I love to read and knew I would want to read as much as possible on our trip. There are so many readers whom I love in my life, but I should just go ahead and dedicate all of my book reviews to Elise, one of the best high school English teachers I know, who recommends all of my favorite books.
Elise recommended Pachinko by Min Jin Lee months ago, and when it arrived and was 479 pages long, I thought, “What a perfect book for the first several weeks of travel.”
Unfortunately/fortunately, it was so good that I started it on day one out of the country only to finish it on day two. While a respectable case of jet lag and 22 hours of daylight in Iceland certainly contributed to this being such a quick read, Pachinko was also just that good. Five Stars. Read it.
The basics: The story follows four generations of a family of Korean immigrants to Japan from 1900 through 1989. The character development is deep, allowing you to understand why each character makes both the good and bad choices he or she makes and to also watch the intergenerational effects of those decisions play out.
Reading this made me remember what it was like to read a romantic novel at my all-girls Catholic school and then to have it out defending character’s choices with my classmates. Pachinko begs for the same sort of moral wrestling as Wuthering Heights, The Good Earth, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, and The Scarlet Letter. Like I need someone from St. Cecilia to read this and call me tomorrow.
Rich suggested that I end my book reviews with a reflection relating my reading to my travel. A major theme of Pachinko revolves around the idea of what home is when you are outside of your native land. It hit me on a long car ride today through southern Iceland that usually when a vacation winds down you think of all the things you cannot wait to go home and do. For us, it’s to spread out on our big couch and catch up on a show. This time, however, my big couch is in storage, and when we leave Iceland, we will be in Budapest. How do you build home when you no longer have one physical place that you live? How do you build home when you are an outsider in a foreign land?
Read this book! Thanks, Elise!
