Fifty Words for Rain: A Novel

by Asha Lemmie

Hardcover, 2020

Status

Available

Publication

Dutton (2020), 464 pages

Description

Fiction. Literature. Historical Fiction. HTML:A Good Morning America Book Club Pick and New York Times Bestseller!   From debut author Asha Lemmie, ??a lovely, heartrending story about love and loss, prejudice and pain, and the sometimes dangerous, always durable ties that link a family together.? ??Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times??bestselling author of The Nightingale Kyoto, Japan, 1948. ??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 skin. The child of a married Japanese aristocrat and her African American GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Her grandparents take her in, 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, despite her natural intellect and curiosity. But when chance brings her older half-brother, Akira, to the estate that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in him an unlikely ally with whom she forms a 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 str… (more)

Rating

½ (101 ratings; 3.8)

User reviews

LibraryThing member Hccpsk
Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie is the type of book a lot of readers will enjoy--historical fiction with a moving plot, an interesting main character, some romance, some heartbreak, and more than passable writing. In post-WWII Japan, Noriko finds herself at the gates of her grandparent’s
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house, and her mother driving away forever. We watch from afar as her life takes many turns as she struggles to survive as an unwanted child in a traditional Japanese family. Lemmie’s debut novel falters at times with too much stilted dialogue, underdeveloped side characters, and the plot starts to fall apart towards the end, but she manages to evoke some real emotion that resonates. Readers who enjoy The Nightengale, Under a Scarlet Sky, and other historical fiction should definitely give this new writer a try.
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LibraryThing member eyes.2c
Astounding!

The last words a mother says to her young daughter before abandoning her were,
"“Promise me. Promise me that you will obey in all things. Do not question. Do not fight. Do not resist. Do not think if thinking will lead you somewhere you ought not to be. Only smile and do as you are
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told. Only your life is more important than your obedience. Only the air you breathe. Promise me this.”"
Kyoto 1948 and a young girl of mixed race is left on the doorstep of her grandparent's estate. We trace her story from when she's confined to the estate's attic, subjected to chemical sponge downs to alter the color of her skin and constantly reminded of how worthless she is. Eight-year-old Noriko “Nori” Kamiza wasn't quite left on the hillside with wolves but it is a near thing metaphorically speaking.
I was completely struck down by the underlying poignancy of Noriko's physical treatment along with the emotional abuse she was subjected to. Attitudes and expectations in post war Japan in the upper echelons of the aristocracy, a strictly tiered society, are portrayed at a time when saving face is everything.
This is a tragedy with immense moments of change but tragedy is a constant right to the end. In my mind the story sits within the milieu of a Shakespearean tragedy maybe with a dash of Flowers in the Attic. Fifty Words had me glued even as there were moments when I became completely unstuck.
Music plays a part and like a musical composition the story's crescendo rises to a glorious triumphant moment and then crashes onto shores of a harsh yet nuanced reality. I was left wondering whether Nori will perpetuate tragedies or be able to rise beyond them. More questions than resolutions. Did I want that? Possibly I wanted a fairytale ending. But this is no fairytale, it's a tragedy. Nori balances between strength and weakness, between choosing and not. As she says, "I have always deserved to die. But I refused."
I wondered about Japanese forms of Tragedy. It seems that Japanese literary traditions do not align with Western traditions of Tragedies.
However, one scholar, C. Andrew Gerstle in "The Concept of Tragedy in Japanese Drama" Japan Review No. 1 (1990), pp. 49-72) refers to particular areas of drama such as "the 'Women' plays of Noh and the third-act pieces of Bunraku—[that] focus on heroes who though caught in a difficult situation consciously choose their paths, which lead often to the extreme edges of human suffering."
Nori experiences that "extreme edge" and although she doesn't consciously choose her path, her life experience has trapped her well and truly as much as she tries to escape. A place she constantly treads and from which escape seems impossible. This forms the backbone of this startling and moving novel.

A Penguin Dutton ARC via NetGalley
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)
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LibraryThing member shazjhb
Nice read. Not sure it needed to be set in Japan.
LibraryThing member JanaRose1
Eight year old Nori is abandoned by her mother and placed with her grandparents. A child of mixed heritage, Nori is hidden in the attic and constantly belittled as a bastard. When her half brother Akira, moves to their grandparents, Nori is instantly fascinated and drawn to him. As soon as Akira is
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sent off to school, her grandparents sell her to a brothel.

I have mixed feelings about this book. The book switched between Nori's point of view, and the point of view of individuals surrounding Nori. The points of view of characters around Nori, did not seem to match how Nori was portrayed in her sections. The book didn't quite feel realistic and the characters were pretty stereotypical. I also found the ending to be disappointing. Overall, this book was a bust.
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LibraryThing member Sara_Cat
So, first, to start with some of the stylistic type things. I thought the chose to have more than one perspective for telling the story was interesting. It felt like the author mainly switched from the initial perspective when it would give better insight into Nori - the main character. There were
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a lot of non-English words sprinkled throughout the book. However, because I studied Japanese in university, I understood 90% of them without having to look them up. So, I can't comment directly on how it would feel/read for people who don't know the language. Sometimes she would have the Japanese word and then follow it immediately by the English word. Sometimes it felt like people could pick up from context what it meant. But there were other times I'm not so sure the meaning was clear. Mostly though, I felt like at least half of the Japanese words she used didn't add anything by having them instead of the English word.

Next: characters. Most of the characters were rather complex. With a few exceptions, even characters that I wanted to like or hate, she gave reasons to be frustrated with them or feel empathy towards them. And the characters she just left as characters you want to hate, I felt readers will be able to understand the motivations behind them, either because she explains/reveals it or they are a type of person that actually exists and therefore you can imagine their reasons for why they do what they do. And for these characters in particular, it's understanding like: oh, now that I know you're racist it makes sense why you did that thing. You are still 100% again them, but you know what thinking is behind their actions.

As far as the story itself goes, it felt like the main point/reason/etc. for the book is to show how resilient and strong Nori is. And, it was nice to see this shown again and again throughout the book. And there was something that I was very upset about that happens in the book that felt like it was constructed just for that point... but, it turns out there was an actual reason for that to have happened. I really felt for Nori and in particular also grew to love Akira who is Nori's brother.

The ending of the book... when I initially finished reading the book I keep going back and forth as to whether I feel like it fit. But after getting to listen to a Q&A with the author, I do find myself better able to accept the ending, even if I still was not a huge fan of the choice made.

This is a heavy book, for sure. So, lastly, content warnings: rape, abuse of children, selling children's bodies, murder, attempted suicide and, I'm not sure how much this would fit content warning versus being aware of topics that do come up in the book: acceptance/rejection, some characters with very strong traditional views on a woman's role and beautify standards.

Definitely check in with yourself about what you are currently able to handle before picking up this book. But if you are in a place to deal with the heaviness of this book, I would recommend it.
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LibraryThing member niquetteb
This story of an outcast Japanese/Black woman is heartening and engaging. I'm not sold on the title and the peaks are a bit over the top at times, but I wanted to keep reading to find out what was next around the corner. There were a number of unexpected scenes that surprised me and have stayed
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with me over time. I would definitely recommend checking out this novel as many will find something to identify with or engage others in conversation about.
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LibraryThing member bereanna
Japanese bastard girl is kept in an attic by her powerful grandmother because of her mother’s alliance with an American. She is then sent to a brothel. Other horrible things happen during the course of the book. I didn’t quite understand the ending.
LibraryThing member flourgirl49
The main character of this novel, Noriko, grows up in a very traditional Japanese aristocratic family - but she's a biracial bastard, and thus her life is far from rosy. I don't feel qualified to criticize much of what happened in this story since the Japanese way of life is unknown to me, but
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there are certain things that I just didn't like - Nori's almost incestuous attachment to her brother (to me) and the way that the ending was handled, which I thought was horrible. Still, it was kind of a fascinating glimpse into a culture that seems quite mysterious and frightening at times.
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LibraryThing member creighley
Kyoto, Japan,1948. “Donor question. Do not fight. Do not resist.” Such is eight-year-old Nori Kamiza’s first lesson. She will not question why her mother abandoned her with only these words. She will not fight her confinement to the attic of her grandparents’ imperial estate. And she will
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not resist the scalding chemical baths she receives daily to lighten her skin.
The child of a married Japanese aristocrat and her AfricanAmerican GI lover, Nori is an outsider from birth. Her grandparents take her in, only to conceal her, fearful of the stain on the royal pedigree that they are desperate to upholdin a changing Japan. Obedient to a fault, Noriaccepts her solitary life, despite her natural intellect and curiosity. But when chance brings her older half-brother, Amira, to the estate, that is his inheritance and destiny, Nori finds in him an unlikely ally with whom she forms a powerful bond.
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LibraryThing member whitreidtan
I've never been much of a tv watcher but even I have seen an episode or two of soap operas over the years. They aren't really my thing but I think what keeps people tuning in every day is the pace of the story, the complications, the constant drama, secrets and their shocking reveals, love, and of
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course, their outlandishness, all of which serve to take the viewer away from their quotidian life. Asha Lemmie's debut novel, Fifty Words for Rain, is the book version of a soap opera and it has garnered its share of supporters and detractors, just as the tv shows do. I have to admit though, that if I have no interest in tv soap operas, I am only marginally more interested in book soap operas.

Opening in 1948, eight year old Noriko, the illegitimate, mixed race daughter of a Japanese aristocratic mother and a black American GI, is left at the gate of her aristocratic grandparents' home by her mother. Jumping then to two years later, Nori is living in her grandparents' attic, her mother's shame made visible kept hidden and out of sight of everyone outside the family. She is given harsh chemical baths to try and lighten her skin and she has come to understand that her curly hair and complexion are terrible, something no Japanese person would ever value. She is treated badly by her grandmother when she deigns to see Nori and neglected when she doesn't. When her older half brother, Akira, who is her mother's legitimate son and the heir to her wealthy grandparents, comes to live in the house after the death of his father, Nori, for the first time, finds an ally. She is obsessed with her brother and he convinces their grandmother to grant Nori privileges that she has never before been allowed. But this sibling bond can't be allowed to stand and Nori is sold off to a brothel the family owns while her brother is away at school. This is not the last terrible thing that happens to Nori as she goes from trauma to trauma, often at the hands of her bigoted, evil family.

From the opening pages, Nori is an obedient child who faces every bad thing possible: abandonment, abuse--physical, emotional and sexual, isolation, racism, loss and more. Eventually the reader has to wonder just how many terrible things and tragedies must be thrown at Nori to show her resilience as a character. And given all of the soul destroying events in her life at the hands of her grandmother, it makes the end of the novel completely out of character and ridiculously unbelievable. But even from the beginning the novel is unbelievable. It starts with something that calls into question the accuracy of its entire portrayal of post-war Japan. Nori is supposed to be 8 in 1948. That would put her American GI father in Japan in either 1939 or 1940 in order for her to exist. Even a quick internet search suggests that this would have been well night impossible. But Nori needs to be half black and half Japanese in order for the story to work. Pure invented melodrama, especially when added to the litany of traumas she faces throughout her life. The novel does crack on at a decent clip making a close to 500 page book a quick read, so for those interested in a soap-like survival story or trauma porn, this might be the right book. Certainly a lot of other authors and readers have loved it in ways that I didn't.
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LibraryThing member jmchshannon
I loved this fascinating look at post-war Japan until the end, which made me want to forget the entire thing because it frustrated me.

Awards

BCALA Literary Awards (Winner — 2021)

Language

Original language

English

Physical description

9.27 inches

ISBN

1524746363 / 9781524746360
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