From debut author Asha Lemmie, a sweeping, heartrending coming-of-age novel about a young woman's quest for acceptance in post–World War II Japan.
Kyoto, Japan, 1948. "If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent. . . . Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist." Such is eight-year-old Noriko "Nori" Kamiza's first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic of her grandparents' imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her shameful skin.
The illegitimate child of a Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Though her grandparents take her in, they do so only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in …
From debut author Asha Lemmie, a sweeping, heartrending coming-of-age novel about a young woman's quest for acceptance in post–World War II Japan.
Kyoto, Japan, 1948. "If a woman knows nothing else, she should know how to be silent. . . . Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist." Such is eight-year-old Noriko "Nori" Kamiza's first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these final words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic of her grandparents' imperial estate. And she will not resist the scalding chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her shameful skin.
The illegitimate child of a Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Though her grandparents take her in, they do so only to conceal her, fearful of a stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to uphold in a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Nori accepts her solitary life for what it is, despite her natural intellect and nagging curiosity about what lies outside the attic's walls. But when chance brings her legitimate older half-brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in him the first person who will allow her to question, and the siblings form an unlikely but powerful bond—a bond their formidable grandparents cannot allow and that will irrevocably change the lives they were always meant to lead. Because now that Nori has glimpsed a world in which perhaps there is a place for her after all, she is ready to fight to be a part of it—a battle that just might cost her everything.
Spanning decades and continents, Fifty Words for Rain is a dazzling epic about the ties that bind, the ties that give you strength, and what it means to try to break free.
I really wanted to like this book, the premise seemed so compelling. What would it have been like for the illegitimate child of Japanese aristocracy and a U.S. GI in Japan during the period after WW II?
As I started reading it, the set up was good: issues of looking for a male heir, concern about the fall of the aristocracy, issues around gifted children. Yet as I read more, it began to feel like predictable cliches written from an Anglo-American literature perspective.
In the end, it felt like just another romance novel in an exotic setting that failed to live up to its potential and explore any nuances of the complicated intercultural dynamics.
First: there was a lot of promise. I wanted a deep exploration of Japan during and after WWII, and I wanted a deep exploration of the main character's mixed race identity, especially with her father being Black. I wanted a deep exploration of how two beat up kids grew up together and strengthened each other. I wanted to see the main character grow, embrace her identity, connect with and hopefully celebrate her Blackness, realize she has potential and empower herself. I love stories about families, stories of identity, and the setting was fascinating! And I wanted to hype up this Black female author on her first book.
It's a really great premise!
But the execution sucked. - another reviewer called it "tragedy porn" and that's exactly what it is - despite how it's everything terrible all the time, the writing reads extremely …
I didn't like this at all. Mild spoilers.
First: there was a lot of promise. I wanted a deep exploration of Japan during and after WWII, and I wanted a deep exploration of the main character's mixed race identity, especially with her father being Black. I wanted a deep exploration of how two beat up kids grew up together and strengthened each other. I wanted to see the main character grow, embrace her identity, connect with and hopefully celebrate her Blackness, realize she has potential and empower herself. I love stories about families, stories of identity, and the setting was fascinating! And I wanted to hype up this Black female author on her first book.
It's a really great premise!
But the execution sucked. - another reviewer called it "tragedy porn" and that's exactly what it is - despite how it's everything terrible all the time, the writing reads extremely melodramatic. The MC is often literally falling to her knees bc of bad news (for example, when her brother wanted to go on a trip, see more on that below), biting her lip till it bleeds, or vomiting in distress. But she doesn't really "deal" with her trauma, she lives her whole life as a victim and martyr - I picked this up because it sounded like a story of a pair of siblings meeting later and growing up together, but it ended up with Nori having a deep romantic obsession with her half brother where he was often condescending, controlling, and cruel to her, almost abusive - poor capture of Japanese culture. I'm not an expert, but siblings, other family, or friends don't really hug, and it'd be absolutely bizarre for a brother and sister to be grabbing onto each other and kissing on the cheeks, etc (pretty weird here in the states too). Very unusual to have a crucifix or Christian god, which is not a common religion, especially for an extremely traditional family that seems to hate Westeners (I think they call her father a dirty American). Not impossible, but it could have been acknowledged and explained. Similarly with some of the descriptions of the home and furniture, just sounded out of place for a very traditional family obsessed with continuing on their name. Yukata aren't made of silk. - glossed over a lot of weird things like Nori becoming fluent in English in just a few weeks, despite no formal education - Japanese language was pretty good but sometimes awkward - boring characters. They all sound the same as the author when narrating. I don't like perspective shifts, I think it's overdone. Not a lot of growth, just sudden decisions. Really key decisions like Nori trying to find her Mom after 20 years are not explained and there's no build up - uninteresting writing with lots of non- sentences for emphasis. Such as this. And this. - lots of classist undertones; no matter how abusive or dysfunctional their family is they never consider leaving or starting a new life without them. (They say "her spies are everywhere!") They instead continue to fight with their extremely abusive grandparents in order to make sure they maintain their status and wealth. (Enough money to "buy several islands", but those girls in the brothel will just have to figure out some other way to make ends meet once it's shut down). Lots of "oh let the servents handle that!" - the ending was indeed stupid, as others mentioned - again as others mentioned we only got a few words for rain. The title I think is supposed to allude to 50 ways for MC's life to get fucked
I really don't like historical fiction. I like history. I like fiction. But this genre always ends up depressing with poor writing imo.
Asha Lemmie gives us a breathtaking illustration of sibling love crossing racial divides. We follow Nori, a Black/Japanese "bastard" child tucked away in the attic of her aristocratic grandmother's house. We watch her break free from the expectations of the world around her upon meeting her "legitimate" half-brother, Akira. This novel carries a lot of emotional weight - family ties are continuously broken and ultimately rebound. The novelty in perspective of this fiction had me turning pages quickly, but I couldn't help but feel emotionally defeated by Nori's unrelenting perils and painful choices. (3.5/5)
First, thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book is very reminiscent of other books I've read in the past, Flowers in the Attic comes to mind, as does White Oleander and Memoirs of a Geisha (with a dash of the movie Mommy Dearest, but not with wire hangers). I very much enjoyed the majority of the book, which follows Nori's journey from child with a strict upbringing to woman with emotional baggage to spare. I feel like the last 30% of the book or so took everything I loved about the first 70% and dialed it up to 11, making it slightly unbearable in the process. The ending especially felt like a miss to what I was expecting, because Nori basically turns into the very person she hated from the beginning.
All that said, the book was …
First, thank you to NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book is very reminiscent of other books I've read in the past, Flowers in the Attic comes to mind, as does White Oleander and Memoirs of a Geisha (with a dash of the movie Mommy Dearest, but not with wire hangers). I very much enjoyed the majority of the book, which follows Nori's journey from child with a strict upbringing to woman with emotional baggage to spare. I feel like the last 30% of the book or so took everything I loved about the first 70% and dialed it up to 11, making it slightly unbearable in the process. The ending especially felt like a miss to what I was expecting, because Nori basically turns into the very person she hated from the beginning.
All that said, the book was still mostly enjoyable for me, and I highly recommend it to anyone who really likes dramatic fiction. I especially liked the author's writing style, and came away from the book with many quotes noted down in my notebook.
