technicat@bookwyrm.social reviewed Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Better than the TV series
5 stars
I read Pachinko after watching the first episode of the TV show and couldn't get into it, thought I'd try the book and see if I liked it better. And it is much better. The TV series has its charms: lush visuals, excellent acting including from some of my favorite kdrama actors, but in the adaptation they lost how the book is a winding multi-generational story anchored by the women and one woman in particular, Sunja. An oft-uttered phrase in the book, something like "It's a woman's lot to suffer" conveys this theme, but the TV show first of all time hops episodes back and forth, and this is one reason why, introduces extra stories that weren't in the book, almost entirely about the male characters who were not as central in the book. It's as if they got studio notes - "can we have more stories about the men?" …
I read Pachinko after watching the first episode of the TV show and couldn't get into it, thought I'd try the book and see if I liked it better. And it is much better. The TV series has its charms: lush visuals, excellent acting including from some of my favorite kdrama actors, but in the adaptation they lost how the book is a winding multi-generational story anchored by the women and one woman in particular, Sunja. An oft-uttered phrase in the book, something like "It's a woman's lot to suffer" conveys this theme, but the TV show first of all time hops episodes back and forth, and this is one reason why, introduces extra stories that weren't in the book, almost entirely about the male characters who were not as central in the book. It's as if they got studio notes - "can we have more stories about the men?" Yep, it's a woman's lot to suffer.
