Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Pachinko

A beautiful and sad story spanning generations. It touched on so many political, social, economic, and cultural issues. I learned a lot while following their stories. It really showed how our choices can impact others while at the same time changing the course of our lives forever. I felt such deep sadness for the characters as they toiled to take care of their families during the wars and then later how they struggled to climb the socio-economic ladder. I felt their pain when they lost loved ones. The story was so real. The only thing I didn’t like is how it stopped so abruptly. There wasn’t closure for some characters’ stories. But that’s life, right? It just keeps going. The story could go on forever.

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tangoscore's review against another edition

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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

4.0

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trhemphill's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective medium-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

4.5

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sadieadie's review against another edition

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emotional informative medium-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

4.5

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ssipos's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

Pros:
- The portrayal of the many, many female characters in the novel and how their backgrounds and circumstances explained the decisions they made and the behaviors they exhibited; even unlikeable characters like Hana could be sympathized with by the end of the book
- Sunja; she was easily my favorite and a stand-out character for making the tough but right choices time and time again, despite so many factors working against her; her indomitable spirit is admirable
- The complex evolution of the Koreans living in Japan and assimilating into Japanese culture and language but without being truly accepted into Japanese society and facing continuous racism

Cons:
- The author chose to often describe the naked bodies of the female characters in detail, but not for the male characters; this may have been purposeful by the author to highlight the sexualization of the women, but it didn't feel like these multiple depictions tied into the larger story in a neat way
- The length of the novel felt long once we moved into the last generation's story (Solomon); and jumping from many characters towards the end of the book (Haruki, Hana, etc.) felt scattered and less like an epic novel and more like short stories tied together
- I wish the book had just focused on Sunja's life and the people around her - transitioning to others like Haruki, Etsuko, etc. didn't hold my attention like the beginning of the book when it was more focused on Sunja

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