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A review by book_concierge
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
3.0
3.5***
Henry Lee, a 12-year-old Chinese American, has only one friend at Rainier elementary school in 1942 Seattle. She is his fellow cafeteria worker/scholarship student – Keiko Okabe – a second-generation Japanese American. The events of World War II will greatly affect these two young people, on the cusp between childhood friendship and teenage love. Fast forward to 1986 Seattle, where Henry has recently lost his wife, Ethel, to cancer. When the Panama Hotel’s new owner begins renovations to restore it to its pre-war splendor, workers come across a cache of personal belongings stored in the hotel’s basement since WW2, when the neighborhood Japanese families were sent to internment camps. Henry happens to recognize a particular item and thus begins his quest.
If this plot sounds like a maudlin romance, I have not done it justice. The book is something more than that. Ford also explores the cultural mores of the ethnic groups, the Americans who were too quick to cast blame on any Asian for the attack at Pearl Harbor (and those with cooler heads and compassionate hearts), and the multi-generational patterns of communication (or lack thereof) in families.
I was caught up in the story, which alternates between the present (1986) and the war years. However, Ford’s writing is somewhat simplistic and repetitive. How many times must he tell us that Henry and his father couldn’t communicate? Or that Henry and his son seem to have repeated this pattern? How often does he have to repeat how much Henry missed Keiko? I found the ending somewhat pat and dissatisfying. Still, I can see why it has been enjoyed – even loved – by so many. It is a good – but not great – novel.
Henry Lee, a 12-year-old Chinese American, has only one friend at Rainier elementary school in 1942 Seattle. She is his fellow cafeteria worker/scholarship student – Keiko Okabe – a second-generation Japanese American. The events of World War II will greatly affect these two young people, on the cusp between childhood friendship and teenage love. Fast forward to 1986 Seattle, where Henry has recently lost his wife, Ethel, to cancer. When the Panama Hotel’s new owner begins renovations to restore it to its pre-war splendor, workers come across a cache of personal belongings stored in the hotel’s basement since WW2, when the neighborhood Japanese families were sent to internment camps. Henry happens to recognize a particular item and thus begins his quest.
If this plot sounds like a maudlin romance, I have not done it justice. The book is something more than that. Ford also explores the cultural mores of the ethnic groups, the Americans who were too quick to cast blame on any Asian for the attack at Pearl Harbor (and those with cooler heads and compassionate hearts), and the multi-generational patterns of communication (or lack thereof) in families.
I was caught up in the story, which alternates between the present (1986) and the war years. However, Ford’s writing is somewhat simplistic and repetitive. How many times must he tell us that Henry and his father couldn’t communicate? Or that Henry and his son seem to have repeated this pattern? How often does he have to repeat how much Henry missed Keiko? I found the ending somewhat pat and dissatisfying. Still, I can see why it has been enjoyed – even loved – by so many. It is a good – but not great – novel.