Pachinko

This is a good old fashioned family epic, telling the story of a Korean family that makes its way to Japan for work and ends up staying there because of World War II, the Korean War, and all the changes these upheavals brought. Children are born, and then grandchildren, and because of Japan's citizenship laws and Japanese attitudes towards Korean people, generations of Koreans grow up as “foreigners” in the land of their birth.

While this lovely novel tells the stories of the individuals who make up this particular family, it also tells the story of the Korean people who lived and worked, were born, grew up in and were part of Japan–and still are. At times it seemed like characters were introduced only to drop away after a while, and I found that disappointing. Viewing the story from the perspective of the primary character, Sunja, who is born at the beginning of the novel and is a very old woman at the end, makes that dropping away seem more natural, since some of the characters are more central to her life than others. Also, viewing this as an historical epic where individuals play their parts and then drop out is a way of understanding this aspect of the novel.

I recommend this for the historical information represented in the novel, and a compelling, enjoyable story about a family's struggle to stay together and thrive in very tough circumstances.