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,.