Reviews
Excellent book. My only issue with it is that most characters seemed to speak the same way. I don’t know if this is an attempt to reflect culture and how most people spoke in this place and era but that seems improbable and likely the author wrote their speech that way.Regardless, this book made me consider many things I hadn’t thought of before, and made me feel many things I wouldn’t have felt in my own life.
In this New York Times bestseller, four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan.
Honestly, there's so many parts of this book that I'm absolutely infatuated with. I loved reading the story and everything, but there's also a small part of me that can't write this higher than a three star just because of all the small parts and small details that I kind of missed and didn't really grasp or understand while reading this story. Literally though the ending and Noa dying like I can't like the way that he ended his life like he like that. Just breaks my heart knowing that he rather essentially does all this and puts himself through all this pain instead of just learning it, learning how to live with it and then moving past it like OMG. Like his kids and his wife will forever think that he is Japanese. Like they are never understand the true culture that they actually have and if they did like say like down the road with an older and they want to know more about their life or like maybe their kids want to know more about their grandfather and about the war and they look up information and then they put one two together and they find out that he's Korean like I just wanted. I want another story or just like a little synopsis of like what happened to his kids. I wish we would have touched bases a little bit more on that and I think that's probably one reason why I didn't write it more than three stars. But yeah!
Bagian pertama buku ini benar-benar bagus. Gak bisa berkata-kata lagi pokoknya. Penggambaran latar sejarah, cara penulis mendeskripsikan emosi dan hubungan para karakternya–semua diceritakan secara tragis dan indah. Sebagai pembaca, pada akhirnya aku jadi ikut bersimpati dengan nasib Sunja, mengagumi kebaikan hati Baek Isak, dan (tentu saja) kepengen menonjok Koh Hansu. Pachinko menyoroti banyak isu penting. Tapi salah satu yang menarik perhatianku adalah bagaimana buku ini memperlihatkan diskriminasi ras sebagai warisan dari kolonialisme. Kondisi para keturunan diaspora Korea di Jepang dalam buku ini mengingatkanku dengan sentimen rasial yang dialami orang Tionghoa Indonesia. Mereka yang secara riwayat lahir di sana, namun justru diperlakukan layaknya "orang asing". Cerita buku ini memang fiksi, tapi perasaan-perasaan yang tergambarkan di setiap halamannya begitu nyata. Jujur, aku sempat berekspektasi bakal memberi Pachinko 5 bintang. Tapi begitu masuk ke bagian 2 dan bagian 3, antusiasmeku langsung terjun bebas. Cerita generasi berikutnya setelah Sunja dan Isak nggak terlalu bikin aku tertarik (tapi aku sempat nyesek sih gara-gara Noa. Haduhh). Alurnya mulai terasa lompat-lompat. Banyak adegan tragis, tapi justru gak bikin emosiku terpantik karena cuma diceritakan sekilas. Fokus ceritanya bahkan beberapa kali berpindah ke karakter sampingan, yang menurutku perannya gak begitu penting dan gak berkaitan dengan cerita utama. Aku butuh sekitar 2 minggu buat menamatkan buku ini. Dan setelah tamat pun, aku masih dilema mau kasih rating 3 atau 4 bintang. Secara isi cerita, Pachinko membawakan isu yang cukup thought-provoking dan eye-opening, tapi secara gaya penceritaan? Hmm, bukan seleraku sepertinya. Agak disayangkan, padahal aku suka banget dengan 100 halaman pertama dari buku ini :(Tapi okelah, I think this book deserves 4 stars. Mungkin habis ini, aku bakal coba nonton dramanya juga supaya bisa mendapat impresi berbeda.
This book is definition of emotionally draining book. It haunts me in my dream. It makes me realize how lucky I am that I am not in a main character position (living in a country where you don't belong and being treated lower than the pig).