Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

5 reviews

squidknees's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Deportation

rieviolet's review against another edition

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

3.0

The book is divided into three parts: the first one I liked well enough, the second one was so-so, the third one, well, I just kept thinking "What is going on here? What the heck am I reading about?".

There were just too many characters, especially given that the book already covers a very long period of time and many generations of a family. I really think that some characters were just unnecessary additions and we could have done without their perspectives, so that more space could be given to the main ones. All the jumping between so many different points of view just made it hard to become invested. 

Moreover, very big and even traumatic events are just briefly explored or worse just mentioned in passing. This character died, this one entered a relationship , and so-and-so did that, well good for them, am I supposed to care? There is no groundwork, how can a reader get attached to these people and their stories when you as an author have given them so little? Well there was time to go on and on about George Elliot's novels but no time to delve into a main character' emotions, I guess. 
I was just not a fan of how the author portrayed the characters, if there isn't a good handling of their depictions then the story just turns into an over-the-top soap opera.  

I found interesting the setting and the overall theme (exploring the lives of Korean people and their descendants living in Japan) but I was not that impressed with the execution itself.

For its length, the book is quite easy to get through, the chapters are not too long, the pace is quite fast and the narrative style is readable enough. Still, the writing style is nothing much to talk about, overall it's a bit too much dry and matter-of-fact for my taste. 

All in all, the premise sounded good but the book was a disappointment for me and the three-star rating is basically only for the first section, the rest I'm wilfully choosing to ignore.         

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, and Colonisation

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Suicide, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Homophobia, Infertility, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Antisemitism, Car accident, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

challenging reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Police brutality, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Child abuse, Infertility, Vomit, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Abortion

nila's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.5

An incredible journey through most of the 20th century following one family and their journey trying to survive all aspects of war and its aftermath. The story had twist and turns, and there were many times I had to put the book down because I was so surprised by what I had just read 

from the reading journal: There's an abundance of the "innocent young good man/boy being corrupted by the sexual whore who only wants their money material things. Yes the" bad men"-characters are also present, but I feel they are more fleshed out and for some reason, their "flaws" are justified and explained away.

One the other end, the "good" woman is also never good enough. She's too boring or even, not "good enough".Every single woman is described and more or less ranked by their sexual availability and desirability. And almost all the women who are described as promiscuous are punished, either with not being allowed to marry again for love, or being beaten half to death in a car or actually dying. While the men who illicit the same kind of behavior get to grow old, and be surrounded by wealth and loved ones. I understand that this is/was the reality of the society that is described in the book, but then what should one think is the "message" behind the story? Or am I overthinking this? I want to read more Asian literature, but find that the sexualisation of women is a deterring factor.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Suicide, Antisemitism, and Death of parent

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Police brutality, and Abortion

lorithereadingfairy's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 TW: Japanese Colonialism (xenophobia, anti-Korean sentiment), imperialism, rape, suicide (mentioned), physical and emotional abuse, racism, sex, misogyny, starvation, age gap relationship, death, internalized homophobia, sex work, dubious consent, war (Korea & WW2)

Rep: Korean MC, Japanese-Korean MCs, Japanese side characters 

 “Living everyday in the presence of those who refuse to acknowledge your humanity takes great courage” 

You know those books that are sitting on your TBR and you forgot you added it to your TBR when you went and picked up the book? Yeah that really happened to me as it was November 2020’s SABC BOTM pick-and I realized it was on my TBR the moment I placed a hold on it. I’m defiantly really glad this book exists because it made me feel seen in so many ways.

Pachinko follows a young Korean woman named Sunja who gets groomed by a creep Hansu. She ends up pregnant and moves to Japan with her newly wed husband, Issak who is ill. Pachinko follows the four generations starting from Sunja and ending with her grandchildren.

There are three books combined in this almost 500 page book-but book 1 and book 2 is the best in my opinion. book 3 was just a mess all around with an ending that left me very dissatisfied and wondering what the point in book three was. It was messy even though it was in the modern times, and not in the early 1900’s.

Book 3 was set in the modern times with Sunja being older so she doesn’t have that connection to the story anymore. The new generation took the lead with Solomon, Hanna and other characters who have an impact in the world. I had less connection with these characters, and there was a lot of time jumps that prevented me from liking any of these characters and knowing them.

There were several parts of the story where I felt like this was my family. My totally dysfunctional family because no one talks about some parts that happens. These parts made me shed a few tears as it was so familiar to my situation. This was the first time I have seen a dysfunctional family with Sunja having a child from being raped by the creep which is exactly what happened to mine. And a scene at the end of book 2 was so familiar because I grew up, not knowing my family’s history because none of my ancestors wanted to talk about where we came from and finding out my father is a creep and a stalker.

This book takes from history and offer us a new and true perspective from a fictional family. The discrimination that Koreans faced while in Japan from not being ‘true-citizens’ of the country even though they probably have lived there for generations, and the hardships that Koreans face. Many Koreans ware also unable to go back from to what we know as North Korea.

It was so thought provoking as this touched from real events with a fictional world and it was so important. It wasn’t from what we are told with a focus on western history and a white history at that-but something that has happened to thousands of people living in Japan face. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Antisemitism

Moderate: Death, Rape, and Sexual content

Minor: Homophobia and Suicide