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The obvious difficulty with choosing to tell the 20th century story of the immigrant life in a foreign land can be seen from that very choice of article. Is this the life of these people, or is it simply a series of lives, a carefully calibrated sample of equal representations, a sanitized and equally balanced example of demographics within a population whose end result is always the perfect mix of entertainment and accurate history? What do we want from our historical literary novels?
Min Jin Lee's Pachinko is a remarkably textured, assured, and confident take on the life of Korean immigrants living in Japan from 1910 through today. The effects of poverty, institutionalized racism, domestic abuse, suicide, and the sometimes alarming accumulation of wealth are illuminated through the story of 28-year-old Hoonie, "born with a cleft palate and a twisted foot." He enters into an arranged marriage with 15-year-old Yangjin, and they eventually bond over a mutual love for their daughter, Sunja. By the time she is 13, Sunja's father dies of tuberculosis and life thereafter is all about trying to cope. She and her mother live in a rooming house with colorful characters and charm to spare.
It's at this point that we see and embrace a fully realized Sunja. She's seduced and impregnated by Koh Hansu, a slick Yakuza with everything to spare save time for Sunja and their son, Noa. Baek Isak, a kindly pastor with no real alternatives, befriends and marries Sunja. He considers...