Reviews tagging 'Racial slurs'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

101 reviews

pgmoon's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

My first book of the year! I recently revisited Pachinko by Min Jin Lee after having to set it aside previously, and I’m so glad I gave it another chance. 

This sprawling generational drama hooked me from start to finish, with a pace that, in my opinion, never slows down. It’s fascinating to watch the environment evolve as the decades pass, offering a vivid window into the history and struggles of Korean immigrants in Japan.

One of the book’s greatest strengths is its complex characters. They’re deeply flawed, selfish, petty, and morally questionable at times, yet they feel incredibly real. Each character’s choices and circumstances often reflect the harsh realities of the world around them, and even the ones I didn’t particularly like or agree with were compelling to read about. For me, Sunja is the heart of the story. Her journey is full of unexpected twists, and I found myself rooting for her resilience and determination throughout.

Thematically, Pachinko delves deeply into issues of parental expectations, neglect, and the ever-present weight of systemic racism. The discrimination faced by Korean characters is portrayed so palpably that it was eye-opening for me, especially as someone unfamiliar with that history. The story can be incredibly heavy and, at times, heartbreaking. Just when you think a character might find happiness or escape their struggles, the narrative often pulls them back into sorrow, underscoring the challenges of their lives.

If I had any qualms, it would be that some character perspectives and events were uncomfortable to read about, but this rawness is also part of what makes the book so powerful. Another minor gripe is that the third-person narrative could occasionally be confusing to follow, especially when jumping between characters and timelines. However, these issues are small compared to the richness of the story overall.

Pachinko is a remarkable book that I’d recommend to anyone who enjoys generational sagas. It’s already beloved by many, and for good reason.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

Minor: War

tanahoff's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee is a thought-provoking story that follows the experiences of one Korean family throughout multiple generations in the 20th century. We start off with the life of Hoonie and his wife Yangjin, who live in a small fishing village in Korea with their daughter, Sunja. Following Hoonie's death, Sunja and her mother Yangjin take over the family business, working day and night to provide for themselves and keep their family business afloat. When Sunja becomes pregnant during her teenage years by a wealthy man, she must make a challenging decision. Sunja marries a Christian minister, Isak, and the two migrate to Japan. From here, we walk with Sunja and Isak, eventually following the lives of their children and grandchildren. 

Pachinko gives readers much needed insight regarding the panorama of east Asia in the 1900s and the challenges that Koreans faced during that time. Through Pachinko, we learn about the displacement of Koreans and the challenges and xenophobia they faced in Japan. We see the impact of this displacement play out across marriages, careers, education, war, imprisonment, and more. Pachinko is an important story to educate readers about the Korean experience.  

I picked up Pachinko after seeing it on the New York Time's Top 100 books of the 21st century, and after reading, I can say it's place on the list is well justified. Pachinko comes in at one of my only five-star reviews of the year.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Suicide, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

astrofeldy's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.5

Pachinko follows an epic family saga across four generations, introducing the reader to an oft-forgotten side of Japanese racism against displaced and migrated Korean families (especially challenging in a modern day boom of Japanese pop culture among western readers), and grapples with what it truly means to answer “where are you from?”. While an impactful premise and arc, the story is unrelentingly grim, and builds up certain story lines to simply have them ripped away and never interrogated or looked at with nuance, thereafter. The author has an odd obsession with introducing characters via their breast and butt size that is representative of the shallow engagement with female characters (granted, possibly as a device to reflect how women were seen at the time), and this irked me throughout, too. Overall, I felt as though Pachinko was simply trying to do too much (and was ~1/3 too long, as others have noted), and in biting off such large themes and stories, doesn’t wholly chew any of them in a completely satisfying way. While I seem to be in a very clear minority of folks who didn’t enjoy this book, I simply didn’t find the strong start redeeming enough to carry me through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Abortion, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative reflective sad fast-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? Yes

4.25

The best works of fiction are the ones that transcend your own reality. This multi-generational saga shines a light on a specific and untold slice of human experience during one of the most often recounted periods of recent history. 

While the beats of civilian suffering during WWII are a well-trodden artistic theme, the specific marginalisation that ethnic Koreans experienced living in colonial Japan during this period are less well explored in western literature. Min Jin Lee's story takes familiar beats from war fiction and gives them a new and distinctive perspective.

While there are moments of gorgeous prose in this book, I was impressed by what a light touch the omniscient narrator's voice has throughout the book. The writing is clear and unadorned, leaving space for the characters' specific voices to shine through.

My biggest complaint about this book is that it wasn't long enough! It covers a huge swath of time in less than 500 pages, which means that each chapter is like glimpsing a vignette from the life journeys of its characters through the flash of a moving train window. I would have liked it if we had been allowed to get off and stretch our legs at each station. Instead I felt propelled through the narrative and away from the characters at each stage of their lives before I was ready.

Having said that, this book covers a huge swathe of characters, time periods and perspectives. It does not let its ambition detract from being an engrossing and entertaining read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Deportation

Minor: Rape and Trafficking

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

I definitely understand why this was a National Book Award finalist; it's a totally sweeping experience of generations and history. I learned much more about the experience of Korean people in Japan than I had ever learned in school. It's important to know how severe and also where my knowledge gaps are. I did see some criticism online about anachronistic like foods and things and confusion about the style of Japanese bits that are were included in dialogue, and I look forward to reading more about that. This is one of those books where a family tree would be really helpful, but it would also be a spoiler, so I definitely understand not including it. But whew, there were a lot of characters in here. The book felt really long, but it was, and the ending seemed a bit abrupt. But I'm not sure that there's a good way to end such a saga that has moved through decades.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Rape, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and War

Minor: Confinement, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicide, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

flamesocks's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Deportation

figsofpeach's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative inspiring 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, War, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

bites_of_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

Yes, I truly love well-crafted historical fiction that spans generations and this one did not disappoint. 

The characters are complex and multidimensional, the prose is beautiful and careful in how it describes each event and each decision made by the characters. The historical context is given without it being overwhelming or dry and it makes it all feel urgent. 

I breezed through this book and I'll definitely pick up other works by Min Jin Lee. Highly recommend! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

siomhaw's review against another edition

emotional informative sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Terminal illness, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

raila_h's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Xenophobia