The One-Way Rain

by Cathy Jacobowitz

It’s 2023. The government caused 9/11 in order to throw the country into a state of panic, then passed a series of apartheid-like laws to segregate people of color from whites. Now most black and brown people live in an occupied territory called SAPID (Special Assistance Perimeter Interim District) where the only available work is in unregulated factories, making products for rich white consumers.

Sterling Teacher is a white bureaucrat who hates the way things are—not the racial injustice, but the advertising. Moving, talking ads cover every surface of her city, and they drive her so crazy she leads a secret life as a saboteur, breaking into advertising agencies at night. Lore Henry is a black woman, the daughter of resistance leaders murdered by the authorities. Barely 22, she has already been imprisoned and tortured, and will stop at nothing in her fight for justice. Connecting the two of them is Reka, a twelve-year-old orphan who is living rough in SAPID when two advertising executives decide she will be the perfect face for their new campaign.

Genres: Fiction, Queer, Futuristic

190 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2013

About the author

Cathy Jacobowitz is a longtime novelist, a former bookseller and a bookkeeper. She is the recipient of a 2010 Mass Cultural Council Artist Fellowship and a finalist for the 2012 Bakeless Prize, and her stories have been published in the Santa Monica Review. She lives in Boston with her partner, a dog and three cats.

Reviews

[Thelonious Legend · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had a hard time getting into the book because I thought the premise was so incredulous. But the current events of Gaza, and the history of Apartheid and the Civil Rights Movement re-oriented me. What the people in SAPID deal with on a daily basis is not much different than the examples I just named. And for a dystopian read it hits rather close to home. So let's get into it...

What I liked... The book was at it's best when it spoke from Lore's perspective. Lore was the most fully developed character and it seemed the writer was most comfortable with her and wrote with confidence without reaching. The vernacular. Able to utilize current urban vernacular and colloquiums and seamlessly mesh it with the a future environment ie the tap-tap. The world building and the ubiquity of adds and advertising(just trust me on this).

What I didn't like... The confusing time line. At times I couldn't tell if the time line was linear or jumped around. When writing a book that is heavy in social commentary I think everything else should be made easy. Don't make your readers think too much about the time-line if you want them to focus on the big picture. The relationships and some of the sex scenes. I felt the sex scenes were just thrown as a bridge to the next scene akin to moving pawns while you figure out your strategy. I like hot steamy sex as much as anyone but like with anything else take your time and invest in it. Don't rush it or use as plot device.

Summary... Solid 4-star book that challenged me and at times made me uncomfortable. And again the writer’s vision of SAPID is eerily prescient given today's current events. Well done!

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

2013. Brilliant book. In an America-gone-wrong in 2023 there's exists an apartheid state. Right here in New England, people of color are living in an inland forced-work-camp area, making the products the rest of us consume. Back on the other side of the wall advertising, now called Pop Show, is everywhere, and Sterling is a secret saboteur, working sometimes for years, just to take down a few jumbo-tron like screens of advertising for a few hours. When Sterling (white female) meets Lore (black female) non-violent revolutionary from inside the apartheid area, sexual sparks fly as they argue about what to do to change their worlds. It's poignantly tragic how little they really can do in this world of horrifying limitations. Must read. Reminds me a little of The Handmaid's Tale except it's a racially split world rather than religious.

[Sarah Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I couldn’t put this book down! The author’s rich descriptions and deep characters hooked me from the get-go. I enjoyed seeing the world from several characters’ perspectives. “The One Way Rain” is eerily close to our own near-future, and holds many lessons within its pages. I struggled alongside characters in the book, who were coming to terms (or not) with privilege and racism, action and inaction. The story delved deep into these ideas without being forced or preachy. Great, quick read.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won a copy of The One-Way Rain in a LibraryThing.com member giveaway last year, but circumstances prevented me from engaging with it fully and finishing it until now. At long last, I can fulfill my promise to publish an honest review as recompense for the free read. As it turns out, author Cathy Jacobowitz's little-known dystopian novel commanded my high regard by the conclusion. This is a great novel that introduces the fine craftsmanship of a writer destined to attract a substantial fanbase if only more people read some of her work.

Like other readers who have posted reviews about this book, I would not call it a pageturner. Jacobowitz did not easily capture my imagination; I couldn't get into the story at the very beginning. I had to re-start the book a couple of times after reading the beginning and then setting it aside. It seems that some other folks found Jacobowitz's storytelling disorienting at times; however, I did not experience this difficulty myself. Once I got into the story, the narrative didn't lose me at any point thereafter.

Despite the so-so start to The One-Way Rain I urge fellow readers to pick this book up because I know I'd have been very sorry to have missed its several remarkable strengths overall. Specifically, Jacobowitz handles weighty themes like racism and corporate cultural control incredibly deftly. They are at the heart of the story, but the unfolding of that story -- and not these "Big Ideas" -- are always placed in the forefront of the narrative. The themes come across organically as the book progresses so that they inevitably are interwoven with the reader's engagement with this particular tale. This is first-class fiction and not a sociological treatise.

More elemental to the book's success are the great, super-relatable --indeed very likable, IMHO -- and most impressively, STRONG female heroes. I know that not every author one reads these days can produce such memorable, realistic human specimens wholesale from her imagination. If the plot sounds interesting to you now, dear reader, I think you'll be grateful after taking this journey with Jacobowitz. Check it out. Thanks for reading my thoughts; I hope they are at least somewhat helpful.

[Nivair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful, devastating, galvanizing.

In the great sci-fi tradition of Derrick Bell's "The Space Traders," this story doesn't flinch, prevaricate, or apologize as it drills into the horrifying truth of the ease with which humanity fades away under the relentless pounding of casual, indifferent hate. Crisp, vibrant prose creates a cityscape suffused with the caterwauling of corporate interests, where ignorance and shallowness hold the populace in thrall. It is a future that seems far too familiar and far too inevitable.

Against this chilly, depleted uniformity thrashes a thin handful of activists--accidental, forced, self-chosen, steadfast, unreliable--as fantastic or as disappointing as humans can possibly be. Reka, with the speed and depth only a curious child can manage, discovers the facts of her divided world too soon, and lives as a prisoner for too long. Sterling, born on the lucky side of the wall, senses the poison even as she denies it, writhing constantly to expel the hate she doesn't understand from her veins. Lore acts with the grace of a born leader; she is a survivor who lives in nonviolence, a woman who knows everything and yet does not perish under the weight of it, a gleeful paradox who unites others in amazement or condemnation. In fact she is no superwoman; she is only determined to be human, to be individual, to burn as a furious candle in the coldest void.

In the face of systemic violence, in apartheid, what people become is overwhelmingly determined by what they have been . . . unless they choose to dream, and dream differently, and then be awake.

[Sharlene · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this in a First Reads giveaway.

I have to be honest. I had a hard time getting into this book. I found I was getting lost throughout and it often took me longer to figure out what was going on than I care to admit, only because it bounced around too much for me. Hence, the lower rating. It was ok.

I did like the concept, as disturbing as it was. I did feel like I was reading a compilation of Armageddon, the Holocaust and Martin Luther King wrapped into one. A world wrapped up in material items and bigotry while another world right next door suffers abuse, starvation and death. Perhaps this was just too deep to read around the holidays. Perhaps it has to do with my need to protect my loved ones, who people are biased about, every day. Many who would have been on the wrong side of the wall in this story.

I do believe, that when I could follow the story without getting lost, it was very well written with vivid descriptions of a world gone wrong. I may have missed the climax somewhere in my page turning as I was so focused on what I didn't want to see. I found this novel dark, disturbing and depressing...I'm not sold that there ever was a light at the end of the tunnel.

[K. Ancrum · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book as a gift from the author. I read it immediately and had to pass it off to my friends because it was such a curiosity. It reminded me a lot of the handmaid's tale--where the dystopia is so deeply rooted into the culture that you can see almost no way of righting the wrong, at first glance.

The story is a bit jumbled feeling, and the beginning could be a bit stronger--but I do believe this is the most comprehensive and inoffensive racially conscious dystopian books that I have ever read. Like, I was literally sitting there completely in shock at how the author spun deftly around stereotype and leaped over so many areas where things could have gone sour. This book is literally the antithesis of that horrible book Revealing Eden (Save the pearls) by Victora Foyt.

I found myself literally grinning as I read and I feel weirdly proud of the author. Its clear she made significant effort..

[Christine Rains · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a segregated world, Sterling Teacher strives to make a difference in the cover of the night. Lore Henry stands up and offers nonviolent resistance. Both battle for justice in their own way, but the government and big business threaten to smother them and snuff out any voice that speaks out against them. Is it worth the struggle or even death?

This is a dystopian novel that takes place in 2023. A future not so far away and frighteningly not so unrealistic. I had trouble getting into it at first, but I'm glad I stuck with it. This tragic tale is deep and intense, and it stirs up a ton of emotions. Even in a place so bleak, there is hope. I admire the strength of the characters and the many layers of the plot.

[Susan Beamon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slim book was tangled, and not as clear as I would have liked. There are three people whose stories we follow in a jumbled fashion. They are tangled, with time treated as just another ingredient in the mix. Things happen to one character, then to another much later in the story, and when the event is the same for both, it gets a little strange.
I am glad I don't live in this imagined world. I don't care for the massive amount of intrusive advertising that currently exists on the world wide web. I would go crazy with those ads crawling on my walls too.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this on goodreads.

I read this in one day and could not put it down. Cathy Jacobowitz paints a dark picture of a United States with apartheid-like laws separate white consumers who are almost brainwashed by brands and blacks who work in factories with slave-like conditions or live in a no-mans-land with no rights at all. As bad as like is, there are still people brave enough to make a better life or to love.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book through goodreads first reads.

This was a gripping and extremely well-written novel of a future America gone wrong. A powerful, emotional read. I did struggle with the concept, perhaps the future could have been 50-100 years down the road instead of less than a decade. As I was reading I was thinking to myself, there's no way this could happen now (maybe it's the Canadian in me)....But all in all, a good story worth reading.

[Nancy Morecraft · Rating 4 out of 5]

I couldn't stay with it at first, but am glad I did. Powerful, disturbing and pray to God that is not our future. Thank you Cathy!