Bucheon City of Literature

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee is a story of life and survival, desperation, and tenacity. It lets its readers relive family history of “Zainichi”, or Koreans residing in Japan, across four generations through its intricate and acute depiction of the lives lived. The survival stories of characters represent hardships of Chosun, the characters’ mother country, which had endured foreign invasions one after another in the late 19th century on one hand. On the other, it represents diaspora of any unfortunate traveler wandering around foreign soil under unavoidable circumstances.

Pachinko illustrates human’s will and ability to source means to persistently survive against everyday struggles. Readers are enthralled by the ferocious and unpredictable hostilities that is life itself, and drawn to applaud the vitality of human facing them. Lee presents colorful variations of human battle against their fate bringing the narrative truer to the reality.

Pachinko brings to the readers more than depiction of survival story. Throughout the book Lee has the readers question what makes us human. We are reminded that human has to themselves to prove their worth and dignity. Survival loses meaning when achieved by making lies or excuses, or by chance. Life has a meaning when one becomes an existence worthy of life. With dignity and integrity as core themes behind the narrative, Pachinko gracefully inspires the readers to make a firm determination at living with dignity, or to climb the steep stairs of the human mind. This alone would be sufficient ground to entitle the book a classic.