PACHINKO

by Min Jin Lee

I am certain that one of the several reasons that I was disappointed in Pachinko is because my expectations were so high.  Friends who are avid readers, book store salespeople and random people who saw me holding the book in pubic all assured me how much I would enjoy it.  I kept thinking—when I was 100 pages in; when I was 200 pages in; when I was 300 pages in—that soon I too would feel the love.  But that feeling just never came.

Pachinko does offer an amazing exploration of a time and a place that I knew little about—Japan, post-WWII—and how badly many Japanese treated Koreans who had settled there.  Lee successfully transports the reader to that world.  But the depth and length of the portrait she paints ultimately detracts from the success of the book.  If you want to explore what post WWII Japan was like for Koreans and you have endless patience and time, then this book is for you.  Otherwise, you too may find it is not your cup of tea. (Liz)

A SECOND HELPING

This is the rare book about which my mom and I truly disagree.  She reviewed it as a Not My Cup Of Tea, and although I wouldn’t call it a perfect book, I really enjoyed it.  Like The Covenant of Water, Pachinko is extremely long and covers many generations of a family as the world changes around them. I thought the characters were compelling and their struggles sympathetic enough that I just kept rooting for them, despite the sense that catastrophe was hanging over their family from start to finish. This is definitely an epic and requires a time commitment from the reader, but for me, it was worth it. (Lily)