Pachinko (novel)

Pachinko
2018 United States paperback edition cover
Author Min Jin Lee
Country United States
Language English
Subject Koreans in Japan
Publisher Grand Central Publishing
Publication date
 February 7, 2017
Media type Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages 490

Pachinko is a 2017 novel by Korean American author Min Jin Lee. An epic historical novel following characters from Korea who eventually migrate to Japan, it is the first novel written for an adult English speaking audience about Japanese-Korean culture.[1] Pachinko was a 2017 finalist for the National Book Award for fiction.

Plot

In 1883, in the little island fishing village of Yeongdo, which is a ferry ride from Busan, an aging fisherman and his wife take in lodgers to make a little more money. They have three sons, but only one, Hoonie, with a cleft lip and twisted foot, survives to adulthood. Because of his deformities, Hoonie is considered ineligible for marriage, which he and his parents make peace with. But, Hoonie is gentle, hard working, strong and beloved by all. When he is 27, Japan annexes Korea and many families are left destitute and lacking food. Due to their prudent habits, Hoonie's family situation is comparatively more stable, which pleases the matchmaker who shows up at their house one day to talk to Hoonie's mother. Hoonie marries Yangjin, the daughter of a poor farmer who had lost everything in the colonized land, was happy to give away his youngest daughter, so he had less mouths to feed. Hoonie and Yangjin continued his parents' legacy of prudently running a lodging house by stretching every yen.

In the mid 1910s, Yangjin and Hoonie have a daughter named Sunja. After her thirteenth birthday, she is raised solely by her mother Yangjin, her father Hoonie dying from tuberculosis. Yangjin continues to run a boardinghouse that she and Hoonie inherited from his parents after their death. When Sunja is sixteen, she becomes pregnant by Koh Hansu, a man who is later revealed to be a married, wealthy businessman. To hide the shame from the pregnancy, Sunja travels with Baek Isak, a Christian minister, to live in Japan as his wife along Baek’s brother and his brother’s wife, beginning the generational saga of her family living in Japan as zainichi Koreans as they settle in Osaka.

Reception and awards

The book received strong reviews including those from The Guardian,[2] NPR,[3] The New York Times,[4] The Sydney Morning Herald,[5] The Irish Times,[6] and Kirkus Reviews[7] and is on the "Best Fiction of 2017" lists from Esquire,[8] Chicago Review of Books,[9] Amazon.com,[10] Entertainment Weekly, the BBC,[11] The Guardian,[12] and Book Riot.[13] In a Washington Post interview, writer Roxane Gay called Pachinko her favorite book of 2017.[14] The book was named by The New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2017.[15]

Pachinko was a 2017 finalist for the National Book Award for fiction.[16]

Television adaptation

On August 7, 2018, it was announced that Apple Inc. had obtained the screen rights to the novel and were developing them into a potential television series. The production is expected to be produced by production company Media Res with the potential series being written and executive produced by Soo Hugh, who will also serve as showrunner, and executive produced by Min Jin Lee.[17]

References

  1. ↑ PBS. "Min Jin Lee. 2017 Miami Book Fair". pbs.org. Retrieved February 26, 2018.
  2. ↑ Aw, Tash (15 March 2017). "Pachinko by Min Jin Lee review – rich story of the immigrant experience". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2 June 2017.
  3. ↑ Zimmerman, Jean (7 February 2017). "Culture Clash, Survival And Hope In 'Pachinko'". National Public Radio (NPR). Archived from the original on 5 October 2017.
  4. ↑ Lee, Krys (2 February 2017). "Home but Not Home: Four Generations of an Ethnic Korean Family in Japan". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 4 October 2017.
  5. ↑ Craven, Peter (4 August 2017). "Pachinko review: Min Jin Lee's saga of Koreans in Japan is hard to put down". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017.
  6. ↑ Boyne, John (5 August 2017). "Pachinko review: a masterpiece of empathy, integrity and family loyalty". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 11 August 2017.
  7. ↑ "An absorbing saga of 20th-century Korean experience, seen through the fate of four generations". Kirkus Reviews. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017.
  8. ↑ Ledgerwood, Angela (7 September 2017). "The Best Books of 2017 (So Far)". Esquire. Archived from the original on 3 October 2017.
  9. ↑ Morgan, Adam (28 June 2017). "The Best Fiction Books of 2017 So Far". Chicago Review of Books. Archived from the original on 7 September 2017.
  10. ↑ "Best Books of the Year So Far: Literature & Fiction". Amazon.com. 5 October 2017. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017.
  11. ↑ Ciabattari, Jane (16 December 2016). "Ten books to read in 2017". BBC News. Archived from the original on 15 January 2017.
  12. ↑ Aw, Tash (9 July 2017). "Best holiday reads 2017, picked by writers – part two". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 14 July 2017.
  13. ↑ Nicolas, Sarah. "Best Books of 2017 (So Far)". Book Riot. Archived from the original on 14 July 2017.
  14. ↑ Haupt, Angela (31 August 2017). "8 authors coming to the National Book Festival tell us the best thing they read this year". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 5 October 2017.
  15. ↑ "The 10 Best Books of 2017". New York Times. 30 November 2017. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
  16. ↑ "2017 National Book Award finalists revealed". CBS News. October 4, 2017. Retrieved 2017-10-04.
  17. ↑ Petski, Denise (August 7, 2018). "Apple Developing Int'l Drama Based On Min Jin Lee's 'Pachinko' Novel". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 7, 2018.
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