@Mary13 ( hope you like your new job )
Also, I watched Caroline Kennedy ( you tube ) introduce Min Jin Lee, and she read What you quoted above!
Good link to review and questions-
82 % of Goodreads gave book a positive review so @Midwest67 your friends may like the book
@Midwest67 rest assured this book club apparently liked the book
This is from reddit interview and the author directly answers Hansu’s appeal?
^min jin lees’s answer
Blech.
Thanks for that research, @SouthJerseyChessMom!
As for the first sentence: Ugh. Or “Blech” to quote @doschicos. There is nothing sexy and alluring about “deciding for others” (a euphemism for abuse, imo).
However, I agree with the second sentence. People who are leaders (even bad people–maybe especially bad people) ARE interesting to watch. That’s why books/shows such as Game of Thrones become so addictive. And why CNN is a 24 hour network, lol.
I really wanted to love this book. I liked the book, didn’t love it. The first half of the book was better than the second half.
I was well aware of the shame aspect of the oriental culture, but this book really brought that into sharp focus. The one part of the book that has stayed with me was when a dying Yangjin and Sunja were watching the television show “In Other Lands”.
The Japanese farmer in Medellin was asked to say something to the viewers back in Japan. She said “I have never been to Japan but I hope that wherever I am in life and whatever I do, I can be a good Japanese. I hope to never bring shame to my people.”
My grandparents were immigrants, but I was never taught about bringing shame to my people. For me, this quote summed up the whole issue of shame in the entire culture.
I thought Sunja’s personality was unusual in that she wasn’t crushed by feelings of shame or having come from bad blood.
She seemed to have a lot of self-confidence despite the hardships she faced. My thinking is that, as she mentioned several times in the book, her father’s love and doting on her as a child, which appears to be unusual for the culture at that time, imparted that to her.
Page 179 in the paperback version of the book has a long passage about that.
Apparently, Sunji’s motherly love wasn’t able to impart that same kind of strength to Noa. I wonder how Noa would have reacted to the news that Hansu was his father if Isak had lived and raised the boy to adulthood. Noa would be angry for sure that the secret had been kept from him, but I think he would have been able to talk to Sunji and Isak about it and would have dealt with the trauma differently. (Of course if Isak had lived, it’s possible Hansu would never have entered their lives at all, so the truth would never have been known.)
The event that allowed Hansu to find Sunja was her selling the watch. The buyer tried to sell the fine watch to Hansu & of course, he recognized it and knew she was in Osaka.
Interestingly, the arranged marriages seem to be among the best in the novel (Hoonie and Yangjin, Isak and Sunja). Parental approval and same ethnicity seem to be important factors.
Later, the romantic relationships are complicated by family disapproval and, especially, the Korean-Japanese dynamic. Near the end of her life, Hana tells Solomon that he should marry Phoebe, in part because they are both Korean: “You should marry her. Maybe people should marry from the same background. Maybe life is easier then” (p. 457).
When Etsuko at first refused to marry Mozasu, I thought that it was because she thought she might hurt him: She might cheat repeatedly as she did with her first husband; or the shame of her bad reputation might rub off on the upstanding, moral Mozasu. A chapter later, the reason is clarified: “If she married Mozasu, it would prove to everyone in Hokkaido that no decent Japanese man would touch a woman like her. She would be called a yakuza wife. If she married him, she’d no longer be considered the tasteful owner of a successful restaurant in the best part of Yokohama—an image she only half believed herself” (p. 401).
In reflecting on the deep-seated prejudice against Koreans in Japan, I’m wondering…Would the attitude toward marriage between Koreans and Japanese 40 or 50 years ago be similar to the attitude toward interracial marriages in the U.S. during that same time period?
@Midwest67: The selling of the watch was one of the times when I knew immediately what was to come: Hansu learning Sunja is in Osaka. I expected their paths to cross once she leaves for Osaka, but didn’t know when or how it would happen. When Sunja sells the watch, I thought: ahh, so that’s how.
@Midwest67: Don’t feel bad about recommending Pachinko. I find it a mess of a novel rather than one I dislike and am not sorry I read it. Anyway, as @SouthJerseyChessMom points out, the majority of those on Goodreads and its ilk like the book.
I was away from the internet yesterday, so have been skimming the posts. Regarding Hansu: He’s the character author Min Jin Lee uses to move the plot. Something needs to happen and Hansu makes it so. Without a Hansu, Sunja and her sister-in-law would still be selling food from a cart at the train station.
I never saw Hansu as a romantic character because I never believed he loves Sunja. I thought of Noa as the link between Hansu and Sunja. Having a son was important in the Japanese culture at that time (and still is to some extent, according to the internet.) Hansu “has” only Noa to fill that role. I figured that at some point in Noa’s life, Hansu would make the genetics known. Obviously, it didn’t work out that way. If Sunja had birthed a girl child, I don’t think Hansu would have stayed in her life. So, romantic, no. (Hansu notes his surprise when he discovers Sunja works in the fields once he arranges her family to live in the country. He does nothing about it though and all it would have taken to change matters would have been his strongly worded displeasure. Romantic?)
“Interestingly, the arranged marriages seem to be among the best in the novel (Hoonie and Yangjin, Isak and Sunja). Parental approval and same ethnicity seem to be important factors.”
When I hear people express in other instances that arranged marriages are better even today do to commonality, etc. I always think it is because of traditional expectations and a different view on what a marriage is - more of a business, practical transaction in a way. I’m not sure if younger generations in the novel would have had better marriages/relationships if they had been arranged because their view of marriage/relationships no longer reflected the old ways and customs, partly because of the changing roles of males and females.
“Near the end of her life, Hana tells Solomon that he should marry Phoebe, in part because they are both Korean: “You should marry her. Maybe people should marry from the same background. Maybe life is easier then””
Although they both had Korean DNA, in many ways Phoebe and Solomon were more different in their background than Hana and Solomon were. Phoebe, raised in America, was so different and that’s why she had a hard time living in Japan. She seemed to have much different values.
“In reflecting on the deep-seated prejudice against Koreans in Japan, I’m wondering…Would the attitude toward marriage between Koreans and Japanese 40 or 50 years ago be similar to the attitude toward interracial marriages in the U.S. during that same time period?”
I still sense there is a lot of animosity between Koreans and Japanese based on my conversations with Korean nationals. How much prejudice still exists? Would a Jpaanese/Korean marriage still be looked down on by many people? Anyone know?
I’m new to this thread but hope you don’t mind if I join in. Coincidentally, I just read Pachinko a couple of weeks ago. For the most part, I enjoyed it, especially in learning more about Korean culture and the treatment of Koreans in Japan. I do agree that the latter part of the book was not as good.
I agree with Ignatius regarding Hansu. I felt the only reason he was interested in Sunja was because she had his son. He had no sons with his wife, so once he knew he had a son with Sanju, that meant he had a vested interest in taking care of her. While his character is important to the storyline, I did not find him appealing, romantic, etc.
Welcome @4kids4us! I’m glad you’ve joined us.
It appears there is still a lot of progress to be made. This is from a recent article in The Guardian:
Full article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/02/cockroaches-and-old-hags-hounding-of-the-north-korean-diaspora-in-japan
Here are a few recent articles that talk about racism in Japan:
http://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2123539/no-chinese-why-anti-china-racism-so-big-japan
^This one has some pretty shocking stuff in it.
“Japan’s secondary schools have a degree of uniformity that stifles diversity. And this trend reached its logical conclusion with the news that one school was forcing children with natural hair color that’s anything but black to dye and straighten their locks.”
“57 percent of surveyed Tokyo metropolitan high schools still require “proof of real hair color.” In Osaka, it’s more like 80 percent.”
Welcome @4kids4us
Did I misread your question ? Were you asking about all interracial couples , not necessarily Korean / Japanese?
If so, Meghan and Harry’s marriage revealed a lot of hatred and awful attitudes about interracial marriages today ! I think the Royal family welcomed Meghan, but it wasn’t universal open arms.
Yikes, @doschicos ! I hope those are fringe examples. It seems humans have a long way to go before their evolution is complete.
This quote didn’t mean much to me when I first read it, but looking back, it does reflect the rest of the book. Over time, history did not treat the characters well, yet they trudged through their lives passively, hardly showing or sharing their emotions.
" history did not treat the characters well, yet they trudged through their lives"
I think that is history in a nutshell regardless of country or ethnicity. For most people at most points in history, life is harsh and if you want to survive, you just have to put your head down and plow ahead.
Reminds me how fortunate I am to be who I am in the time period I am in.