Pachinko: An Epic of Liberation from Heart and Body

In her novel "Pachinko," Korean novelist Min Jin Lee paints an epic world with letters of gold, leading the reader through a heap of unique narrative facts and events to delve into the deepest recesses of the human soul that rejects injustice and oppression. Min Jin Lee takes the reader by the hand to feel, through her lines, the struggle of a disabled person to live a dignified life. She shares with the reader the defiance of a girl who gave her heart and body to a lover, but then rejected him and rose up for her pride when she realized he was not hers alone, despite the consequences of her decision that marked her life forever. Then, she skillfully describes the struggle of generations of Koreans, men and women, against Japanese tyranny. The many complex characters in the novel captivatingly transport the reader to live through its pages in a long era of Korean and Japanese history. It is a story of impossible love that fate separated the lovers, but it did not separate their hearts. The woman remained defiant, and the man remained a man who would not abandon his beloved child... This impossible love was embraced and nurtured by others, but despite the overwhelming torrent of love, purity, and high responsibility, the results would be dire. Min Jin Lee says about "Pachinko": "In 1989, I listened to a lecture given by an American lecturer who had previously stood by Koreans in Japan. In that lecture, he spoke about a thirteen-year-old child who was bullied by his Japanese classmates. I finished my university studies, obtained a law degree, and worked for two years before abandoning law and dedicating myself to writing, with the echo of the lecturer's words reverberating in my mind. In fact, I worked between 1996 and 2003 on an initial version of this novel, but it did not meet my requirements. Then I moved to Japan and rewrote the novel from scratch, which took me nine years. All the while, I kept asking myself: Why did I write this epic novel? To conclude that I would not have written it if I were not an American of Korean descent. When I was a child, I was cared for by the country that hosted me, unlike the country that hosted the child who was the subject of the lecture I attended when I was at university, and this is what made me write, because writing allows me and you to produce a better world than reality."