Pachinko

Pachinko does justice to the complexity of its characters’ stories through its distinctive narration and diction. Its narrator slips in and out of each character’s consciousness, articulating their thoughts at select moments. The novel shifts so seamlessly from one perspective to the other that, at points, they almost seem to blend. Characters sometimes trade perspectives within a single scene. During Sunja’s first encounter with Kyunghee, Pachinko’s narration roams from her thoughts about Kyunghee’s “wispy schoolgirl frame” to her sister-in-law’s impression of Sunja’s “ordinary, flat face and thin eyes.” When Pastor Yoo counsels the brother and sister pair at his church, the novel drifts from the sister’s desire to stay in the pastor’s good graces to the brother’s interest in cutting school. In Pachinko’s immersive narration, the edges of one character and another blur.