Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

This book was also fine, but not great. It follows four generations of Koreans living in Japan over the course of the twentieth century. One of the best things about it was learning about the relationship between Korea and Japan during this time, and the particular plight of living as a person of Korean descent in Japan. 

The first third of the book that follows Sunja - one of the focal characters in the family - was really good; the pacing was right, the storyline was intriguing and I felt connected to the characters. But for some reason the novel then speeds up exponentially, offering slices of life here and there in a way that did not allow me to connect with the characters or the plot. Not to mention that some of the storylines were very unresolved by the end, and some of the most important characters' ends were barely touched on. I didn't mind the slightly detached style of it as that is not something that typically bothers me too much, but it did seem to exacerbate the pacing issue. Ultimately it just fell a little flat for me, and I had to push through the second half to finish it.