Review: Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Title: Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Author: Jamie Ford
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: January 27, 2009
Source: Library
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads

In the opening pages of Jamie Ford's stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.

This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry's world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While "scholarshipping" at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship - and innocent love - that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.

Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel's dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice - words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.

Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.

My Thoughts:

I love historical fiction and I really wish I took the time to read a lot more of it. I had the opportunity to read Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet because it was chosen as one of our book club reads! It’s a story that takes place in the eighties when the main character is getting older and it takes place, in flash backs, to WWII when the main character is a child navigating the world as a Chinese American with a Japanese American girlfriend.

Henry is about twelve years old in the early 1940’s and goes to a private school where he is picked on simply because he is Asian. There is a huge prejudice against the Japanese at this time because of Pearl Harbor and even though Henry is Chinese he is still lumped into the same group as the Japanese and bullied all the same. Henry soon meets Keiko, a Japanese American girl his age and they become fast friends. But soon the persecution of the Japanese becomes strong in Seattle and her family is forced in an internment camp. Even though they are determined to keep in touch and keep their friendship alive, it become inevitable that they can no longer keep their communications going.

I loved the characters in Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. They were so real and believable. Since this story is definitely character driven most of the time, great characters are essential. I also believe that a Chinese American boy and a Japanese American girl who are the only two Asians in their school would create a strong bond and stick together. I also love how this story explored what it means to be American and another nationality. Are you one more than the other and when is it time to become one more than the other. I found the dichotomy between Henry and his parents interesting and how they pushed him to be as American as he could be but wouldn't afford Keiko the same luxuries.  I could only imagine that WWII was a very difficult time to live through.

I loved Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet for the sheer fact that it shed light on a topic that Americans like to forget. Although it was a little slow in the beginning, I would definitely recommend it to history lovers.