by Min Jin Lee
Reviewed by Linda:
A recent favorite of the library’s Contemporary Book Club, this novel was just selected as one of the New York Times Book Review’s Ten Best Books of 2017. The author takes us into a world little known to Americans, that of the hundreds of thousands of Korean migrants who have lived in Japan for generations. We follow the lives of a couple who come to Japan in the early 20th century and three generations of their descendants. Like many Koreans, members of the family work in pachinko (pinball) parlors, one of few area of the economy open to them. The family struggles with discrimination, and the temptation of trying to pass as Japanese. The lives of the women especially change over the decades.
***Min Jin Lee will be speaking at the Amherst College LitFest on Thursday, March 1.***