115 pages • 3 hours read
Min Jin LeePachinko
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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Chapter Summaries & Analyses
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Book 3, Chapters 1-5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 3: “Pachinko 1962-1989”
Book 3, Chapter 1 Summary: “Nagano, April 1962”
Noa ends up in the city of Nagano simply because he remembers a teacher’s fond memories of Nagano from her childhood. He goes to a restaurant, where a talkative waiter suggests he get a job at the pachinko parlor. The waiter tells Noa that the parlor will not hire any Koreans or Chinese, “but that will not matter to you since [Noa is] Japanese” (328).
Noa goes to the pachinko parlor to apply for a job. He assures the boss that he is Japanese and gets the job.
Book 3, Chapter 2 Summary: “Osaka, April 1965”
Yumi is pregnant again, after having had two miscarriages in the past three years. The doctor tells her she has high blood pressure, which causes her to “fight pregnancy” (333). He puts her on bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy, which is hard for her because she wants to be able to work. The doctor insists that she follows his orders. Sunja arrives to help with the pregnancy. Yumi tells her about her childhood, the details of which sadden Sunja, who says, “My child, you have suffered too much” (339).
Yumi gives birth to a baby boy, Solomon, who is born “strong and well” (339).
Book 3, Chapter 3 Summary: “Yokohama, November 1968”
Yumi and 3-year-old Solomon are hit by a taxi; Yumi is killed while Solomon survives. At the funeral, hundreds of guests come: “Mozasu did his best to greet them, but he could hardly speak […] She was his lover, but more than anything, she was his wise friend” (341). At the end of the funeral, Hansu approaches Mozasu to offer his condolences.
Sunja lives with Mozasu and Solomon in order to help care for Solomon. Hansu approaches her, and Sunja is shocked to see him, as she has been trying to reach him for the past six years. Hansu says that he did not reach out to her because he had no news to give her. Sunja says, “It’s my fault that I let you know [Noa]. You’re a selfish person who’d take whatever you want, no matter the consequences. I wish I’d never met you” (348). He responds by telling her that he’s dying.
Book 3, Chapter 4 Summary
Hansu drives Sunja and Solomon home. Solomon chats about his comic books and innocently asks Hansu to join them for dinner. Despite Sunja shaking her head, Hansu agrees.
As Sunja prepares dinner, she does not speak to Hansu. She is embarrassed to realize that she feels “plain and wrinkled” in contrast to the still elegant Hansu: “A long time ago, she had wanted Hansu more than her own life. Even when she broke with him, she had wanted him to return, to find her to keep her” (352).
Solomon is delighted when Haruki joins them for dinner. Hansu knows much about Haruki already since “Hansu kept a file on every person in Sunja’s life” (354). Hansu knows that Haruki is gay and engaged to an older woman. Hansu offers to help Haruki if he decides he needs a job transfer from Osaka to Yokohama.
Book 3, Chapter 5 Summary: “Nagano, January 1969”
For seven years, Noa has been living as Nobua Ban and been passing as Japanese. He is now the head of the business offices of Cosmos Pachinko, but he still lives in the employee dorms and eats in the staff cafeteria in order to save money. He has paid Hansu back for his tuition and still sends his mother money.
He begins to date Risa Iwamura, one of the filing clerks at Cosmos, and they soon marry. They have three daughters and one son: “Though he valued his wife and children as a kind of second chance, in no way did he see his current life as a rebirth. Noa carried the story of his life as a Korean like a dark, heavy rock within him” (358).
The family goes on a picnic to Matsumoto Castle. Noa’s son, Koichi, enjoys talking to everyone. He moves to the front of a crowd to hear a docent talking about the curse on the castle.
Book 3, Chapters 1-5 Analysis
There are many abrupt shifts in these chapters. Mozasu is devastated when his wife, Yumi, who finally gives birth to a healthy boy after two miscarriages, is killed when she is hit by a car. She, like Noa, had sought to escape the misery of her past. Noa leaves his family to begin a new life, passing as Japanese. Ironically, he ends up in the same business as Mozasu, working in a pachinko parlor, a business he has always looked down on. Nonetheless, he works hard and becomes successful, even while bearing the heavy burden of his hidden identity, as Koreans are not allowed to work at Cosmos Pachinko.
When he marries, he continues to bury his secret, even though his wife, Risa, has had to live with shame in her own life. Her father was a doctor who incorrectly prescribed medications that killed two of his patients. He committed suicide, “rendering his family both destitute and tainted” (357). Risa’s mother suspects there is something shameful in Noa’s past, but since Noa reminds her of her dead husband, she overlooks his background.
When the docent discusses the curse on the castle that lasted almost 200 years, Koichi is fascinated and wants to put a curse on his sister, saying that he can always reverse the curse if he chooses. When Noa suggests that it’s not so easy to reverse a curse, it suggests how his own family has been cursed by Sunja’s union with Hansu, which left him with “tainted” blood (383). He tries to reverse the curse by passing as Japanese, but the burden of such a secret is great, as it’s not easy to forget the past.
