Reviews tagging 'Cultural appropriation'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

11 reviews

isacarvalho91's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Genocide, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Dementia, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and War

_danana's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicide, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Grief, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and War

madi22w's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee is a masterpiece of a book. Taking you through three generations of families, Lee ensured that you were close to individual members of the family as well as generations and cities as a whole. The main point of her book, being to demonstrate the divided between Koreans and Japanese in Japan, was communicated well, but it didn’t feel extremely obvious that this was the point of the book. The only reason why I dropped some points was because I thought that some of the plot points didn’t seem to make sense, but I think that this would have to be a much longer and more dense book for every characters actions to make sense to the reader. Overall, fantastic book—before I was even 1/5 of the way through it, I was sad for it eventually to be over.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Car accident, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation

theliteraryagenda's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, and Death of parent

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Toxic relationship, Car accident, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Infertility, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Grief, and Cultural appropriation

Near the end of the book, there are several scenes of graphic sexual content, which seemed unnecessary to the story.

feathers4bookmarks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Best family-saga/ multigenerational-saga I have read. This novel drew me in the way that a grandparent telling a family story does. I wasn’t reading it to find out what the ending was, but more just because I was so interested in their lives and the domestic struggles of the time/place. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Chronic illness, Hate crime, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical trauma, Car accident, Abortion, and Cultural appropriation

fairyribs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

4.5- my god this book was amazing. Knocked off 0.5 because the ending was a bit…meh. But the themes, history and the ramifications of cultural genocide were heartbreaking but very necessary to read about.

I went into this book expecting it to be a history of the Japanese colonial rule but instead I got an intimate portrait of a family and it’s fight for survival during and after colonialism. I never knew that people like the Zainichi existed and to see how many of them came to be was quite illuminating, along with the discrimination many Korean-Japanese people face today.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

kellyinbookland's review

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Cultural appropriation

alisonannk's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Police brutality, Car accident, Abortion, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

Minor: Gun violence, Murder, Outing, Cultural appropriation, and Alcohol

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Pachinko follows the lives of four generations of Koreans as everything they know is torn apart and their identities are challenged by prejudice and war. This book takes us from rule South Korea into the major Japanese cities and tells the story of the diaspora formed after World War II. While most of the story centers around Sunja, the second generation, in each POV we experience a different kind of struggle, both internal and external. It’s a fascinating and a heartbreaking study.

I often struggle to read books without immediate, clear plot. That was not the case with Pachinko. While there is no linear destination, each character has plenty of obstacles they need to overcome. Almost all of these obstacles are grossly unfair and driven by racism or elitism. From Noa, we see the intense bullying Korean students have to endure. Through Mozasu, we see the struggle to carve out a successful place in the world despite the world assuming you are crooked and dishonest. Kyunghee, one of my favorite characters, shows us that racism is relentless, even if the person does everything culturally correct. All of these stories are told in a historical context, most of them taking place entirely in Japan, and the story leaves us at the 1980s. That said, it’s easy to see where 40 years after the end of the book, these racist prejudices and multi-generational struggles persist today.

While Pachinko focuses specifically on a Korean family, we do see hints of the lives of Japanese individuals as well. There are many kinds of relationships represented in Pachinko, and I applaud Min Jin Lee for including LGBTQIAP+ representation as well. The Japanese characters of this story are struggling to reckon their actual identify with their expected identity. For one, this is his sexuality. For another, it’s her role as a mother. There is only one Japanese-American character, but even in her, we see the weight of the diaspora as she is unable to connect with her cultural identity.

There are a swarm of conversations to be had about Pachinko and the characters in this book. I think if I read it again, it would feel like an entirely new story. It’s sad and it’s sweet and the writing outlines the hum of life and the forced acceptance within its pages. Pachinko is a book that will make you think, and it will make you want to learn more.

I wholeheartedly recommend Pachinko to any reader who can handle a slow-paced slice of life book. The pacing is purposefully slow, so you can’t fly through it the way a reader can with high action books. It’s such a worthwhile read, thought-provoking, delicately woven, complex, and enlightening. This is one of those books you put on your “books to read before I die” list.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Grief, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Homophobia, Abortion, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

__lucebrennan's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A beautifully written, captivating story. Min Jin Lee captures the intricacies of family life perfectly whilst also shedding light on the difficulties faced by Koreans at that time. Best book I’ve read in a long time, would recommend to anyone!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Child death, Domestic abuse, Suicide, Xenophobia, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Cultural appropriation, and Colonisation