pa•chin•ko /pəˈCHiNGkō/ (noun):

1. a Japanese form of pinball.

The Pachinko saga follows four generations of a Korean family, their move to Japan, the discrimination they face, and the hardships they work to overcome. 

After getting pregnant with a married man, Sunja does what she thinks is best for the child and agrees to marry a kind minister staying at her mother’s boarding house. The marriage provides her child with a father, giving it a chance at a future, and she moves to Osaka, Japan. As the story unfolds, we learn what it’s like to be Korean in Japan. The family faces the challenges of finding stability, dealing with a powerful father seeking out his child, and the relationships that build throughout the generations. 

This book did an incredible job of portraying the mid-20th century history and dynamic between the Koreans and Japanese; I learned an incredible amount from it. It was full of rich history and a plethora of characters. That being said, I had a hard time connecting with many of the characters and didn’t love the frequent, and sometimes abrupt, context switching.

Overall, Pachinko is a very well written book that just wasn’t my cup of tea.