Pachinko

      History has failed us, but no matter. 

💬 Summary 

Yeongdo, Korea 1911
A club-footed, cleft-lipped man marries a fifteen-year-old girl. The couple have one child, their beloved daughter Sunja. When Sunja falls pregnant by a married yakuza, the family face ruin. But then a Christian minister offers a chance of salvation: a new life in Japan as his wife. Following a man he barely knows to a hostile country where she has no friends and no home, Sunja’s salvation is just the beginning of her story. 

A historical multi-generational, family saga exploring the themes of poverty, displacement from war, racial prejudice, women generalization, love and honour, that starts in Korea at the turn of the 20th century and concludes in Japan in 1989. It explores the Korean-Japanese identity and the social and legal discrimination experienced by those with that heritage. 

💟 What I love

— If anything, let's start with a word of appreciation for that magnificent oriental cover. This one is for #KoreanMarch themed reading and I thoroughly enjoyed the first part where we're introduced to a poor family who had a daughter named Sunja and her life was so simple. Poor and difficult but that's life. Then things happened, Sunja was taken to Japan where life supposed to be easier but just like my experience while reading this one, it did not work that way.

👀  What I did not love

Good books for me are the ones that made me feel. Sadly this one did not make the cut.

— The writing style was very straight forward. It suited the story since overall it was a detached 3rd person telling the narrative of the generations of this family and their lives. But I didn't find the writing to be compelling enough to look forward to picking up the book. If I don't have either amazing characters or plot, I really want an engaging writing, and this was just okay. 

Overall story was fine, I guess — but the storytelling style bore me at times and I just, didn't care for any of the characters though life tortured them hard. I just simply don't care and that's sad... to not to be able to empathize to their pain. There was so much characters were introduced half-cooked and just when I found something to get me at least going into the direction, the thread was cut short. Done. Finished. And that's rude -___-"

Again, it's sad and I feel kind of displaced because this one is so highly praised by many but I can't find love for it. The miniseries will be premiered tomorrow (25th March) let's just hope at least Lee Min Ho would compensate for my woe.