A review by aliciasokol
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

3.0

I wanted to love this book, but I didn’t. The history is rich and well-researched, and I enjoyed learning more about the (painful) dynamic between Koreans and Japanese - a brand of racism I didn’t understand before this book. However, there are so many characters and the plot winds around and around. There are some beautiful relationships, such as that between the sisters-in-law, but so many more that are underdeveloped. I was left hanging on a lot of accounts where more detail and context would have been helpful. The winding plot and erratic jumps from one storyline to the next made it a tough read.