Survival And Family: Pachinko By Min Jin Lee

Wherever I lay my hat, that’s my home is a favourite song of mine by Paul Young. I remember driving up the motorway, en route to visit family in Scotland, when we saw in the distance, the high-rise flats of Glasgow. “Not pretty,” I said, and the voice beside me replied, knowingly, “Maybe but each flat is someone’s home.” House, flat or bungalow, mansion, castle or palace, it’s home to someone and home is a word with a special meaning.

Pachinko is an historical family saga set in Korea and Japan, beginning in 1910 and ending in 1989. It follows the fortunes of a Korean girl, Sunja, starting with her birth, into a hard life but one filled with love - and tragedy. The world economic depression takes its toll on those already impoverished but Sunja’s family are people who work hard and don’t complain. Home is their solace.

The world at war is mere background but set in the period following the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, it is clear that Koreans did not have an easy time. Sunja is a good girl who helps her mother run a boarding house. Hers is a life of toil until she meets Hansu, a wealthy businessman, twice her age, who makes her feel better about everything - until he doesn’t. Her naivety lets her down and she sinks to the depths of misery, while determined to maintain some self respect.

... I was transported to an alien world, introduced to customs and culture previously unknown.She is kind and decent and rescued from shame by a Christian pastor, the gentle Isak, who comes to stay at the boarding house. When he gets sick, his life is saved by the tender nursing administered by mother and daughter. Sunja’s life’s journey changes course when she travels with Isak to live with his brother and his wife in Osaka. Sunja leaves one home to embark on a long, difficult and sometimes lonely journey in search of another, somewhere she can feel safe and rest her head.

As with any family saga, birth and death play their part. Sunja has two sons, Noa and Mozasu, to whom she is devoted. Her happy marriage is tragically cut short, however, when Isak suffers for his Christian beliefs, and the importance of the wider family in providing support is made clear. Sunja may not be well educated or from a genteel background, but she is strong and honest, with integrity and loyalty to family. She lives for her sons but the one secret she keeps will eventually be her undoing and tragedy strikes when one character finds it impossible to cope with dishonour, testing Sunja’s resilience to its core.

But this novel explores so much more than identity: wealth, clean and dirty money, the attitudes to it and the power it brings with it, power which can be used for good or ill.Divided into three parts, the novel follows Sunja through a life of hardship and peril. The first part offers a deep insight into the founding characters of this narrative and gives reality to the place and era. Part two moves the narrative forward more quickly while part three tries to explore the wider issue of identity and perception; minor characters seem to be vehicles for discussion rather than being fully developed.

Through war and peace, from poverty to comparative comfort, I was transported to an alien world, introduced to customs and culture previously unknown. The novel provided an insight into a life far removed from my own experience and as I have said before, this is part of the value of books. Being Korean, or even of Korean descent and living in Japan, is not easy; acceptance by others is not guaranteed and finding peace with your own existence can be a struggle. But this novel explores so much more than identity: wealth, clean and dirty money, the attitudes to it and the power it brings with it, power which can be used for good or ill. Thankfully, not all wealthy people abuse their power. The novel also considers love, in all its forms, and humanity’s need to be loved. So, too, it explores the importance of reputation, integrity and honesty, both in relation to yourself and to others.

Despite having to look up the meaning of a few of the Japanese/Korean words, not least the title which essentially means pinball and is a reference to the arcades and gambling dens in Japan, and despite the alien nature of life as it appears in these pages, I felt an empathy with the principal characters, understood their torn feelings and wanted something better for them, a fairer life.

By the way, I also discovered the novel has already been made into a television series.


Pachinko is published by Apollo