<em>Pachinko</em> Is Moving, Sublime—And at Odds With Itself

Skilled players of pachinko—an arcade-style, pinball-like game found mostly in parlors across Japan—know how to launch the game’s small steel balls at just the right moment, with just the right force. But expert ones understand that luck can play an even more important role, because parlor managers tend to interfere with the machines, changing players’ winning potential. A single adjustment can improve the chances of victory—or of failure.

In Min Jin Lee’s best-selling 2017 novel, , the game is a key motif. The story primarily follows Sunja, the only child of a boardinghouse owner, over the course of the 20th century. Born and raised in Japanese-occupied Korea, she leaves her native country for Japan as a young woman and goes on to become the matriarch of a family thatnever reads like a textbook. The pleasure of taking in the novel comes from its unpredictability: Sunja seems fated for poverty and hardship, but her decisions—along with the kindness and cruelty of those she meets—produce an engrossing saga that feels both epic and intimate.