dodges that bullet, and a few more, but rest assured, her life is miserable, none the less.  The almost unimaginable degrees of hardship, disrespect and inhumanity suffered by the Koreans in this story makes for painful reading. They live in impoverished circumstances, are paid less than their Japanese counterparts, are spoken to as if they were dogs and, in one powerful scene, are forced to register time and again as strangers in a land in which many of them have in fact been born.  Hansu returns again and again, and without him, they would have died.  The Koreans tolerate this maltreatment with a stoicism that reflects the fortitude of their character. Surviving is what matters to them, not human rights.  Pachinko is a good metaphor for this book, in that the characters bounce off the edges of life and war in Japan, never knowing where they will be bounced next, and in the end, the game is rigged.  A beautiful read.  Do not miss this.