Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

This historic drama has all the elements I love about a book - great characters and a compelling story that we follow through several generations of the same family, from Korea to Japan and beyond. In the background of Pachinko is Japan's occupation of Korea and the experience of Koreans in Japan before, during, and after this occupation. 

We begin in the 1880s in Korea. Hoonie is the son of parents who run a boardinghouse for fisherman. Their lives are meager, but stable. Hoonie eventually meets his wife, Yangjin, through a matchmaker and she joins him and his parents at the boardinghouse. Hoonie and Yangjin have a daughter, Sunja who manages the boarding house with her mother after Hoonie's death. Eventually, Sunja's path intersects with two men and she is presented with different choices that will have far-reaching effects on her and her family's future. She marries and immigrates to Osaka with her husband, living with him, and her brother and sister-in-law.

Sunja has two sons, raising them in Japan with her husband and his family. During World War II, the majority of the family is relocated to a farm in the country until they can be reunified again in Osaka. Unable to return to Korea, Sunja's son's aren't able to fully realize their heritage and culture. And as Koreans in Japan, they aren't accepted as Japanese. In fact, they must hide their true lineage in order to avoid the pervasive racism experienced against Koreans. 

The book ends in the 1980's with the stories of Sunja's two sons and one grandson and how, despite following very different paths in their lives, they all end up in in the pachinko business - one embracing it wholeheartedly, another reluctantly, and the third, inevitably.

This book is about a family living their life and how seemingly simple decisions can have life altering affects. But, unlike some books where the circumstances are unique or exceptional, in Pachinko, this family is a picture of probably millions of families across the world, making the seemingly simple decisions people make make every day - should I give this person the time of day? Should I marry this person? Should I try to reconnect with an estranged family member? Should I accept someone's charity? 

In Pachinko, we have the benefit of hindsight to evaluate these decisions and question whether or not they were the right ones. But I suppose we can do that in our lives and the lives of those before us. It's just easier (and let's be honest, more fun) to do with someone else. 

What makes Sunja's family unique for me is their place in Japan, as Koreans. And while they are a seemingly ordinary family, they lived through extraordinary times. But what makes this story the same as my (and everyone else's) own is the family's desire for wholeness. It's a timeless narrative that we all can relate to.