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Min Jin Lee

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Pachinko: The New York Times Bestseller Kindle Edition

by Min Jin Lee (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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* The million-copy bestseller*
* National Book Award finalist *
* An instant New York Times Bestseller and one of their 10 Best Books of 2017 *
* Selected for Emma Watson's Our Shared Shelf book club *

'This is a captivating book... Min Jin Lee's novel takes us through four generations and each character's search for identity and success. It's a powerful story about resilience and compassion' BARACK OBAMA.

Yeongdo, Korea, 1911. Teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a fisherman, falls for a wealthy yakuza. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant – and that her lover is married – she refuses to be bought.

Facing ruin, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle minister passing through on his way to Japan. Following a man she barely knows to a hostile country where she has no friends, Sunja will be forced to make some difficult choices. Her decisions will echo through the decades.

Spanning nearly 100 years of history, Pachinko is an unforgettable story of love, sacrifice, ambition and loyalty told through four generations of one family.

Print length

546 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Apollo
Publication date

23 February 2017
File size

4197 KB
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Popular Highlights in this book

What are popular highlights?

She could not see his humanity, and Noa realized that this was what he wanted most of all: to be seen as human.
Highlighted by 2,560 Kindle readers
The peasants knew that a spoiled son did more harm to a family than a dead one, and they kept themselves from indulging him too much.
Highlighted by 2,058 Kindle readers
“Man, life’s going to keep pushing you around, but you have to keep playing.”
Highlighted by 1,854 Kindle readers

Product description

Review

An exquisite, haunting epic...'moments of shimmering beauty and some glory, too, ' illuminate the narrative...Lee's profound novel...is shaped by impeccable research, meticulous plotting, and empathic perception.-- "Booklist (starred review)"

The breadth and depth of challenges come through clearly, without sensationalization. The sporadic victories are oases of sweetness, without being saccharine. Lee makes it impossible not to develop tender feelings towards her characters--all of them, even the most morally compromised. Their multifaceted engagements with identity, family, vocation, racism, and class are guaranteed to provide your most affecting sobfest of the year.-- "BookRiot"

Stunning...Despite the compelling sweep of time and history, it is the characters and their tumultuous lives that propel the narrative.

-- " New York Times Book Review"

Narrator Hiroto brings a subtle, down-to-earth realism to the story of Sunja.

-- "Library Journal (starred audio review)"

The novel expertly portrays the rituals and mores specific to ethnic Korean culture even as it also poignantly captures the universally complicated relationships between family members, lovers and friends. The writing is spare and evocative.

-- "New York Times"

Pachinko remains gently affecting as an audio.

-- "AudioFile"

Combining the detail of a documentary with the empathy of the best fiction, it's a sheer delight.

-- "Daily Mail (London)"

PACHINKO is elegant and soulful, both intimate and sweeping. This story of several generations of one Korean family in Japan is the story of every family whose parents sacrificed for their children, every family whose children were unable to recognize the cost, but it's also the story of a specific cultural struggle in a riveting time and place. Min Jin Lee has written a big, beautiful book filled with characters I rooted for and cared about and remembered after I'd read the final page.-- "Kate Christensen, Pen/Faulkner-winning author "

A beautifully crafted story of love, loss, determination, luck, and perseverance...Lee's skillful development of her characters and story lines will draw readers into the work. Those who enjoy historical fiction with strong characterizations will not be disappointed as they ride along on the emotional journeys offered in the author's latest page-turner.-- "Library Journal (starred review)"

A social novel in the Dickensian vein...frequently heartbreaking.-- "USA Today"

Astounding. The sweep of Dickens and Tolstoy applied to a 20th century Korean family in Japan. Min Jin Lee's PACHINKO tackles all the stuff most good novels do-family, love, cabbage-

but it also asks questions that have never been more timely. What does it mean to be part of a nation? And what can one do to escape its tight, painful, familiar bonds?

-- "Gary Shteyngart, New York Times bestselling author"

Both for those who love Korea, as well as for those who know no more than Hyundai, Samsung and kimchi, this extraordinary book will prove a revelation of joy and heartbreak. I could not stop turning the pages, and wished this most poignant of sagas would never end. Min Jin Lee displays a tenderness and wisdom ideally matched to an unforgettable tale that she relates just perfectly.-- "Simon Winchester, New York Times bestselling author"

A sprawling and immersive historical work... Reckoning with one determined, wounded family's place in history, Lee's novel is an exquisite meditation on the generational nature of truly forging a home.-- "Publishers Weekly"

If proof were needed that one family's story can be the story of the whole world, then PACHINKO offers that proof. Min Jin Lee's novel is gripping from start to finish, crossing cultures and generations with breathtaking power. PACHINKO is a stunning achievement, full of heart, full of grace, full of truth.-- "Erica Wagner, author of Ariel's Gift and Seizure"

An extraordinary epic, both sturdily constructed and beautiful.

-- "San Francisco Chronicle"

A powerful meditation on what immigrants sacrifice to achieve a home in the world.

-- "Junot Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author"

An old-fashioned epic whose simple, captivating storytelling delivers both wisdom and truth.

-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"

About the Author

Min Jin Lee is the bestselling author of two novels. Pachinko was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, a New York Times bestseller and was included on over 75 best books of the year lists. It is currently being adapted for television by Apple TV. Lee's debut novel Free Food for Millionaires was a Top 10 Books of the Year for The Times, NPR's Fresh Air and USA Today. Min Jin Lee's writings have appeared in The New Yorker, the TLS, the Guardian, Conde Nast Traveler, The Times and the Wall Street Journal, among others. In 2019, Lee was inducted into the New York Foundation for the Arts Hall of Fame. She serves as a trustee of PEN America, a director of the Authors Guild and on the National Advisory Board of the Immigration Initiative at Harvard.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01H3MWEGA
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Apollo; 1st edition (23 February 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 4197 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 546 pages

Best Sellers Rank: 1,713 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 2 in Asian American Literature
- 2 in Movie Tie-In Fiction
- 4 in Asian-American Literature

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Min Jin Lee

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Min Jin Lee is a recipient of fiction fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard. Her second novel Pachinko (2017) was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, winner of the Medici Book Club Prize, and a New York Times 10 Best Books of 2017. A New York Times Bestseller, Pachinko was also a Top 10 Books of the Year for BBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and the New York Public Library. Pachinko was a selection for “Now Read This,” the joint book club of PBS NewsHour and The New York Times. It was on over 75 best books of the year lists, including NPR, PBS, and CNN. Pachinko will be translated into 25 languages. Lee’s debut novel Free Food for Millionaires (2007) was a Top 10 Books of the Year for The Times of London, NPR’s Fresh Air, USA Today, and a national bestseller. Her writings have appeared in The New Yorker, NPR’s Selected Shorts, One Story, The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, Conde Nast Traveler, The Times of London, and Wall Street Journal. She served three consecutive seasons as a Morning Forum columnist of the Chosun Ilbo of South Korea. In 2018, Lee was named as an Adweek Creative 100 for being one of the “10 Writers and Editors Who are Changing the National Conversation” and a Frederick Douglass 200. She received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Monmouth College. She will be a Writer-in-Residence at Amherst College from 2019-2022.

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Sharon

Amazing story of immigration and discrimination

Reviewed in Australia on 19 February 2024

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It seems it doesn’t matter where you move in the world for a better life you are still a foreigner. What a wonderful story. I couldn’t put the book down once I’d started.

One person found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Well written but becomes depressing

Reviewed in Australia on 24 February 2019

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I started out really enjoying this book and recommending it to all and sundry. To say the author writes well is an absolute understatement. The characters are incredibly believable and she has a Tolstoy-eske way of giving back story and reason for actions, of even the least of characters, in a way that integrates seamlessly with the storytelling. The realism turned too gritty for my tastes from about three quarters of the way through the book. I was left pushing through the last quarter, desperate to finish so that I could seek joy in the world again. If you have read, "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry you will know this gritty, dark turn well, although thankfully Min Jin Lee leaves us with a just the tiniest speck of hope at the end of the "Pachinko".
The history and culture (and brilliant storytelling) weaved through the book make it worth reading, just to improve your knowledge of Japan and Korea.
Overall I'm glad I read it, but will probably take a break from this author incase continued reading in this vein makes me lose all hope in humanity.

9 people found this helpful

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Amjaba

Wonderful read

Reviewed in Australia on 16 January 2024

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Enjoyed this book.

Reviewed in Australia on 16 August 2022

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Lovely book, so nice to go through the life of so many people during all those years. Could be shorter but deeper into each character's lives.

Reviewed in Australia on 8 January 2021

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It would be great theme and great story but the story is too long and it has too much happenings in one. I got bored and lost after a half of this story.
Some Japanese culture and Japanese words are misunderstood and misplaced at all.
They distracted and disappointed me a lot.

Reviewed in Australia on 4 November 2023

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An interesting read where you are never quite sure where you are going to end up. Set against an interesting time in history that I enjoyed learning about

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Jo Kerr

Delivered within a few day. Excellent

Reviewed in Australia on 22 November 2023

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Produce was exactly what I wanted. Delivered within a few days. Excellent service

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Gaele Arnott

Social consciousness and culture

Reviewed in Australia on 21 February 2021

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I found the topic of considerable interest. The book in style and writing was excellent. I know very little about Korean and Japanese culture. I found this created an interest for further research into both these cultures. I thought all the characters were well described, enough to picture them visually in my mind. I'd recommend the book to others as a thoroughly enjoyable read.

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Cmotruk

Fantastic read

Reviewed in Canada on 9 February 2024

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I could not put this down! Worth the buy

Rhodawriter59

A story of haunting beauty and memorable characters.

Reviewed in the United States on 12 December 2022

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I originally watched some episodes of the Pachinko dramatization on Apple TV. Because of the excellent acting and engaging script, I became quickly engrossed in the production. After learning the story would be released in 4 seasons, I was dismayed knowing I would be at the edge of my seat for the next four years yearning to know what happens to these characters. Wishing to spare myself this misery, I looked up the book, Pachinko, upon which the drama was based, bought my copy from Amazon Kindle and read it cover to cover in two days. Being a slow reader and being that Pachinko is not a light read, I got through that book very fast simply because almost from the first page, I could not put it down.

Generally, I’m not a fan of family sagas, but I have recently begun watching Korean dramas with subtitles. While enjoying the dramas, I have become interested in Korean history and culture, so reading this book, written by Korean American author, Min Jin Lee, was an opportunity to acquaint myself with Korean culture from the lens of someone raised in a Korean household, but who also has lived and been educated in the United States.

I was grateful that, unlike the movie, the story in this book runs along in a sequential timeline with very little time-shifting. Lee presents this story in a universal, omnipresent point of view, so one gets the story from multiple viewpoints, not only from major characters, but from some minor ones as well. The writing is so skillfully executed, the narrative runs seamlessly along. The writing is also immersive with just enough description to set the scenes. Through this evocative writing, I could feel the closeness of life in Sunja’s childhood boarding house while appreciating the freedom and beauty of the black rocks by the seashore where Sunja and her companions washed clothes and where she spent time with her lover, Koh Hansu. A week after finishing this book I can still close my eyes and feel the poverty of Osaka where Sunju and her family eked out a living, all crowded in a small, rickety dwelling, held down and oppressed for being Koreans by their Japanese overlords.

The strongest part of the story were the characters, all thoughtfully written and fleshed out. Sunja was a plain, uneducated peasant girl whose great intelligence, wisdom, loyalty, faith and well-honed instincts helped lay the foundations for her family’s survival during rough times and later for their great prosperity despite the prejudice they were forced to endure. Her two loves, Koh Hansu and Isak, different as two men could be, protected her and her family in their own way. Her son, Noa, witnessed the hardships of the World War II in his younger years, but because of his great intelligence and because of the secret presence of his wealthy, natural father, he was spared many of the dangers and deprivations other Korean children faced. Growing up and being educated alongside Japanese children, he came to be greatly conflicted between his Japanese education and his Korean heritage. His younger brother, Mozasu, lacked the patience for education, yet he was diligent and street-smart and made a success of his life running and eventually owning pachinko parlors. Koh Hansu was probably the most tragic of the characters Lee highlights. He is a gifted Korean, born into poverty who found success by selling his soul to his Japanese overlords. He has married into a wealthy Japanese family, even been adopted by his father-in-law, yet he has little respect for his Japanese family. He loved the Korean peasant girl, Sunja, but she refused to become his mistress and went on to pursue her own life. Though Sunja is only one among many lovers, he remains haunted by her throughout his life. She gave birth to his only son, but she also touched his heart in a way no other human being could. Though Koh is a much feared and corrupt Yakuza in later years, he still goes out of his way to show kindness to Sunja and her family. Also of interest are the couple Yeseb and his beautiful wife, Kyunghee. Yeseb struggles with a feeling of inferiority towards his younger brother, Isak, who he believes is too idealistic and fragile for this word. He is a protective older brother hemmed in by traditional, paternalistic ideals that prove costly in the foreign world of Imperial Japan where his family is forced to exist under difficult and almost impossible conditions. He works multiple jobs and still isn’t able to make enough to support his family, yet he refuses to let his wife work outside the home. Later he becomes disabled and is forced to become dependent upon others, including his wife, for care. The most beautiful thing about this extended family is these individuals have their share of conflict, resentments, and misunderstandings, but throughout their lives, they are completely devoted to each other. When trouble threatens from the outside or when one family member is in need, each one of them comes through for the other.

The book starts in Korea during the early part of the twentieth century during the Japanese occupation. In Korea, Sunja and her family, as well as other Koreans, are regarded with suspicion by their Japanese overlords. Not only do the Japanese exploit them and take the best land and sea can produce, but they regard and treat the native Koreans as innately inferior. The attitudes don’t change after World War II during occupied Japan or even as late as the 1980’s when the book ends. Koreans living in Japan or even born there are still regarded legally and socially as foreigners. Returning to Korea, as many of these individuals desired to do after the war, was problematic as well, and even downright deadly. Families and individuals from the north of Korea, had to return to a part of Korea run by the Communists. There were individuals in the book who returned and were never heard from again. The south of Korea was run by a dictator most of the time and beset by chaos and corruption, as well as the Korean war. Sunja and her family were trapped in Japan by these circumstances, but Japan, first Osaka and then Yokohama, became their home. Here they were able to start and run businesses and earn a living. Being Koreans, they might never be fully accepted in their community, but here they found a life. They weren’t shunned by all Japanese. Lee introduces her readers to Japanese individuals touched by this family, but all of them have one thing in common: because of circumstances or past actions or mistakes, they have been marginalized by their Japanese countrymen. There is Mozasu’s girlfriend, Etsuko, who was divorced by her husband because of infidelity. In her disgrace she had to leave her community in Hokkaido and move to another town. Mozasu’s first employer had an autistic son and was also marginalized. Noa’s first serious girlfriend, Akiko, who doesn't fit in with her Japanese peers, is a precocious Japanese girl from a wealthy family, who is fascinated by Noa’s Korean heritage. When Akiko, through her ignorance and thoughtlessness, interferes and unwittingly forces an explosive family issue, Noa freezes her totally out of his life.

I never heard the name Pachinko until I watched some of the drama on my streaming service. As the book explains, it is a popular game in Japan that is a cross between pinball and slot machines. Winners appear to win by chance and thereby have hope for a good outcome, but the owners set the machines and allow some wins so that other less fortunate people will be drawn in. Winners are those who happen to play during the time of day the pins are loose and ready to yield the winnings. I suppose life can be looked upon as a game of Pachinko. Pachinko was one of the few avenues where Korean individuals could make their fortunes in post-war Japan. It was not considered respectable enough for good Japanese people to be a part of, even though the Japanese loved to play it. Both of Sunja’s sons end up making a living running Pachinko.

This book presented a window into, what are to me, two foreign cultures, Korean and Japanese. Sunja’s extended family is made up of aristocrats from the north of Korea as well as peasants from the south. Sunja’s youth was grounded in Confucian, old world Korean ideals, but as time passed, she and her family were introduced to Christianity, the values of Imperial Japan, post-war commercialism, and globalization. The values of her Korean childhood such as loyalty, morality, revereance for family and work ethic remained in Sunja and were passed on to subsequent generations of her family. What stood out to me was the great influence of Christianity and how its message of forgiveness and loving grace impacted this family and tempered the harsher aspects of their traditional Korean ideals. Unlike many modern authors dealing with Christian characters, Lee presented the clergy in a balanced and realistic way, neither lionizing them nor demeaning them.

All of Lee’s characters were carefully nuanced and believable. Individuals like Sunja, Isak, Noa, Solomon, and Hansu came alive to me and continue to haunt me nearly a week since I finished the book. I was truly sad to come to the end of book. It was a beautiful read, one of the best books I’ve read in the past three or four years. I highly recommend it!

103 people found this helpful

Bruna Mello

História fascinante

Reviewed in Brazil on 22 September 2022

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Livro fantátisco. Aprendi várias coisas sobre a cultura coreana/japanesa, as quais não fazia ideia. A história em si é muito bonita, ao estilo de Cem anos de solidão, do Gabriel Garcia Marques, porém é focada na trajetória das mulheres da família a qual acompanhamos a vida ao longo do século 20. Vale muito a pena ler para conhecer um pouco dessa parte da história do mundo a qual não aprendemos com muito foco.

4 people found this helpful

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Daniela L

Lo que pagas

Reviewed in Mexico on 9 May 2022

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Entrega rápida, buenas condiciones a pesar de no traer celofán protector.
En cuanto a la trama del libro:
4/5☆
Muy buena historia y narrativa, atención a detalles y su redacción permite al lector comprender aspectos específicos del país y su historia. Los personajes aparecen y desaparecen causando un poco de confusión en cuanto a qué pasa con ellos; sin embargo, una vez procesada la historia, así es la vida. Personas entran y salen sin un final de nuestras vidas y la escritora lo plasma de una manera muy sutil.
Conforme avanzas en el libro la historia se vuelve algo lenta, pero vale la pena continuar con la lectura.

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Jayrose

Fascinating story of a different world

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 February 2024

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A varied and illuminating story of the lives of a family who move to a foreign country in the hope of improving their lives. They survive through hardship and tragedy, experience some successes and endure significant heartache.

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