So, it was about two weeks ago that I set to work.

Kimchi, which is made of fermented vegetables - usually cabbage, requires about a minimum of a week to make. Sunja and her sister-in-law used their skills in the kitchen to make kimchi when times were tough, supporting their family the only way they could. It turned out that while sushi did show up a couple of times in the novel, kimchi is what really made an impression. It was a book we chose for our August book club, and I’ll admit I put it on the list because I already owned it (checking off that TBR!) and because I wanted to make and eat sushi. It was an interesting perspective on an immigration story - one we aren’t often exposed to here in the United States but one that didn’t leave me with much hope either. Lee really put her characters through the ringer, and the suffering they experienced left me feeling very defeated. I liked Pachinko, but despite being well-written, it wasn’t a particularly enjoyable read. The novel starts with the parents of our strong central female character Sunja and spans over seventy years and several generations.

Like the game it’s named for, Lee spins an epic tale that goes up and down, away and back again, all as the Korean family we follow move to Japan and either suffer or thrive there. Pachinko, for those of you who don’t know (and I didn’t until I read Min Jin Lee’s novel of the same name), is a Japanese game of chance, a combination of pinball and a slot machine.

Pachinko book reddit