I’ve started reading Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, the next book on my Historical Fiction Around the World series. This story is much longer than the last one I read, so it will take me a little while to finish reading it, but I can give you my initial take on what I’m reading.
The hardback I’m reading has a different cover than the one I found on Bookshop. The story is 485 pages long. Lee didn’t provide any supporting information related to the story. No glossary or maps or recipes, etc. But so far I haven’t needed them, either.
While the author was born in Korea, she moved to the USA when she was 7 and was educated through university in this country. So her story is told using standard English so she didn’t need a translator or additional explanatory materials. Her Acknowledgements indicate the kind of research and interviews she conducted before writing this book, including many interviews with Korean Japanese people she met while living in Tokyo as an adult. Thus, she offers the best of both worlds to this American reader since I can learn more about Korean Japanese people but in a familiar language.
Not surprisingly, Lee’s writing voice is strong and clear as she tells the story of this family over the course of the 20th century, specifically 1910-1989. For a summary of the story line, I found this description although I haven’t read it all because I don’t want to spoil the experience of reading the book. I’m not even 100 pages into the story, so there is much to come!
I need to go read, so I’ll talk to you all soon! Happy Reading!
Betty
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Audrey Harper needs more than home and hearth to satisfy her self-worth despite being raised with the idea that a woman’s place is in the home. Working as a music critic for the city newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland, during the Second World War, she’s enjoyed both financial freedom and personal satisfaction in a job well done. When she uncovers evidence of German spies working to sabotage a secret bomber plane being manufactured in her beloved city, she must choose between her sense of duty to protect her city and the urgings of her boss, her family, and her fiancé to turn over her evidence to the authorities. But when her choices lead her and her sister into danger, she is forced to risk life and limb to save her sister and bring the spies to justice.
Set against the backdrop of the flourishing musical community during the 1940s in Baltimore, Notes of Love and War weaves together the pleasure of musical performance with the dangers of espionage and spying.
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