Pachinko

A couple in Yeongdo, a Korean village have three children, but only Hoonie, the “eldest and weakest one, survived” (3). Hoonie has a cleft palate and twisted foot, so his parents do not hope for his marriage nor for any grandchildren. However, he has a strong build and a mild but hardworking temperament. He is a great help to his parents.

In 1910, when Korea is annexed by Japan due to “the country’s incompetent aristocrats and corrupt rulers,” the parents realize they need more money, so they rent out their own bedroom to lodgers and instead sleep by the kitchen (3). In 1911, the village matchmaker visits their home to help arrange a marriage between Hoonie and Yangjin, a 15-year-old who was “the easiest to unload because she was too young to complain, and she’d had the least to eat” (7). Hoonie’s mother is silent for most of the conversation with the matchmaker, but she is very pleased and surprised at this chance for her son to marry and have children.

Hoonie and Yangjin marry, and while Yangjin becomes pregnant three times, she loses all three of children when they are infants. After Hoonie’s father and mother die, Yangjin gives birth to

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