In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored daughter of a crippled fisherman, falls for a wealthy stranger at the seashore near her home in Korea. He promises her the world, but when she discovers she is pregnant--and that her lover is married--she refuses to be bought. Instead, she accepts an offer of marriage from a gentle, sickly minister passing through on his way to Japan. But her decision to abandon her home, and to reject her son's powerful father, sets off a dramatic saga that will echo down through the generations. Richly told and profoundly moving, Pachinko is a story of love, sacrifice, ambition, and loyalty. From bustling street markets to the halls of Japan's finest universities to the pachinko parlors of the criminal underworld, Lee's complex and passionate characters--strong, stubborn women, devoted sisters and sons, fathers shaken by moral crisis--survive and thrive against the indifferent arc of history.
FictionFamiliesLiteraryCultural HeritageFamily LifeHistoricalSagasAsian AmericanKoreansFiction, family lifeKorea, fictionFiction, historical
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Answered from the reviews and content notes on file, never made up. If nothing on file settles it, it says so.
Character
Earnest, grave, classical in form and epic.
- earnestironic
- gravecomic
- classical in formformally daring
- intimateepic
- unpretentiousprestige
Who loves it, who doesn't
12 profiled raters. Loved most by The Empaths; disliked most by The Ironists.
Reviews
- yuki.readsThe Empath★★★★★
Four generations and not one wasted chapter. The book is generous the way a grandmother is generous: without asking if you deserve it.
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Closest on the same fourteen dimensions, from everything scored on Curator Co. Other media included when they land close.
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Both earnest, classical in form, grave; this one is more character-led.
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Patton 197085% alikeFilm · Both earnest, grave, classical in form.
The Bridge on the River Kwai 195784% alikeFilm · Both earnest, classical in form, grave.
