by Thea Lim
This is another book that has been getting a lot of hype this year.
It is the story of a young couple Polly and Frank. In the early 1980's a flu pandemic is spreading around the world. Frank gets the flu and will die unless he gets the right medicine. Polly is told she can save his life if she agrees to take a time machine and work for a company for a number of years in the future. Frank doesn't want her to do it but Polly agrees. She and Frank agree that they will try to reconnect again in the future at a specific hotel. They will try to reconnect by being at that location every Saturday in Sept.
Polly is told that she will be sent to 1995 but she is actually sent to 1998. She finds the future very distopian, much of the infrastructure is gone. She is sent to live in a rundown building and given a job as an upholsterers assistant. Conditions are tough and food is scarce.They are refurbishing furntiure for new resorts in this dystopian world. Polly tries to get word to her aunt and Frank about the fact that she was sent to a different year. She tries to find out if her aunt or Frank are still alive but gets no news. She finds that the hotel she had planned as a rendez vous location is no longer there but is actually a port. When she goes there on a Saturday it is thought that she is trying to escape so she gets into trouble. She finds that the US has been divided south from north and that it is very difficult to get to the less devastated north.
At one point her supervisor asks her to steal a package from an office, she does this. The package contains the high school year book for the high school Elvis Presley attended. Her supervisor feels it will be valuable to the rich people who still exist in the world. For some reason, perhaps to avoid consequences for his poor productivity and lack of results, her supervisor turns Polly in for stealing the yearbook. She is demoted and sent to a job where she cuts down plates to make tiles. She lives in a crowded dorm with living conditions even worse than her previous accommodation.
Then one day, the concierge of her former building asks her to marry him as he will get economic benefits from being married and for her pretending to be pregnant. He tells her they won't have to have sex. She doesn't want to go along with it but then he tells her that he has found contact information for Frank. She does marry him but eventually abandons him when he attempts to have sex with her, his plans for a false pregnancy have collapsed and he has lost all his money.
Later Polly finds that she has been released from her contract. It turns out her"husband" felt guilty for what he did to her and has paid to get her released. He has bought her a ticket so that she can join her boyfriend. She gets to "America" and is shocked to learn that her boyfriend married and has a daughter. He married a rich woman and has become very wealthy. Her boyfriend and his wife are now separated. Her boyfriend takes her to live with her aunt but he does not come to visit her. He bought the aunt a condo out of loyalty to her aunt and Polly.
After everything she went through for him she is shocked that he abandoned her by marrying another woman and his very cool reaction to her. He finally does come to see her and tells her he stayed away because he was ashamed. He says he had tried to find her in the past. It seems like they will rekindle their relationship.
I found the book disappointing, I thought it was plodding. I think that Frank got off too easy. I am not sure I would be as forgiving as Polly is.
While the book did have an interesting premise, the dystopian world etc. was not all that interesting. Despite everything she was going through Polly seemed to maintain her commitment to her boyfriend and aunt, it is surprising that her boyfriend, with his much easier life, couldn't have lived up to his commitment to wait for her.
Friday, 24 August 2018
Starlight
by Richard Wagamese
This is the final book by Richard Wagamese, published posthumously and unfinished.
Starlight picks up the story that began in Medicine Walk. At least a decade has passed since 16-year-old Frank Starlight helped his alcoholic father die and make a ragged peace with the son he abandoned. Frank has since taken over the farm in the B.C. Interior left to him by “the old man,” the kindly white farmer who took him in as a boy. I really enjoyed Medicine Walk, it was so powerful.
The book is an absolute delight to read. His language is so beautiful, lyrical. I hung on ever word. It is so sad that a man with this creativity and such beautiful spirit committed suicide.
The book is about a woman, Emmy, and her daughter, Winnie. Emmy has had a tough life bouncing from one bad man to another. Her latest lover abuses her, offers her to other men and beats her. One day she has had enough and beats her lover and his buddy, tries to set his house on fire and leaves with his truck. She drives into northern BC to get as far from him as she can, she is not sure if he is alive or dead but fears that if he is alive he will be out to get her.
She finds an abandoned cabin and she and her child settle in but they have no money. She tries unsucessfully to find work. One day she is desperate and is caught trying to steal food from a store. The store manager is going to charge her and she is threatened with losing custody of her daughter.
However, a local man, a farmer, offers to pay for the groceries she stole and to hire her as a housekeeper. The social worker and police are surprised at his offer but agree to it provided the daughter is enrolled in school.
Emmy is so happy with Frank Starlight's generosity but while she is thankful she insists he add some modern conveniences to the house, a fridge for example. Frank is very generous, he buys clothes for her and her daughter and accepts all the things she insists on. Things are going well for Emmy but the daughter is acting out at school. Frank, who is a native man, decides to introduce the mother and daughter to nature in the hope it will heal/tame them both.
While this is going on Emmy's lover has gone to Calgary to see if she went there, as he doesn't find her there he gets angrier and more violent, looking for fights as he and his buddy travel along, making their way to Vancouver.
Gradually Frank and Emmy gently fall into a relationship had never had a woman before and Emmy has never had a good man.
In addition to farming Frank takes nature photographs. His work is highly regarded and provides him with a good additioal income. His agent convinces him to attend a show of his work in Vancouver and he reluctantly agrees to go to the showing. He invites Emmy and Winnie and his farmhand to join him in Vancouver. Emmy's former lover spots them in Vancouver. "I told you we'd track her down" Cadotte said.... the last words in the book.
The Editor's go on to speculate that, based on Wagamese's other stories, they feel that there would have been a confrontation and that ultimately Emmy would have forgiven Cadotte. We will of course never know. The book was a jewel, so spiritual, ironically life affirming.
Wagamese quote:
"See, it's not in our imagined wholeness that we become art; it's in the celebration of our cracks"
Leonard Cohen, Anthem
This is the final book by Richard Wagamese, published posthumously and unfinished.
Starlight picks up the story that began in Medicine Walk. At least a decade has passed since 16-year-old Frank Starlight helped his alcoholic father die and make a ragged peace with the son he abandoned. Frank has since taken over the farm in the B.C. Interior left to him by “the old man,” the kindly white farmer who took him in as a boy. I really enjoyed Medicine Walk, it was so powerful.
The book is an absolute delight to read. His language is so beautiful, lyrical. I hung on ever word. It is so sad that a man with this creativity and such beautiful spirit committed suicide.
The book is about a woman, Emmy, and her daughter, Winnie. Emmy has had a tough life bouncing from one bad man to another. Her latest lover abuses her, offers her to other men and beats her. One day she has had enough and beats her lover and his buddy, tries to set his house on fire and leaves with his truck. She drives into northern BC to get as far from him as she can, she is not sure if he is alive or dead but fears that if he is alive he will be out to get her.
She finds an abandoned cabin and she and her child settle in but they have no money. She tries unsucessfully to find work. One day she is desperate and is caught trying to steal food from a store. The store manager is going to charge her and she is threatened with losing custody of her daughter.
However, a local man, a farmer, offers to pay for the groceries she stole and to hire her as a housekeeper. The social worker and police are surprised at his offer but agree to it provided the daughter is enrolled in school.
Emmy is so happy with Frank Starlight's generosity but while she is thankful she insists he add some modern conveniences to the house, a fridge for example. Frank is very generous, he buys clothes for her and her daughter and accepts all the things she insists on. Things are going well for Emmy but the daughter is acting out at school. Frank, who is a native man, decides to introduce the mother and daughter to nature in the hope it will heal/tame them both.
While this is going on Emmy's lover has gone to Calgary to see if she went there, as he doesn't find her there he gets angrier and more violent, looking for fights as he and his buddy travel along, making their way to Vancouver.
Gradually Frank and Emmy gently fall into a relationship had never had a woman before and Emmy has never had a good man.
In addition to farming Frank takes nature photographs. His work is highly regarded and provides him with a good additioal income. His agent convinces him to attend a show of his work in Vancouver and he reluctantly agrees to go to the showing. He invites Emmy and Winnie and his farmhand to join him in Vancouver. Emmy's former lover spots them in Vancouver. "I told you we'd track her down" Cadotte said.... the last words in the book.
The Editor's go on to speculate that, based on Wagamese's other stories, they feel that there would have been a confrontation and that ultimately Emmy would have forgiven Cadotte. We will of course never know. The book was a jewel, so spiritual, ironically life affirming.
Wagamese quote:
"See, it's not in our imagined wholeness that we become art; it's in the celebration of our cracks"
Leonard Cohen, Anthem
The birds they sang
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
Has passed away
Or what is yet to be
Yeah the wars they will
Be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
Bought and sold
And bought again
The dove is never free
At the break of day
Start again
I heard them say
Don't dwell on what
Has passed away
Or what is yet to be
Yeah the wars they will
Be fought again
The holy dove
She will be caught again
Bought and sold
And bought again
The dove is never free
Ring the bells (ring the bells) that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)
That's how the light gets in
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)
That's how the light gets in
The Ensemble
by Aja Gabel
This is a debut novel about a classical music quartet. It is about the lives, conflicts and success of the quartet. The most powerful part of the book is that the four people, Jana, Brit, Daniel and Henry develop a powerful friendship and connection amongst themselves that it seems to take precedence over all other relationships. None of them have much of a relationship with their respective families, the quartet seems to become their created family.
The members of the quartet are very focused on career success, especially the leader Jana. They all work hard to succeed and are very competitive in the classical music scene. But not is all sweetness and light, there are internal jealousies (Daniel is resentful of the prodigy Henry, and later when Henry manages to have a life in the quartet but also a married life and family.... he resents that Henry seems to have everything come easy to him).
The strong hold that the quartet has on them is portrayed in an interesting way. Henry is wooed by an agent to become a solo artist. He turns it down feeling commitment to the quartet. Even though Henry's good fortune runs out when he develops some serious medical issues and is urged to give up performing he sticks with the group
Daniel and Brit have on again off again relationships. At one point they break up and Daniel marries a girl totally unsuited to him. The marriage doesn't last and in the end Brit and Daniel get back together. Jana also has an affair but her commitment to the quartet outways the relationship.
The author brilliantly portrayed the interactions that occur as the members of the quartet play and how they respond to each other to create incredible music.
In some ways the characters were frustrating because they were all so self-absorbed both in their music and themselves.
"We laid a perasive claim on one another. On our hearts....We weren't yet full people but we were required to pretend to be. We thought that together we could pretent to be until we were.... We found it to be, if not pleaurable, alive. We found each other to be amenable and willing and calling and then insistent and hungry and answering. We found each other." They fought, they cried together or about each other but they were there for each other always.
A very powerful, complext story.
This is a debut novel about a classical music quartet. It is about the lives, conflicts and success of the quartet. The most powerful part of the book is that the four people, Jana, Brit, Daniel and Henry develop a powerful friendship and connection amongst themselves that it seems to take precedence over all other relationships. None of them have much of a relationship with their respective families, the quartet seems to become their created family.
The members of the quartet are very focused on career success, especially the leader Jana. They all work hard to succeed and are very competitive in the classical music scene. But not is all sweetness and light, there are internal jealousies (Daniel is resentful of the prodigy Henry, and later when Henry manages to have a life in the quartet but also a married life and family.... he resents that Henry seems to have everything come easy to him).
The strong hold that the quartet has on them is portrayed in an interesting way. Henry is wooed by an agent to become a solo artist. He turns it down feeling commitment to the quartet. Even though Henry's good fortune runs out when he develops some serious medical issues and is urged to give up performing he sticks with the group
Daniel and Brit have on again off again relationships. At one point they break up and Daniel marries a girl totally unsuited to him. The marriage doesn't last and in the end Brit and Daniel get back together. Jana also has an affair but her commitment to the quartet outways the relationship.
The author brilliantly portrayed the interactions that occur as the members of the quartet play and how they respond to each other to create incredible music.
In some ways the characters were frustrating because they were all so self-absorbed both in their music and themselves.
"We laid a perasive claim on one another. On our hearts....We weren't yet full people but we were required to pretend to be. We thought that together we could pretent to be until we were.... We found it to be, if not pleaurable, alive. We found each other to be amenable and willing and calling and then insistent and hungry and answering. We found each other." They fought, they cried together or about each other but they were there for each other always.
A very powerful, complext story.
Sunday, 12 August 2018
The Bookshop of Yesterdays
by Amy Meyerson
This is a book that is getting a lot of buzsz his year. It is the story of a young history teacher, Miranda, who is teaching history in the Eastern U.S. and getting used to living with her boyfriend. She is named for a Shakespeare character (daughter of Prospero, in the Tempest). She is surprised to learn that the Uncle she hasn't seen for decades has died and left her something in his will. She had always liked her uncle. He always had puzzles for her to solve.
She decided to go to LA for his funeral and to see her parents. Her parents refuse to go to the funeral. She knows her parents and uncle had a fight on her twelfth birthday but doesn't really know why. She never saw her uncle after that.
She is surprised to learn that her uncle has left her Prospero Books, his LA bookstore, in his will. As she checks things out she finds that the bookstore is failing financially.
As she goes from one clue, left in books, to another, she talks to various people who knew their uncle. Each person has another book/clue for her. She keeps trying to get her mother to talk about the relationship with her uncle but her mother doggedly refuses so Miranda suspends contact with her mother.
The acting Manager and Miranda try different ideas to get business improving. Their relationship is a bit rocky, the Manager, Malcolm was close friends with her uncle and doesn't trust her.
After following all the clues Miranda finds out that her Uncle is really her father and her parents adopted her after her mother died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the family cabin. Her real father had difficulty coping with his wife's death and taking responsibility for the baby. He feels he is responsible for his wife's death because he had not repaired the cabin roof when she asked him to do it. He basically abandoned Miranda to her adopted parents. Miranda had always thought her uncle was a cool guy. She is angry and devastated when she learns the truth, including angry at her parent for not telling her the truth. Eventually her mother tells her what happened and why and that her Uncle/Father accused her adopted mother of tricking him to get the child from him. This was totally untrue and selfish/irresponsible of him. This is what caused the rift between them.
In the end Miranda decides to dump her boyfriend and job and stay in LA to run the bookstore. But she decides they need to let go of the past associations to her birth mother and father, and suggests a new name "Yesterdays Bookshop". Not sure I like the name. Of course Miranda evenutally falls for the Acting Manager.... after all this there seems to be the need for a happy ending. She does reconcile with her adoptive parents also.
The story was very well written. It was interesting how the author gradually told the story through the clues/people that Miranda unearthed. I just find it difficult to believe that a father would completely walk away from his child. I can believe the temporary grief but believe he would have eventually have wanted to reconnect, even if only under the guise of the uncle.
This is a book that is getting a lot of buzsz his year. It is the story of a young history teacher, Miranda, who is teaching history in the Eastern U.S. and getting used to living with her boyfriend. She is named for a Shakespeare character (daughter of Prospero, in the Tempest). She is surprised to learn that the Uncle she hasn't seen for decades has died and left her something in his will. She had always liked her uncle. He always had puzzles for her to solve.
She decided to go to LA for his funeral and to see her parents. Her parents refuse to go to the funeral. She knows her parents and uncle had a fight on her twelfth birthday but doesn't really know why. She never saw her uncle after that.
She is surprised to learn that her uncle has left her Prospero Books, his LA bookstore, in his will. As she checks things out she finds that the bookstore is failing financially.
As she goes from one clue, left in books, to another, she talks to various people who knew their uncle. Each person has another book/clue for her. She keeps trying to get her mother to talk about the relationship with her uncle but her mother doggedly refuses so Miranda suspends contact with her mother.
The acting Manager and Miranda try different ideas to get business improving. Their relationship is a bit rocky, the Manager, Malcolm was close friends with her uncle and doesn't trust her.
After following all the clues Miranda finds out that her Uncle is really her father and her parents adopted her after her mother died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the family cabin. Her real father had difficulty coping with his wife's death and taking responsibility for the baby. He feels he is responsible for his wife's death because he had not repaired the cabin roof when she asked him to do it. He basically abandoned Miranda to her adopted parents. Miranda had always thought her uncle was a cool guy. She is angry and devastated when she learns the truth, including angry at her parent for not telling her the truth. Eventually her mother tells her what happened and why and that her Uncle/Father accused her adopted mother of tricking him to get the child from him. This was totally untrue and selfish/irresponsible of him. This is what caused the rift between them.
In the end Miranda decides to dump her boyfriend and job and stay in LA to run the bookstore. But she decides they need to let go of the past associations to her birth mother and father, and suggests a new name "Yesterdays Bookshop". Not sure I like the name. Of course Miranda evenutally falls for the Acting Manager.... after all this there seems to be the need for a happy ending. She does reconcile with her adoptive parents also.
The story was very well written. It was interesting how the author gradually told the story through the clues/people that Miranda unearthed. I just find it difficult to believe that a father would completely walk away from his child. I can believe the temporary grief but believe he would have eventually have wanted to reconnect, even if only under the guise of the uncle.
Tuesday, 7 August 2018
Dear Mrs. Bird
by AJ Pearce
This is a summer best seller and I would say it is a summer read.
The story is about a young woman, Emmy, in London who is living through WWII. She is working as a typist in a legal office and as a volunteer Fire Warden (answering phone calls at a fire hall about bomb hits so that fire fighters can be sent out, She longs to be a journalist covering the war.
When she sees an ad in the paper for a junior clerk at a newspaper she applies and is hired. She wasn't aware that the ad was not for a newspaper but for a women's magazine. Her job will be to assist the grumpy woman who responds to letters in an advice column. Mrs. Bird does not want to see any letters that are unpleasant. The young girl is shocked that so many pleas for advice go unheaded. She writes back to some of the people and even sneaks in a couple replies she has penned as Mrs. Bird never reads the paper.
Emmy is engaged but one day her soldier fiancee (whom she has known since she was a child) wires her to tell her that he has fallen in love with a nurse and they are getting married. She is of course devastated.
Her best friend (Bunty) is engaged to one of the firefighter. One day Emmy goes to see bomb damage and sees her friends fiancee do something dangerous to rescue a doll for child. She chastises him and they argue. She later tries to apologize but that doesn't go well.
Bunty and her fiancee plan pre-wedding party at a fancy restaurant but Emmy is late arriving because the fire hall is shorthanded and she has to wait for other people to show up to cover for her. She is horrified when she finds that the restaurant has been bombed. With the help of her boss, whom she happens to meet on the scene, she is able to find her injured friend, but not the fiancee. They later learn that the fiancee was killed.
Emmy goes to visit Bunty in the hospital but Bunty tells her she never wants to see her again as she blames Emmy for her fiancees death. He had gone to look for Emmy when she hadn't arrived at the party. Emmy keeps writing letters to Bunty but Bunty doesn't contact her. Then one day a letter arrives at the women's magazine which sounds very much like Bunty's situation. Emmy takes another risk and submits her response into the paper.
Emmy's employers find out what she has done and are going to fire her and possibly press charges as she was signing the letters she sent as Mrs. Bird. She is called into the Managers Office and he reams her out. She is sure she is going to be fired but Bunty rushes into the room (how did she know about this meeting). She says it was she who had written the letter to the paper and she really appreciated the reply. She has forgiven Emmy. Emmy's boss mentions that sales of the magazine have risen since Emmy has been including some of her letters and the response she sent to Bunty got picked up by other newspapers. He also mentions that Emmy had been assisting him with some writitng and coming up with stories more appealing to young women. The owner says she can stay if sales increase even more in the next few months.
This was a light read, entertaining but predictable.
This is a summer best seller and I would say it is a summer read.
The story is about a young woman, Emmy, in London who is living through WWII. She is working as a typist in a legal office and as a volunteer Fire Warden (answering phone calls at a fire hall about bomb hits so that fire fighters can be sent out, She longs to be a journalist covering the war.
When she sees an ad in the paper for a junior clerk at a newspaper she applies and is hired. She wasn't aware that the ad was not for a newspaper but for a women's magazine. Her job will be to assist the grumpy woman who responds to letters in an advice column. Mrs. Bird does not want to see any letters that are unpleasant. The young girl is shocked that so many pleas for advice go unheaded. She writes back to some of the people and even sneaks in a couple replies she has penned as Mrs. Bird never reads the paper.
Emmy is engaged but one day her soldier fiancee (whom she has known since she was a child) wires her to tell her that he has fallen in love with a nurse and they are getting married. She is of course devastated.
Her best friend (Bunty) is engaged to one of the firefighter. One day Emmy goes to see bomb damage and sees her friends fiancee do something dangerous to rescue a doll for child. She chastises him and they argue. She later tries to apologize but that doesn't go well.
Bunty and her fiancee plan pre-wedding party at a fancy restaurant but Emmy is late arriving because the fire hall is shorthanded and she has to wait for other people to show up to cover for her. She is horrified when she finds that the restaurant has been bombed. With the help of her boss, whom she happens to meet on the scene, she is able to find her injured friend, but not the fiancee. They later learn that the fiancee was killed.
Emmy goes to visit Bunty in the hospital but Bunty tells her she never wants to see her again as she blames Emmy for her fiancees death. He had gone to look for Emmy when she hadn't arrived at the party. Emmy keeps writing letters to Bunty but Bunty doesn't contact her. Then one day a letter arrives at the women's magazine which sounds very much like Bunty's situation. Emmy takes another risk and submits her response into the paper.
Emmy's employers find out what she has done and are going to fire her and possibly press charges as she was signing the letters she sent as Mrs. Bird. She is called into the Managers Office and he reams her out. She is sure she is going to be fired but Bunty rushes into the room (how did she know about this meeting). She says it was she who had written the letter to the paper and she really appreciated the reply. She has forgiven Emmy. Emmy's boss mentions that sales of the magazine have risen since Emmy has been including some of her letters and the response she sent to Bunty got picked up by other newspapers. He also mentions that Emmy had been assisting him with some writitng and coming up with stories more appealing to young women. The owner says she can stay if sales increase even more in the next few months.
This was a light read, entertaining but predictable.
Sunday, 5 August 2018
Pachinko
by Min Jin Lee
This is the story of several generations of Koreans and the hard life and sadness that seems to follow them.
The story starts with Sunja, a young Korean girl whose father is crippled. He is respected by the people of the town because despite his disability he is hard working and honest. Sunja's mother runs a boarding house where fisherman borders sleep during the day and fish at night and factory workers/mine workers? sleep in the same beds but during the night. Sunja and her mother work very hard, her father dies and they struggle on. One day Sunja meets a handsome man working near the market where she goes to buy supplies for the household. He eventually seduces her and she becomes pregnant. She is dismayed to learn that he is married to a woman in Japan and has children. She had been expecting him to propose to her.
Her mother is shocked when she learns the news and can hardly speak to the daughter who has brought shame on the family. One day a young missionary arrives at their home, he had heard about their boarding house from his brother who had stayed their years before. The young man is very ill with a recurrence of TB. Sunja and her mother nurse him back to health. When he finds out about Sunja's plight he asks her to marry him and they head off to Japan to join the man (Isek's) brother and his wife. Isek doesn't earn much money as a minister but his brother and sister in law let them live with them. When the child is born, Noa, Sunja's father accepts him as his own and loves him.
Life is difficult for the Koreans in Japan, the Japanese are very prejudiced against them saying they are poor, lazy, liars, etc. Noa is very bright and his parents encourag him to study. Sunja gives birth to a second son, Mozasu who is not as bright and who is harrassed at school.
One day Isek and other Ministers at the church are arrested and put in prison because of something one of their parishioners said (not sure about this). Isek is kept in prison for several years. The other two people he was imprisoned with die in prison but dispite his weak constituion he doesn't. However he returns home a very ill man and dies soon after he returns home. While he was away his wife and her sister-in-law have been selling Korean food and candy in the market to make money.
One day Sunja's lover arrives and tells them they need to leave and is is dangerous in the city (world war II). He gets them to a farm where they work hard but are safe. He is doing this partly because Noa is his only son but also because he cares about Sunja. He offers Sunja money but she always rejects these offers. Eventually he finds Sunja's mother in Korea and brings her to join Sunja so she will be safe
Noa studies hard and is eventually accepted into University but Sunja worries about how she wll pay the tuition. Hansu, the former lover, offers to pay his tuition and board. At first Sunja is reluctant and she eventually agrees. Noa accepts thinking that Hansa is just a generous benefactor. We learn that Hansa is a shrewd but also tough, possibly criminal, businessman.
Noa is doing well with his studies and has a girlfriend. All seems to be going well. Meantime Sunja's other son has taken a job at a Pachinko parlor and is gradually getting promoted until he becomes a manager. Before he finishes his degree Noa's girlfriend, who had crashed a lunch Noa was having with Hansa blurts out that Noa looks like Hansu so he must be his father. Noa is furious at this and when he confronts his mother he is furious at her. He drops out of school and out of her life telling her he wants no contact with her. He is disgusted that his biological father is a "gangster" businessman.
Mozasu marries and has a son Solomon. He loves his wife and child very much and is very successful. He is devastated when his son is injured and his wife killed by a car. Sunja leaves her mother and sister-in-law, who is now also a widow, to join Mozasu to help raise Solomon.
Throughout the book it is mentioned about how the Japanese dislike the Koreans but the Koreans feel they have little to return to in Korea even though they are ghettoized and looked down upon by the Japanese.
When Noa leaves school he goes to a different city and adopts a Japanese name, because he is half Japanese no one questions his identity. He gets a job working as a bookkeeper for a business man and eventually marries and has several children. Sunja always wonders where he is and eventually Hansa is able to track him down. Hansa takes Sunja to "see" him but she jumps out of the car and runs to him. After they have a brief chat he tells her she has to leave but he will call her. After she leaves she kills himself..... This was shocking development and I am not sure why he would do it, just because he was afraid his Korean lineage might be found out? He was ashamed of his parentage?
Mozasu has a Japanese girlfriend, a divorcee, who will not marry him as she thinks that in addition to her divorce the marriage would further shame and alienate her children. Her daughter Hana comes to see her. She is four months pregnant. The mother arranges an abortion for her. Hana starts having an affair with Solomon but realizes she is a bad girl from bad seed. She eventually leaves and becomes a prostitute. Solomon goes to study in the US and gets a Korean American girlfriend. She comes back to Japan with him where he has gotten a job in a bank. She can't work in Japan.
Solomon thinks things are good but when he asked Mozasu's aid in convincing an old Korean woman to sell her land to a company that wants to build a golf course things go wrong. The old woman dies, probably of natural causes, shortly after the sale goes through. But the developers get cold feet as it could be perceived as suspicious that she died so soon. Solomon is fired by the man he thought was his supporter and mentor. His girlfriend leaves him to return to the U.S. Solomon's father encourages him to find another bank job but Solomon asks if he can come in on the family business. His father reluctantly agrees.
Solomon eventually sees Hana again when she has returned to her mother very ill. She had been a prostitute, drinking and doing drugs and now probably has aids. She speculates what life could have been like if she had stayed with him. However, in living her life it was as if she thought that she was doomed because of her mother's transgressions (having had several affairs while married). She seems to have done everything she could to harm herself/self-destruct.
After all this Sunja learns that her mother is dying of stomache cancer so she rushes back to be with her and her sister-in-law who had been living with the Mother. As the mother is dying she launches a tyrade on Sunja about how her behaviour with the married man ruined the family and basically cursed the family implying that all the sadness that has happened to her family is her fault. She accuses her of being selfish when Sunja really slaved hard for all the people in her life. Yes, she made the one mistake but she was a devoted mother and daughter and loved and respected and was faithful to her husband.
I found the book well written but terribly sad. So many characters bore such anger and resentment over things that others did. There didn't seem to be any forgiveness. Both Sunja and Hansa, seemed to be decent people who made a mistake. Hans did have other lovers and he was a shady character in his business dealings but he did a lot to try to help Sunja and her family. Yet, even after his wife died Sunja would not consider marrying him and cut off ties with him.
The Pachinko theme was very prominent in the story, it is a game of chance, of gambling.... I don't know what connection the author intended but I think in this book a chance encounter/event really had impact on people's lives and in most cases made their lives more difficult. The characters seem to react to people on principles rather than be willing to look at them warts and all. There didn't seem to be any option for reconciliation for forgiveness. The only persons who seemed to accept people were Isak and Sunja's Sister-in-law.
As she visits her husband's grave one day Sunja learns that Noa had been visiting his Father's (Isek's) grave but he never came to see her or her family,.
This is the story of several generations of Koreans and the hard life and sadness that seems to follow them.
The story starts with Sunja, a young Korean girl whose father is crippled. He is respected by the people of the town because despite his disability he is hard working and honest. Sunja's mother runs a boarding house where fisherman borders sleep during the day and fish at night and factory workers/mine workers? sleep in the same beds but during the night. Sunja and her mother work very hard, her father dies and they struggle on. One day Sunja meets a handsome man working near the market where she goes to buy supplies for the household. He eventually seduces her and she becomes pregnant. She is dismayed to learn that he is married to a woman in Japan and has children. She had been expecting him to propose to her.
Her mother is shocked when she learns the news and can hardly speak to the daughter who has brought shame on the family. One day a young missionary arrives at their home, he had heard about their boarding house from his brother who had stayed their years before. The young man is very ill with a recurrence of TB. Sunja and her mother nurse him back to health. When he finds out about Sunja's plight he asks her to marry him and they head off to Japan to join the man (Isek's) brother and his wife. Isek doesn't earn much money as a minister but his brother and sister in law let them live with them. When the child is born, Noa, Sunja's father accepts him as his own and loves him.
Life is difficult for the Koreans in Japan, the Japanese are very prejudiced against them saying they are poor, lazy, liars, etc. Noa is very bright and his parents encourag him to study. Sunja gives birth to a second son, Mozasu who is not as bright and who is harrassed at school.
One day Isek and other Ministers at the church are arrested and put in prison because of something one of their parishioners said (not sure about this). Isek is kept in prison for several years. The other two people he was imprisoned with die in prison but dispite his weak constituion he doesn't. However he returns home a very ill man and dies soon after he returns home. While he was away his wife and her sister-in-law have been selling Korean food and candy in the market to make money.
One day Sunja's lover arrives and tells them they need to leave and is is dangerous in the city (world war II). He gets them to a farm where they work hard but are safe. He is doing this partly because Noa is his only son but also because he cares about Sunja. He offers Sunja money but she always rejects these offers. Eventually he finds Sunja's mother in Korea and brings her to join Sunja so she will be safe
Noa studies hard and is eventually accepted into University but Sunja worries about how she wll pay the tuition. Hansu, the former lover, offers to pay his tuition and board. At first Sunja is reluctant and she eventually agrees. Noa accepts thinking that Hansa is just a generous benefactor. We learn that Hansa is a shrewd but also tough, possibly criminal, businessman.
Noa is doing well with his studies and has a girlfriend. All seems to be going well. Meantime Sunja's other son has taken a job at a Pachinko parlor and is gradually getting promoted until he becomes a manager. Before he finishes his degree Noa's girlfriend, who had crashed a lunch Noa was having with Hansa blurts out that Noa looks like Hansu so he must be his father. Noa is furious at this and when he confronts his mother he is furious at her. He drops out of school and out of her life telling her he wants no contact with her. He is disgusted that his biological father is a "gangster" businessman.
Mozasu marries and has a son Solomon. He loves his wife and child very much and is very successful. He is devastated when his son is injured and his wife killed by a car. Sunja leaves her mother and sister-in-law, who is now also a widow, to join Mozasu to help raise Solomon.
Throughout the book it is mentioned about how the Japanese dislike the Koreans but the Koreans feel they have little to return to in Korea even though they are ghettoized and looked down upon by the Japanese.
When Noa leaves school he goes to a different city and adopts a Japanese name, because he is half Japanese no one questions his identity. He gets a job working as a bookkeeper for a business man and eventually marries and has several children. Sunja always wonders where he is and eventually Hansa is able to track him down. Hansa takes Sunja to "see" him but she jumps out of the car and runs to him. After they have a brief chat he tells her she has to leave but he will call her. After she leaves she kills himself..... This was shocking development and I am not sure why he would do it, just because he was afraid his Korean lineage might be found out? He was ashamed of his parentage?
Mozasu has a Japanese girlfriend, a divorcee, who will not marry him as she thinks that in addition to her divorce the marriage would further shame and alienate her children. Her daughter Hana comes to see her. She is four months pregnant. The mother arranges an abortion for her. Hana starts having an affair with Solomon but realizes she is a bad girl from bad seed. She eventually leaves and becomes a prostitute. Solomon goes to study in the US and gets a Korean American girlfriend. She comes back to Japan with him where he has gotten a job in a bank. She can't work in Japan.
Solomon thinks things are good but when he asked Mozasu's aid in convincing an old Korean woman to sell her land to a company that wants to build a golf course things go wrong. The old woman dies, probably of natural causes, shortly after the sale goes through. But the developers get cold feet as it could be perceived as suspicious that she died so soon. Solomon is fired by the man he thought was his supporter and mentor. His girlfriend leaves him to return to the U.S. Solomon's father encourages him to find another bank job but Solomon asks if he can come in on the family business. His father reluctantly agrees.
Solomon eventually sees Hana again when she has returned to her mother very ill. She had been a prostitute, drinking and doing drugs and now probably has aids. She speculates what life could have been like if she had stayed with him. However, in living her life it was as if she thought that she was doomed because of her mother's transgressions (having had several affairs while married). She seems to have done everything she could to harm herself/self-destruct.
After all this Sunja learns that her mother is dying of stomache cancer so she rushes back to be with her and her sister-in-law who had been living with the Mother. As the mother is dying she launches a tyrade on Sunja about how her behaviour with the married man ruined the family and basically cursed the family implying that all the sadness that has happened to her family is her fault. She accuses her of being selfish when Sunja really slaved hard for all the people in her life. Yes, she made the one mistake but she was a devoted mother and daughter and loved and respected and was faithful to her husband.
I found the book well written but terribly sad. So many characters bore such anger and resentment over things that others did. There didn't seem to be any forgiveness. Both Sunja and Hansa, seemed to be decent people who made a mistake. Hans did have other lovers and he was a shady character in his business dealings but he did a lot to try to help Sunja and her family. Yet, even after his wife died Sunja would not consider marrying him and cut off ties with him.
The Pachinko theme was very prominent in the story, it is a game of chance, of gambling.... I don't know what connection the author intended but I think in this book a chance encounter/event really had impact on people's lives and in most cases made their lives more difficult. The characters seem to react to people on principles rather than be willing to look at them warts and all. There didn't seem to be any option for reconciliation for forgiveness. The only persons who seemed to accept people were Isak and Sunja's Sister-in-law.
As she visits her husband's grave one day Sunja learns that Noa had been visiting his Father's (Isek's) grave but he never came to see her or her family,.
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