Fifty Words for Rain

July 13, 2020
Lemmie’s epic, twisty debut chronicles the life of Nori Kamiza, a half-Black girl born illegitimately into a noble Japanese family in 1940. After Nori’s mother abandons her at eight at her grandparents’ Kyoto estate, Nori endures two years hidden away in the attic, where she is beaten by her grandmother, Yuko, who values the family’s honor above all else. When Nori’s older half-brother, Akira, moves into the house, he takes her under his wing and grants her more freedom. Yuko resents Akira’s love for Nori and sends her, at 11, to live in a brothel and play the violin for customers. Two years later, Akira manages to get Nori back. In Kyoto, the siblings take in British cousins Alice and William, the former in Japan to avoid scandal. Years later, when tragedy strikes Nori again, she finds a home with Alice and her family in England. But just as she acclimates, Nori’s called back to Kyoto, where she learns some hard truths. Lemmie makes a few bewildering narrative choices (Nori is ice cold to a suitor who continues to adore her, and though she has the money to do so, doesn’t rescue a friend in the brothel), but she keeps the reader guessing and ends with a staggering gut punch. Sometimes bleak, sometimes hopeful, Lemmie’s heartbreaking story of familial obligations packs an emotional wallop.

January 1, 2021

While Lemmie's debut--about the tribulations of an illegitimate, mixed-race granddaughter of a cousin to the royal Japanese family--might not be perfect, she certainly deserves better than this lazy aural travesty. Floundering, misrepresentative audiobook adaptations have been rerecorded and rereleased--White Chrysanthemum, for example; perhaps Lemmie's Rain might be provided such respect. Robin Eller, who narrates the bulk of the relentless 13-plus hours, reveals her unfamiliarity with Japanese in the opening sentence, turning Kyoto into a three-syllable Ki-yo-to mispronunciation. She often mangles "Onii-chan"--honorable dear older brother--into dear monster, 'oni-chan'; misreads Miyuki as My-yoo-ki (just one of multiple garbled names), an error made more glaring when another narrator assumes control with the correct pronunciation as one section shifts into another; fails to convince with supposed-to-be-British English (turning the local meat pasty into nipple coverings is especially egregious). Eller is joined by five additional readers who over comparatively minimal airtime offer antidotes to her disappointments. Katharine Lee McEwan is genuinely British as noblewoman-to-be Alice; Jeena Yi can pronounce her charge's name with accuracy. Beyond Eller's inadequate performance, the director and executive producer surely bear greater responsibility for releasing such a negligent recording. VERDICT Without an improved replacement, readers unquestionably should stick to the page.--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

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