Pachinko

By: Min Jin Lee

Narrated by: Allison Hiroto

Length: 18 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times Notable Book of 2017

A USA Today Top 10 of 2017

July pick for the PBS NewsHour-New York Times Book Club Now Read This

Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, 2018

Winner of The Medici Book Club Prize

Roxane Gay's Favorite Book of 2017, Washington Post

New York Times best seller, number one Boston Globe best seller, USA Today best seller, Wall Street Journal best seller, and a Washington Post best seller.

A New York Times Top 10 Book of the Year and National Book Award finalist, Pachinko is an "extraordinary epic" of four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family as they fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan (San Francisco Chronicle).

"There could only be a few winners, and a lot of losers. And yet we played on, because we had hope that we might be the lucky ones".

In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant - and that her lover is married - she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations.

Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters - strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis - survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history.

©2017 Min Jin Lee (P)2017 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"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)

"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 best-selling author of The Professor and the Madman and Korea: A Walk through the Land of Miracles)

"A deep, broad, addictive history of a Korean family in Japan enduring and prospering through the 20th century." ( The Guardian)

Outstanding.

Outstanding. One of my favorite works of fiction I’ve been through in a long time.

powerful & painful & beautiful

This novel amazed me with its narrative, characters, and truth. Audio worked, too. I learned about Japan and sad similarities we find all over the world, different details.

Not even trying with the Korean words

The pronunciation of the Korean words are pretty bad. Was there not a single Korean person on the production to correct it?

Poor narration weakens a book with potential

Gosh, I've only heard a few books so poorly narrated, but this one truly takes the listener out of the story. I am grateful that I read along with this one, as I didn't even catch the mis-pronounced Korean phrases. For a story about generations of Koreans, the pronunciation should've been flawless. Also, as many others have said, the narrator sounded as though she were talking to children, or grandchildren. For a tale of heartbreak, death, and survival, her tone never matched.

In regard to the story, I have no major complaints, aside from the fact that the author left no footnotes or glossary of foreign words or colloquialisms that the greater population of readers would not know.

My only other issue with the writing is that certain plot lines are introduced and then dropped on a whim, and the story ends without resolution for them, as though the minor character was forgotten.

I would still recommend it, but I might suggest lowering your hopes.

Horrible reader

Not a bad inter generational saga. Interesting depiction of a historical era. however. the audible version ruins a good book. This reader constantly emphasizes the wrong words and totally misses the intent of the author. Agonizing to listen to.

Interesting, family saga

Beautifully told story of a Korean family living in Japan. The beginning pulls you into their world and the end leaves you feeling completely fulfilled. Told through a number of the family members you fall in love with this family.

Could not get into the book

Although this book was some what interesting, I just could not get into it. I never finished it...maybe one day.

timely family story

I appreciated this education into 20th century Korean history and family culture .. well done.

Could've been great but failed

Would you try another book from Min Jin Lee and/or Allison Hiroto?

No

Any additional comments?

This book had the makings of a GREAT book: History, multigenerational saga, migration, all issues that are very relevant to today. Yet the interesting storylines, (Solomon, Sunja, etc) got drowned because of too many characters with unnecessary plotlines that didn't go anywhere (there's a character that shows up in one chapter, we see her discover a major secret, yet nothing comes of it. That little tidbit doesn't carry neither hers, her husband's or the main character's plots. Why put it in at all, then? Further, many characters, including a main one, are killed off suddenly and without an explanation, as if the writer no longer had use for them. If you are going to do this, give the reader an explanation: the character's thought process, the events that lead to it. Instead there are great jumps in time, other characters die and we find out years after.... Finally, the sex scenes vocabulary read like the author couldn't decide to write historical fiction or erotica. I am no prude, I have no problem with the scenes being where they are, it's the wording. Using f***k, t**s, etc, cheapens the narration. It would've been one thing if the character was in a "talk to me dirty" mood, but no. It's every single sex scene with crude words. There are better ways to write that. Throughout the audio I wondered why I book that was nominated to the National Book Award didn't get it. I now realize it was probably the issues above. It could've been great. It wasn't. I take away the immigrant struggle to make a life in a place that rejects them, the plight of women without men to bring food to the table in such a conservative society, the pain and damage that a culture of honor and deep shame can bring to a family and a person. The rest I can do without.

Pretty Good

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed listening to it since I was stationed in Korea and Japan years ago.[[ASIN:1537138529 Flying With The Enemy: Memoir of a Young Cadet]]