Min Jin Lee’s novel Pachinko (Feb 2017) is a national bestseller, a New York Times Editor’s Choice and an American Booksellers Association’s Indie Next Great Reads. Lee’s debut novel Free Food for Millionaires (May 2007) was a No. 1 Book Sense Pick, a New York Times Editor’s Choice, a Wall Street Journal Juggle Book Club selection, and a national bestseller; it was a Top 10 Novels of the Year for The Times of London, NPR’s Fresh Air and USA Today.
Min Jin went to Yale College where she was awarded both the Henry Wright Prize for Nonfiction and the James Ashmun Veech Prize for Fiction. She attended law school at Georgetown University and worked as a lawyer for several years in New York prior to writing full time.
She has received the NYFA Fellowship for Fiction, the Peden Prize from The Missouri Review for Best Story, and the Narrative Prize for New and Emerging Writer. Her fiction has been featured on NPR’s Selected Shorts and has appeared most recently in One Story. Her writings about books, travel and food have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Times Literary Supplement, Conde Nast Traveler, The Times of London, Vogue (US), Travel + Leisure (SEA), Wall Street Journal and Food & Wine. Her personal essays have been anthologized in To Be Real, Breeder, The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Work, One Big Happy Family, Sugar in My Bowl, and The Global and the Intimate: Feminism in Our Time. She served three consecutive seasons as a Morning Forum columnist of the Chosun Ilbo of South Korea.
Lee has spoken about writing, politics, film and literature at various institutions including Columbia University, French Institute Alliance Francaise, The Center for Fiction, Tufts, Loyola Marymount University, Stanford, Johns Hopkins (SAIS), University of Connecticut, Boston College, Hamilton College, Hunter College of New York, Harvard Law School, Yale University, Ewha University, Waseda University, the American School in Japan, World Women’s Forum, Korean Community Center (NJ), the Hay Literary Festival (UK), the Tokyo American Center of the U.S. Embassy, the Asia House (UK), and the Asia Society in New York, San Francisco and Hong Kong. In 2017, she won the Literary Death Match (Brooklyn/Episode 8), and she is a proud alumna of Women of Letters (Public Theater).
From 2007 to 2011, Min Jin lived in Tokyo where she researched and wrote Pachinko. She lives in New York with her family.
I started and finished it for a day. It has such a solid story line. In 2018 I read this book in English, the original version. I think, sadness manifested a little deeper in Korean.
I, of course, did not read this book in Korean but halfway through realized I had already read this book. I was so invested that I had to finish. I remembered parts of it but really wanted to see how this families life played out. It’s a very good story of a Korean family. Starts in the early 1900s with a daughter who’s unplanned pregnancy sets wheels in motion for many generations. It’s a very long book almost 500 pages but I really liked the story.
일본에 살고 있는 나에게는 전쟁과 정치, 이데올로기적인 사겅사고들에 인한 상황을 전부 공감하기 힘들지만, 일정부분 공감되는 곳도 있었다. 부산 영도에서 출발하여, 4대에 걸친 자이니치 세대들의 슬픔과 삶을 두 권의 책으로 그려내었다. 언청이? 장애가 있었지만 묵묵하고 책임감 강한 아버지와 그를 존경하고 사랑한 어머니, 그의 딸의 강인함과 희생, 그녀를 도와주고 믿어준 티없이 맑고 따듯했던 남편, 또 그의 아들들이 일본에서 겪어야했던 사회의 잔인함과 괴로움, 같음이 될 수 없음에도 살아가야 했던 시대적인 암담함. 그 속에서도 믿음과 단단한 핏줄의 연결이 서로를 받치고 의지하며 결국은 4대 아들까지 이어지는 가족의 냄새. 삶은 계속되고 “요즘 세상이 어떤 세상인데” 라는 말이 무색하게도 자이니치들은 아직도 괴롭다. 자이니치가 아니라도, 주변에는 일본에서 태어난 한국인으로 살아가는 많은 괴로운 사람들이 있다. 일본이 나쁜가? 아니. 어디든 그 나라 핏줄이 아닌 사람이 사는 세상에는 우리가 생각하지 못하는 편견과 어려움이 있다. 꼭 일본만 그런 것이 아니라는 것을 잘 안다. 그러나 일본에서만 느껴지는 어려움의 종류가 있고, 그게 무엇인지 안다. 좋은 일본인도 많지만 나쁜 일본인도 많다는 말에 격하게 공감한다. 이 책이 나오기 전에도 언젠가 내가 했던 말이다. 좋은 한국인도 나쁜 한국인도, 어딜가나 그런 사람들이 있다. 우리는 우리 주변에 제발 좋은 사라들만 있기를 바라면서 한편으로는 좋은 사람이 되어야겠다는, 어떠한 신념을 가져야하는지도 모른다. 너무도 기구하지만, 기구한 삶이 이들뿐이겠냐 싶지만, 어디에나 있는 그 기구함 속에서도 빛나는 사람이 되고 싶다. 아주 잘 읽히면서도 깊이 있는 책이었다.
It was a too good story to be true. As one story it was awesome but it has lots of historical and ethical perspectives that made me think of. It took only a half day to read through all. Incredible!