Pachinko

7 March 2022: "There was consolation. The people you love, they were always there with you, she had learned. Sometimes, she could be in front of a train kiosk or the window of a bookstore, and she could feel Noa's small hand when he was a boy, and she would close her eyes and think of his sweet, grassy smell and remember that he had always tried his best. At those moments, it was good to be alone to hold on to him." --Min Jin Lee, Pachinko

Last night, I finished this book, which has been my bathtub reading for the past month or so. I wept a bit as I read the words above and moved through the closing pages. The way those few phrases about Noa sum him up perfectly for a reader, the way Sunja endures, the way Lee sticks the landing. Amazing. It's been on my mind on and off all day.