From the Publisher
"Sentimental, heartfelt….the exploration of Henry's changing
relationship with his family and with Keiko will keep most readers
turning pages...A timely debut that not only reminds readers of a
shameful episode in American history, but cautions us to examine
the present and take heed we don't repeat those
injustices."-- Kirkus Reviews
"A tender and satisfying novel set in a time and a place
lost forever, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and
Sweet gives us a glimpse of the damage that is caused by
war--not the sweeping damage of the battlefield, but the cold,
cruel damage to the hearts and humanity of individual people.
Especially relevant in today''s world, this is a beautifully
written book that will make you think. And, more importantly, it
will make you feel."
-- Garth Stein, New York Times
bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain
"Jamie Ford''s first novel explores the age-old conflicts between
father and son, the beauty and sadness of what happened to Japanese
Americans in the Seattle area during World War II, and the depths
and longing of deep-heart love. An impressive, bitter, and sweet
debut."
-- Lisa See, bestselling author of
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
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.
From the Hardcover edition.
From the Jacket
"Mesmerizing and evocative, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and
Sweet is a tale of conflicted loyalties, devotion, as well as
a vibrant portrait of Seattle's Nihonmachi district in its
heyday."
-- Sara Gruen, New York Times bestselling author
of Water for Elephants
"A tender and satisfying novel set in a time and a place
lost forever, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
gives us a glimpse of the damage that is caused by war--not the
sweeping damage of the battlefield, but the cold, cruel damage to
the hearts and humanity of individual people. Especially relevant
in today's world, this is a beautifully written book that will make
you think. And, more importantly, it will make you feel."
--Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling
author of The Art of Racing in the Rain
"Jamie Ford's first novel explores the age-old conflicts between
father and son, the beauty and sadness of what happened to Japanese
Americans in the Seattle area during World War II, and the depths
and longing of deep-heart love. An impressive, bitter, and sweet
debut."
-Lisa See, bestselling author of Snow Flower
and the Secret Fan
"Sentimental, heartfelt novel portrays two children separated
during the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. In
1940s Seattle, ethnicities do not mix. Whites, blacks, Chinese and
Japanese live in separate neighborhoods, and their children attend
different schools. When Henry Lee's staunchly nationalistic father
pins an "I am Chinese" button to his 12-year-old son's shirt and
enrolls him in an all-white prep school, Henry finds himself
friendless and at the mercy of schoolyard bullies. His salvation
arrives in the form of Keiko, a Japanese girl with whom Henry forms
an instant-and forbidden-bond. The occasionally sappy prose tends
to overtly express subtleties that readers would be happier to
glean for themselves, but the tender relationship between the two
young people is moving. The older Henry, a recent widower living in
1980s Seattle, reflects in a series of flashbacks on his burgeoning
romance with Keiko and its abrupt ending when her family was
evacuated. A chance discovery of items left behind by
Japanese-Americans during the evacuation inspires Henry to share
his and Keiko's story with his own son, in hopes of preventing the
dysfunctional parent-child relationship he experienced with his own
father. The major problem here is that Henry's voice always sounds
like that of a grown man, never quite like that of a child; the boy
of the flashbacks is jarringly precocious and not entirely
credible. Still, the exploration of Henry's changing relationship
with his family and with Keiko will keep most readers turning pages
while waiting for the story arc to come full circle, despite the
overly flowery portrait of young love, cruel fate and unbreakable
bonds. A timely debut that not only reminds readers of a shameful
episode in American history, but cautions us to examine the present
and take heed we don't repeat those injustices." -
Kirkus Reviews
"Fifth-grade scholarship students and best friends
Henry and Keiko are the only Asians in their Seattle elementary
school in 1942. Henry is Chinese, Keiko is Japanese, and Pearl
Harbor has made all Asians-even those who are American born-targets
for abuse. Because Henry's nationalistic father has a deep-seated
hatred for Japan, Henry keeps his friendship with and eventual love
for Keiko a secret. When Keiko's family is sent to an internment
camp in Idaho, Henry vows to wait for her. Forty years later, Henry
comes upon an old hotel where the belongings of dozens of displaced
Japanese families have turned up in the basement, and his love for
Keiko is reborn. In his first novel, award-winning short-story
writer Ford expertly nails the sweet innocence of first love, the
cruelty of racism, the blindness of patriotism, the astonishing
unknowns between parents and their children, and the sadness and
satisfaction at the end of a life well lived. The result is a vivid
picture of a confusing and critical time in American history.
Recommended for all fiction collections." - Library
Journal
Advance praise for Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and
Sweet
"Jamie Ford's novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and
Sweet is deeply informed by an intimate knowledge of
Seattle during World War II, of the tribulations of Asian peoples
during the time of Japanese internment, and even of the Seattle
jazz scene of that time. His story of an innocent passion that
crosses racial barriers-and then, of the whole life of a man who
forsook the girl he loved-is told with an artistic technique that
makes emotion inevitable."
-Louis B. Jones, author of Particles and Luck
"I loved it! Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a beautiful
and tender masterpiece. A book everyone will be talking about, and
the best book you'll read this year."
-Anne Frasier, USA Today bestselling author of Garden of
Darkness
"Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet tells a
heartwarming story of fathers and sons, first loves, fate, and the
resilient human heart. Set in the ethnic neighborhoods of Seattle
during World War II and Japanese American internment camps of the
era, the times and places are brought to life by the marvelous,
evocative details."
-Jim Tomlinson, winner of the 2006 Iowa Short Fiction Award and
author of Things Kept, Things Left Behind
From the Hardcover edition.
Bookclub Guide
1. Father- son relationships are a crucial theme in the novel.
Talk about some of these relationships and how they are shaped
by culture and time. For example, how is the relationship
between Henry and his father different from that between Henry
and Marty? What accounts for the differences?
2. Why doesn't Henry's father want him to speak Cantonese at
home? How does this square with his desire to send Henry back
to China for school? Isn't he sending his son a mixed
message?
3. If you were Henry, would you be able to forgive your father?
Does Henry's father deserve forgiveness?
4. From the beginning of the novel, Henry wears the "I am
Chinese" button given to him by his father. What is the
significance of this button and its message, and how does
Henry's understanding of that message change by the end of the
novel?
5. Why does Henry provide an inaccurate translation when he
serves as the go-between in the business negotiations between
his father and Mr. Preston? Is he wrong to betray his father's
trust in this way?
6. The United States has been called a nation of immigrants. In
what ways do the families of Keiko and Henry illustrate
different aspects of the American immigrant
experience?
7. What is the bond between Henry and Sheldon, and how is it
strengthened by jazz music?
8. If a novel could have a soundtrack, this one would be jazz. What
is it about this indigenous form of American music that makes
it an especially appropriate choice?
9. Henry's mother comes from a culture in which wives are
subservient to their husbands. Given this background, do you
think she could have done more to help Henry in his struggles
against his father? Is her loyalty to her husband a betrayal
of her son?
10. Compare Marty's relationship with Samantha to Henry's
relationship with Keiko. What other examples can you find in
the novel of love that is forbidden or that crosses boundaries
of one kind or another?
11. What struggles did your own ancestors have as immigrants to
America, and to what extent did they incorporate aspects of
their cultural heritage into their new identities as
Americans?
12. Does Henry give up on Keiko too easily? What else could he
have done to find her?
13. What about Keiko? Why didn't she make more of an effort to
see Henry once she was released from the camp?
14. Do you think Ethel might have known what was happening
with Henry's letters?
15. The novel ends with Henry and Keiko meeting again after more
than forty years. Jump ahead a year and imagine what has
happened to them in that time. Is there any evidence in the
novel for this outcome?
16. What sacrifices do the characters make in pursuit of their
dreams for themselves and for others? Do you think any
characters sacrifice too much, or for the wrong reasons?
Consider the sacrifices Mr. Okabe makes, for example, and those of
Mr. Lee. Both fathers are acting for the sake of their
children, yet the results are quite different. Why?
17. Was the U.S. government right or wrong to "relocate"
Japanese Americans and other citizens and residents who had
emigrated from countries the U.S. was fighting in WWII? Was
some kind of action necessary following Pearl Harbor? Could
the government have done more to safeguard civil rights while
protecting national security?
18. Should the men and women of Japanese ancestry who were
rounded up by the U.S. government during the war have
protested more actively against the loss of their property and
liberty? Remember that most were eager to demonstrate their
loyalty to the United States. What would you have done in
their place? What's to prevent something like this from
ever happening again?
Trade Paperback
320 Pages, 5.14 x 7.94 x 0.7 in
October 6, 2009
Random House Publishing Group
English
0345505344
9780345505347