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This book will not give you closure. So you're attached to one character and want to see that person thrive and be happy? Forget about it! Forget about any expectations or happiness because this book is set in the early 1900s and everything sucked terribly back then ESPECIALLY for women.
This is a multi-generational family story and it's a historical fiction set during WW2 which is basically a recipe for disaster. You will not see soldiers fighting, you will not see any frontline action during the war, but you will see a terrifying glimpse of what it's like being a regular Korean citizen in those times. Literally anything they do was wrong. If they stayed in Korea they would starve and suffer under the hands of their colonizer, if they moved to Japan they would starve and suffer under the hands of their colonizer. It's a lose-lose situation.
Yet, they persevere. Frankly it's one of my favorite things to read about: WOMEN kicking ass and surviving despite everything. This book will make you absolutely loathe human beings and if you're a modern woman such as I, it will make you absolutely loathe men. MEN! The audacity of them!
Pachinko is a bittersweet (heavy on the bitter) story with skillful narration. It took me places and I devoured this 500+ pages book in one day. It was an emotional rollercoaster and I absolutely LOVED it.
***
"You are very brave, Noa. Much, much braver than me. Living everyday in the presence of those who refuse to acknowledge your humanity takes great courage."
"-She would always believe that he was someone else, that he wasn't himself but some fanciful idea of a foreign person; she would always feel like she was someone special because she has condescended to be with someone everyone else hated. His presence would prove to the world that she was a good person, an educated person, a liberal person. Noa didn't care about being Korean when he was with her; in fact, he didn't care about being Korean or Japanese with anyone. He wanted to be, to be just himself, whatever that meant; he wanted to forget himself sometimes. But that wasn't possible. It would never be possible with her. -There was nothing else he could think of and he wanted to spare her the cruelty of what he had learned, because she would not believe that she was no different than her parents, that seeing him as only Korean-good or bad-was the same as seeing him only as a bad Korean. She could not see his humanity, and Noa realized that this was what he wanted most of all: to be seen as human,"
"Go-saeng," Yangjin said out loud. "A woman's lot is to suffer."
"Yes, go-saeng." Kyunghee nodded, repeating the word for suffering.
All her life, Sunja had heard this sentiment from other women, that they must suffer- suffer as a girl, suffer as a wife, suffer as a mother-die suffering. Go-saeng-the word made her sick. What else was there beside this? She had suffered to create a better life for Noa, and yet it was not enough. Should she have taught her son to suffer the humiliation that she'd drunk like water? In the end, he had refused to suffer the condition of his birth. Did mothers fail by not telling their sons that suffering would come?
This is a multi-generational family story and it's a historical fiction set during WW2 which is basically a recipe for disaster. You will not see soldiers fighting, you will not see any frontline action during the war, but you will see a terrifying glimpse of what it's like being a regular Korean citizen in those times. Literally anything they do was wrong. If they stayed in Korea they would starve and suffer under the hands of their colonizer, if they moved to Japan they would starve and suffer under the hands of their colonizer. It's a lose-lose situation.
Yet, they persevere. Frankly it's one of my favorite things to read about: WOMEN kicking ass and surviving despite everything. This book will make you absolutely loathe human beings and if you're a modern woman such as I, it will make you absolutely loathe men. MEN! The audacity of them!
Pachinko is a bittersweet (heavy on the bitter) story with skillful narration. It took me places and I devoured this 500+ pages book in one day. It was an emotional rollercoaster and I absolutely LOVED it.
***
"You are very brave, Noa. Much, much braver than me. Living everyday in the presence of those who refuse to acknowledge your humanity takes great courage."
"-She would always believe that he was someone else, that he wasn't himself but some fanciful idea of a foreign person; she would always feel like she was someone special because she has condescended to be with someone everyone else hated. His presence would prove to the world that she was a good person, an educated person, a liberal person. Noa didn't care about being Korean when he was with her; in fact, he didn't care about being Korean or Japanese with anyone. He wanted to be, to be just himself, whatever that meant; he wanted to forget himself sometimes. But that wasn't possible. It would never be possible with her. -There was nothing else he could think of and he wanted to spare her the cruelty of what he had learned, because she would not believe that she was no different than her parents, that seeing him as only Korean-good or bad-was the same as seeing him only as a bad Korean. She could not see his humanity, and Noa realized that this was what he wanted most of all: to be seen as human,"
"Go-saeng," Yangjin said out loud. "A woman's lot is to suffer."
"Yes, go-saeng." Kyunghee nodded, repeating the word for suffering.
All her life, Sunja had heard this sentiment from other women, that they must suffer- suffer as a girl, suffer as a wife, suffer as a mother-die suffering. Go-saeng-the word made her sick. What else was there beside this? She had suffered to create a better life for Noa, and yet it was not enough. Should she have taught her son to suffer the humiliation that she'd drunk like water? In the end, he had refused to suffer the condition of his birth. Did mothers fail by not telling their sons that suffering would come?