What I didn’t know about Korea

Before listening to Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee, I could count on one hand the things I knew about Korea: My father served in the Navy during the Korean War; the 1988 Olympics were held in Seoul; the South Koreans are world-class mounted archers and have an amazing training facility; Korean BBQ; my husband’s first job as a dentist was with a very gracious and hard-working man of Korean descent. That is a sad commentary on my limited knowledge of this land and the centuries of history. Thank goodness for outstanding books of historical fiction, family sagas, and diversity. Books that take readers by the hand and heart and give us a glimpse into the suffering and heroism of what Author Lee calls ordinary people.

Let’s start with my brief review:

This book is a sweeping saga of four generations of Korean immigrants in Japan from 1910-1989. 

I didn’t know Korea was a conquered territory of Japan before WW11. The Korean citizens were subservient to their overlords. Poverty, injustice, and racism ruled the day. Family devotion, hard work, heartbreak, and more hard work challenge the struggling family.

Teenaged Sunja is the only and beloved daughter of a crippled man and his wife. She falls in love with a wealthy stranger, believing he loves her. When she finds she is pregnant, she discovers he is married with three children. Though he wants to keep her as his mistress, she refuses, risking the shame and shunning that awaits her.

To say more, feels like a spoiler. This sad tale has as many twists and turns as a pachinko game. A game of chance, rigged for the House, but always with a chance to be lucky.

These characters are so deep and complicated. Some of them come into the book almost as short stories of their own, adding to the vibrant tapestry of this book.

“There is a success tax, a shit tax, and a mediocre tax. Everyone pays a tax.”

The resilience and fortitude of some of these characters, as they struggle to survive, with dignity and honor kept me listening, listening, listening (in audible).

As many other reviews have said, it is an epic saga. It is timeless in its portrayal of immigrants and exiles, racism and intolerance of religion, gender or those who are different.  Not to be missed.

The author, Min Jin Lee

Author Min Jin Lee, image from Wikipedia

This extraordinary author was born in Seoul, South Korea, immigrated to the United States in 1976 as a seven-year-old, and was raised in Elmhurst, Queens, NYC. She earned a BA at Yale and a JD at Georgetown. In 1995 she quit law to focus on writing. How fortunate for us all.

I must share this passage from an interview with Author Lee by Christoper Patrella with the Guardian, with a link to the full interview below:

Christopher Petrella (CP): The opening line of Pachinko, your latest novel, reads: “History has failed us, but no matter.” What inspired such a powerful idea?

Min Jin Lee (MJL): “History has failed us, but no matter” serves as my thesis statement. I believe history has failed almost everybody who is ordinary in the world, not just the Korean-Japanese, who are the subject of Pachinko. I am also arguing that the discipline of history has failed. It is not that historians aren’t doing their jobs but rather that the memory of history has been reconstructed by the elite, because the overwhelming majority of ordinary people rarely leave sufficient primary documents; they do not have others recording their lives in real time.

The phrase “but no matter” is a statement of defiance. It doesn’t matter that history has failed us because ordinary people have persisted anyway. This idea gives me an enormous amount of strength and hope as a writer because I am an ordinary person. Those of us who may be women of color, immigrants, or working class aren’t often meant to be people who write novels about ideas, but no matter.

Full Interview: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/aug/02/min-jin-lee-interview-frederick-douglass-200

Pachinko is about ordinary people that history may have forgotten. But these characters are anything but ordinary. Poor, hardworking, people devoted to family who face such cruelty, racism, and religious persecution that keeps them in poverty and subjugation. Illness, prison, World Wars, burn victims. Again, I do not wish to drop spoilers, but the resilience of these characters, the tenacity to keep living, to find a way, seems superhuman and heroic. As so many ordinary people really do every day.  Unsung, unrecognized, ignored by history. Heroes among us.

Author Lee refers to herself as ordinary. Ordinary? A bestselling author? Humble and gracious, for sure, with a brilliant mind and talent for writing that goes beyond ordinary, at least to me.

Her website has a list of interviews, and I’m attaching that for more on this author and her writing: https://www.minjinlee.com/interviews

“History has failed Us, but No Matter.” Diversity and adversity – People challenged because of the color of their skin, ethnicity, religion, and gender – Eye opening and heartbreaking in equal measure. Did I mention a love story? If you haven’t read or listened to this book yet, I cannot recommend it enough. There is a broadcast series, but I have yet to watch it as the characters and stories are embedded in my mind, and I’m not ready to let go of those treasured images. Not yet.

I’m a big fan. I hope you will be too.