![]() ![]() The attitude towards the Korean Japanese is still the same today. Or they’d say, ‘her beautiful smile made me happy.” One said, ‘I loved her, but her father wouldn’t let her see me.’ I heard that kind of story over and over again, and when I asked what did she look like, it was not about physicality it was about how that person accepted them. When I was interviewing all those people, I was struck by their stories of the one who got away. He couldn’t marry her, but he was so committed to her and there is something really romantic about that. Throughout all this, the wealthy Hansu watches secretly over Sunja and her family, protecting and helping them in myriad ways. “Every Korean person I interviewed had someone in their family who was hiding or knew someone who was, and that person could not be approached because it would blow their cover.” He re-invents himself as pure Japanese cutting off his birth family, and keeping his real identity a secret from his wife and children in the process. It’s Noah, the son with the most promise, whose story touched me the most. They try various ways some successful others not so. “Across cultures men want to protect their women and take care of their children, but if you are an oppressed minority and the larger world doesn’t allow you to, what can you do? Every male character in this book asks the question, ‘How will I become a man?” ![]() And in each generation, the men find different ways to adapt. It’s a story of the resilience of women the importance of family and the difficulties of living in a country that doesn’t accept you. The novel follows the family as they do whatever it takes to survive. He dies, and when their only child, Sunja, becomes pregnant by Hansu, a married yakuza, the family face ruin, until Isak, a Christian minister who offers to marry Sunja and transport her to Japan. The novel opens in Korea in 1911, when a gentle, club footed Korean married a fifteen year old girl. I only used a fraction of my research nobody wants wars in fiction but I had to know it. I’d follow them at work, and hang out with them I’d watch how they interacted with others. I was like a journalist, spending time with my subjects. One year you’re a citizen, the next you are not. They said, ‘Why would you do this when Korean History is so difficult?’ And it is! The immigration laws change all the time. To include all the complexities, I realised I’d need to cover seventy years, and every war in Korea. “I found Korean Japanese people to interview, and once they started talking I realised I’d got their story wrong. “I thought I’d do some research and have it ready in a year.” In 2007, when Lee and her son Sam followed Chris to Tokyo where he’d been offered work, she thought Pachinko was almost finished. I’ve been writing it since 1995, and had a draft by 2003.” She put the draft away wrote a novel that was universally rejected, and then wrote her best-selling debut. The idea for the novel had been sparked many years before, when Lee was a student at Yale, and heard a story about a schoolboy’s suicide. I was a corporate lawyer from 1993 to 1995.” “In order to write fiction, I quit a perfectly good job. And it came about because she felt a need to understand her own heritage. You can sense the author’s love and understanding for all the characters, the good and the flawed. A long, complex book, it wears its research lightly, and is a page-turner. #Min jin lee freeThat’s why we visited Ireland before.”įamous for her New York Times bestselling debut, Free Food for Millionaires, which explored the Korean experience of New York, Min’s second novel, Pachinko, follows four generations of a family who leave Korea for Japan. “He’s a Duffy!’ says Min, laughing, “and so is my son. Her husband, Chris, is half Japanese and half European the European side a mix of English, French, German and Irish. ![]() It was tough at the time, as she spoke no English. Korean by birth, Lee moved to New York with her family when she was seven. “The sun shone on my last visit, too,” she says. #Min jin lee fullShe’s gorgeous – full of warmth and good humour – and she raves about Dublin, considering it a beautiful romantic city. It’s a gloriously sunny May day when I meet Min Jin Lee, and her radiant smile reflects the weather. Posted by Sue Leonard on Monday 21st August 2017 ![]()
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