Fifty Words for Rain

Good story of the struggle of love and hate between family and friends. I was a little disappointed how the story ended but it did leave room for a sequel.

I liked the book- though found the end very disappointing.. very contrary to the story. Was as if the beginning was by one author & the end another... unless there is a sequel planned!!

Received the book in good time, we did it in book club not one I would personally recommend

I’m floored by the overwhelming praise for this book. I wanted to like it, but I found the writing childlike and the abuse-at-every-turn exhausting. Most of the characterization is paper-thin and many of the people in the book seem like stereotypes. At the end of the story, Nori’s life-changing decisions seem rushed. There’s nothing to add to the reader’s understanding of why she does what she does. I finished the book but I was very disappointed. In the end, it was formulaic and not a story I will remember or think about.

"Fifty Words for Rain" follows the story of a young half African American, Half Japanese girl as she grows up in post-WWII Japan. The book had a nice rhythm and fans of Jane Austen or Charlotte Bronte will really enjoy the plotline and overall storytelling. The downsides to the book are that the dialogue seems fake at times, and I personally grapple with the portrayal of the Japanese culture. I really loved "Pachinko", and this book is very similar. Both books are sweeping and look at anomalies in Japanese society. Both books portray post-war Japan as a place of extreme juxtaposition between old and new. The old being an inflexible honored-based reasoning system, the new being the progressive worldly types looking for an egalitarian balance. In the place of Korean transplants as in "Pachinko", we have Nori a half black "bastard" child in a wealthy family. Similarities end there. The writing in this book is much more simple, and the story really seems to follow the typical arcs of outcasts-in-nobility (see rightful heirs, marriage-ability, lots of leisurely time in gardens, big estates, etc). The conversations seem to play out awkwardly or overly romantic (again, in the Jane Austen sense of like can't-touch-this-Victorian-romance). There are elements also of the "Wide Sargasso Sea" in how Nori's overall ostracisation leads to mental instability.The other piece I can't quite wrap my head around is the amount of physical abuse and harm that comes to Nori. Just about every third chapter she is being beaten or scalded or stabbed (or stabbing herself).  We get that the family hates her because she is a bastard, and also demeans her because of her skin color and hair, but I do not understand if the amount of bodily injury is a justified reflection on Japanese culture or a just storytelling device by the author...