Min Jin Lee's saga about a Korean family living in Japan, Pachinko (#782) is mostly a grim tale, although the family does manage to pull itself up from its dirt poor roots to comfortable wealth through the popular gambling pinball game pachinko.
No one in the family wants to admit that this is an honorable way of making a living except for one son, yet all benefit from it. They constantly struggle against the taint of being Korean in a nation which looks down upon them as inferior, yet they do not see a better alternative after fleeing from an occupied country. When Korea is split by civil war into North and South, the prospects of returning home to a settled life there are no better. There is no silver lining in the clouds hovering over this family.
Yet, for all that, it is a compelling read. We keep hoping that things will get better for Sunja and her family. In some respects they do, but at what cost? There is plenty to ponder here, but if you're looking for a happy ending, you won't find it here.
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