Pachinko
by Min Jin Lee
(London, Apollo, 2017)
History has failed us, but no matter.
Page 3.
A spoiled son did more harm to a family than a dead one.
Page 5.
If he was supposed to di, he hoped to die swiftly to spare the innocent.
Page 27.
For a woman, the man you marry will determine the quality of your life completely.
Page 30.
The hidden privacy of her body stirred him; he craved to see her skin.
Page 32.
People from islands are different. We have more freedom.
Page 40.
One of the greatest things about being rich is having someone else wash our clothes and cook your meals.
Page 40.
The more she saw him, the more vivid he grew in her mind.
Page 44.
She treasured his stories like the beach glass and rose-colored stones she used to collect as a girl.
Page 47.
Being with a young girl made a man feel like a boy again.
Page 55.
You saw all sorts of things in a church where forgiveness was expected.
Page 64.
A God that did everything we thought was right and good wouldn’t be the creator of the universe. He would be our puppet. He wouldn’t be God. There’s more to everything than we can know.
Page 66.
Every child should be wanted.
Page 74.
This surge of wanting a wife and family felt strange and good to him.
Page 74.
It’s dangerous to think that everything is a sign from God. Perhaps God is always talking to us, but we don’t now how to listen.
Page 74.
A woman should always have something put by. Take good care of your husband. Otherwise, another woman will.
Page 104.
There were many Japanese who were fair-minded and principled, but around foreigners they tended to be guarded.
Page 106.
Isak believed that it was Christlike to resist oppression.
Page 118.
People were willing to lie about small tings and to disregard your interests.
Page 182.
You were supposed to nod when the boss told you his stories.
Page 192.
Could the Koreans save themselves? Apparently not. So save your own ass - this was what Koreans believed privately. Save your family. Feed your belly. Ay attention, and be skeptical of the people in charge.
Page 192.
In the end, your belly was your emperor.
Page 193.
For a Korean man, the choices were always shit.
Page 193.
No one should expect praise, and certainly not a woman.
Page 199.
We’re meant to increase our talents.
Page 213.
Wherever you go, you represent our family, and you must be an excellent person - at school, in town, and int eh world.
Page 213.
Living every day in the presence of those who refuse to acknowledge your humanity takes great courage.
Page 214.
If I want to live, I have to know things others don’t.
Pages 220-221.
Favors created obligations.
Page 227.
It was always better to say less.
Page 242.
The Japanese were pathologically intractable when they wanted to be.
Page 244.
For people like us, home doesn’t exist.
Page 254.
Ideas can make men forget their own interest. And the guys in charge will exploit men who believe in ideas too much.
Page 254.
It always being wiser to appear poorer than you are.
Page 255.
The war in Korea roused commerce in Japan, and there were more jobs to be had by all.
Page 265.
Being a man means you know how to control your temper.
Page 279.
There were even more things he should never have done. He thought of his parents, whom he should never have left; his brother, whom he should never have brought to Osaka; and he thought of the job in Nagasaki he should never have taken.
Page 290.
Fill your mind with knowledge - it’s the only kind of power no one can take away from you.
Page 304.
He wanted a very simple life filled with nature, books, and perhaps a few children.
Page 305.
He preferred to eat a nourishing bowl of simple food quickly and be done with it. He ate the way most working Koreans did: Tasty food was merely necessary fuel, something to be eaten in a rush so you could return to your work. Well-off Japanese considered this sort of eating - high volume, strong flavors, and deliberate speed - nothing short of vulgar.
Page 336.
He walked rigidly and calmly, not believing that a person you loved - yes, he had loved her - could end up being someone you never knew.
Page 342.
His ears were large and his lobes thick - physical features Buddhists admired.
Page 360.
Long ago, he had learned how to keep nodding even when he didn’t agree, because he noticed that the motion alone kept people talking.
Page 363.
Miscarriages reveal the wisdom of nature. It’s for the best that you don’t give birth when it isn’t good for your health.
Page 369.
Noa carried the story of his life as a Korean like a dark, heavy rock within him.
Page 396.
Ultimately, the truth must be acknowledged.
Page 399.
We’re all criminals. Liars, thieves, whores - that’s who we are.
Page 441.
There were so many errors. If life allowed revisions, she would let them stay in their bath a little longer, read them one more story before bed, and fix them another plate of shrimp.
Page 445.
Somewhere after being sorry, there had to be another day, and even after a conviction, there could be good in the judgment.
Page 453.
Illness and dying had revealed her mother’s truer thoughts, the ones her mother had been protecting her from.
Page 461.
It had been nothing short of physical pain when she had left him.
Page 476.
Japan is not fucked because it lost the war or did bad things. Japan is fucked because there is no more war, and in peacetime everyone actually wants to be mediocre and is terrified of being different.
Page 491.
In America, everything seemed fixable, and in Japan, difficult problems were to be endured.
Page 504.
No one is clean. Living makes you dirty.
Page 516.
There was more to being something than just blood.
Page 522.