Nori is eight-years-old when her mother leaves her with her aristocratic grandparents on their estate. She tries to be a good girl and act as her mother instructed her. In spite of the abuse including chemical baths to try to change the color of her skin, she is an obedient child.
Being the daughter of a married aristocrat and her black GI lover, Nori is an embarrassment to her grandparents. She is forced to live alone in the attic and has no tenderness until her half-brother, Akira, arrives at the estate. He is the heir and surprisingly, he and Nori become friends and very important to each other.
This is a novel with some very good parts and some that distracted from the overall book. The story line follows the problems of Nori being not only a mixed race child, but also illegitimate. The early parts of the book where Nori is constantly subjected to abuse were harg to read. In fact, I thought the abuse was rather overdone.
The story lightens when Akira arrives. He befriends Nori, gets her out of the attic and gives her a view of the outside world. It was a delightful picture of friendship. The difference between how the children get along and love each other is in direct contrast to the unyielding disapproval of the grandparents. They feel their whole way of life has been betrayed by having a child like Nori and their desire is to erase the stigma.
While I enjoyed parts of the book, I found the writing a bit simple. The characters could have been more well developed. The dialog often felt stilted. I thought the author was trying for a romantic look at the manners of a slice of civilization much the same way Jane Austen did for the Victorians, however, it wasn’t as effective.
I received this book from Penguin Random House for this review.
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