October 2021 Book, Pachinko

 

Talk About Books meets every third Wednesday of the month at 6:30 at Guilford Free Library.  On October 20, we will be discussing Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.

Pachinko is an epic historical fiction novel following a Korean family that immigrates to Japan. The character-driven story features an ensemble of characters who encounter racism, stereotyping, and other aspects of the 20th-century Korean experience of Japan.

Pachinko, for those not in the know, is one of the national obsessions of Japan, a dizzying cross between pinball and a slot machine, wherein small metal balls drop randomly amid a maze of brass pins. There's a comic feel of Rube Goldberg to the device, but the final effect is oddly mesmerizing. The urge to play can quickly become an addiction, and of course the game is a perfect metaphor for the ricochet whims of fate. 

Owning pachinko parlors becomes a way for the clan depicted in the novel to climb out of poverty — but destiny cannot be manipulated so easily.


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