Gregory Luckert’s Reviews > Pachinko > Status Update

Last two chapters. Finally done. Good last chapter with Sunja visiting Isak's grave and seeing Noa's earthly work. Phoebe leaves. Solomon accepts his destiny and takes over the Pachinko biz, after Hana tells him to.

III - 18,19. Soloman and Phoebe live in Tokyo. S works for investment bank. P is not happy about how the Japanese treat Koreans and is unhappy because she can't speak Japanese. S's boss very indirectly asks S to take care of a biz issue using his "connections". S's boss thinks everyone in pachinko is in the Yakuza. When the situation breaks slightly bad, S is fired. Shit rolls downhill. Hana apparently has AIDS.

III-16. Solomon returns to Tokyo with his gf Phoebe. She is unhappy there with nothing to do and feels the Japanese are racist. She's US-born Korean. We have a scene where Solomon throws a poker game, with the higher ups at his banking job, after someone brings up Pachinko and Yakuza.

III-14,15. Hana and Solomon have a physical relationship. Hana runs away to Tokyo after seemingly preparing for an unsavory career. Solomon goes to US for school and gets a Korean-American girlfriend. Hana descends but is caught by Etsuko and the last moment.

III-13. We see the next generation: Solomon & Hana. Little reminiscent of Noa and his first girlfriend. Hansu’s wife died and he expected Sunja to marry him. This happens at Sunja’s mother’s funeral.

III-12. Suja’s mother is dying of cancer. Suja returns to Osaka to take care of her and her last days. Her mother says everything she did wrong in her life, that Suja did wrong. Kind of a throwaway chapter.

III-11. Solomon’s birthday. Etsuko perhaps forgives herself “Somewhere after being sorry, there had to be another day, and even after a conviction, there could be good in the judgment”
We see Solomon sees her as his mother. We see the entire life of Mizasu, Solomon & Etsuko in a few vignettes. Storytelling in flashes of light. Scenes that push narrative forward.

III-10: More on Etsuko & Hana. it looks like Hana will live with her mother. It’s clear that her children don’t know the full story because they blame her for running out on them.

III-9. Background on Etsuko. Mozasu's Japanese girlfriend. They have been together for years by 1979, the time of this chapter. E refuses to marry M and considers herself a fallen women because her first husband divorced her for infidelity. We get a glimpse of the hoops Koreans have to jump through in Japan. Every four years Soloman has to re-register with the government.

III-8. Devastating and beautiful. Hard to understand Noa. Hansu finds Noa and brings Sunja to him. They talk. Noa has a wife and four kids. After Sunja leaves, Noa commits suicide.