Pachinko

This book is super well written, but it's more graphic than I would like with some of the physical interactions with the characters. But I would say this author's writing is the closest I have read to Steinbeck as far as describing the characters and making you feel like you're a part of the story. This book travels from late 1800's into the late 1980's with the story of a poor Korean family and their trek from Korea to Japan and from tradition into modernity. It's heartbreaking. The whole story is just a perfect example of the passage of time and what is wrought with that. It seems that almost from the beginning Sunja's life is doomed. Yet there is always a small thread of hope weaved throughout. A perseverance that struggles and keeps a head above the water at all times. I enjoyed seeing the lives of such a different existence, and culture, laid out like this. I enjoyed having a book that didn't bash Christianity, but seemed to give a beautiful light to it at times. What's the point of this book? I think it can be found all throughout. This struggle against injustice. The desire to just be, and to be accepted, or at least left alone, as you are. The ability to be Korean and not to be considered as less than because of your heritage and differences from those around you. There is beauty in that, but I also fear that this type of thinking has caused our culture to dive too deep into acceptance and willingness to overlook truly abhorrent things just to grant that "acceptance" to more and more people. But all in all I really liked this book. The story and the characters really jumped out and made real in a way that doesn't usually happen for me with literature.