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25
Book Review: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
2009 at 7pm Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Set for publication January 27th, 2009 from Ballantine Books
When we first meet Henry Lee, it is 1986, and he is walking past the Panama Hotel in Seattle, which has been boarded up since World War II. Henry notices a crowd gathering on the steps of the hotel, and when he approaches, he sees that the new owner is carrying boxes out of the basement, boxes that contain personal items—photos, clothing, diaries, wedding memorabilia—that belonged to Japanese families who were evacuated to internment camps during the war. Seeing these long-lost items takes Henry back to his childhood, and as much as he tries to resist it, the pull of his memories is too strong.
The more Henry thought about the shabby old knickknacks, forgotten treasures, the more it seemed as if his own broken heart might be found in there, hidden among the unclaimed possessions of another time. Boarded up in the basement of a condemned hotel. Lost, but never forgotten.
This opening scene introduces us to Henry’s present-day life, which provides the framework for the story in Jamie Ford’s debut novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. This frame story quickly leads into the main storyline, which takes place in 1942, when Henry is just 12 years old and is “scholarshipping” at Rainier Elementary, an all-white school where he is the only Chinese student. Henry’s father, who is a Chinese nationalist and is immensely proud of being able to send his son to the white school, does not want anyone to be mistaken about Henry’s nationality. The events at Pearl Harbor are fresh in the national consciousness, and Henry’s father is adamantly against the Japanese, so he sends Henry to school each day wearing a button that declares “I am Chinese.” This is the first in a series of incidents that aggravate Henry’s already difficult relationship with his father, and the tension between his father’s traditionalism Chinese values and Henry’s American perspective is a major theme of the book.
As if life as the only Chinese student in an all-white school weren’t difficult enough, the button provokes teasing by several of the class bullies, and Henry’s work-study job serving lunch in the cafeteria becomes the part of the day he dreads the most….until he arrives in the kitchen one day and discovers a young Japanese girl, Keiko Okabe, who has been assigned to the same shift. As the only Japanese student in the school, Keiko identifies with Henry’s plight and is even more tormented by her peers, and the two strike up a lasting friendship.
Though Henry and Keiko are only twelve years old, they understand the risks they are taking by becoming friends. Henry openly defies his father’s rules and walks Keiko home to her family’s apartment in Nihonmachi (the Japanese district), and he sneaks around to spend time with her, hoping that his parents will not find out. Their shared love of jazz music brings Henry and Keiko even closer, particularly when the neighborhood corner musician Sheldon sneaks them into the Black Elks Club to hear Oscar Holden play. That night, Henry and Keiko witness a police raid during which innocent members of the Japanese community are arrested and accused of crimes they have not committed, and they understand that something bad is about to happen. Regardless, that night in the jazz club becomes a sacred shared memory for the two, one that they will hold onto for decades to come.
When the inevitable occurs and Keiko’s family is evacuated, Henry agrees to hide some of their possessions at his home, and he continues to treasure the Oscar Holden record Keiko has given him, for it contains a song the musician dedicated to them that night at the club. Henry and Keiko agree to write each other, but he feels the loss of his best friend deeply. He is dumbfounded by his classmates’ response to the evacuation and does not understand why they are so
Victorious in their home-front battle with a hated enemy. Even if that enemy spoke the same language and had said the Pledge of Allegiance alongside them since kindergarten.
Through circumstances I won’t reveal here so as not to spoil important events in the novel, Henry becomes dispossessed of the Oscar Holden record, and when we meet him in 1986, we learn that he has been searching for another copy ever since.We also learn that though Henry and Keiko went to great lengths to maintain the friendship that eventually became much more, they eventually lost touch. Henry married a woman named Ethel and “never looked back,” and her recent death has left Henry lonely and no longer able to resist the pull of his past. He has spent the last forty years trying to honor his love for Ethel and not think of Keiko.
He loved her enough to let her go—to not go dredging up the past.
Since Ethel’s death, Henry’s relationship with his son Marty has been rather strained. Henry and Marty do their best to reach out to each other, but “after a lifetime of nods, frowns, and stoic smiles, they were both fluent in emotional shorthand.” Marty knows of his father’s life-long search for the Oscar Holden record, but he has never known the whole story. When Henry invites Marty and his fiancee Samantha to help him search through the Panama Hotel—”a place between worlds where he was a child, a place between times now that he was a grown man. A place he had avoided for years, but now he couldn’t keep himself away”—he carefully reveals the story, wanting to share his history with his son without offending him or calling into question his commitment to Ethel.
Henry and Keiko’s time together in childhood is the center of the story, but the framework provided by Henry, Marty, and Samantha’s search through the basement of Panama Hotel in 1986 provides an excellent frame and a metaphor for the pain and joy that can be brought up by digging through one’s memories. Along the way, we come to love Sheldon, the musician, and Mrs. Beatty, the cafeteria lady, who becomes an unlikely ally for Henry following Keiko’s evacuation. We understand the conflict and tension in Henry’s relationship with his father and the fact that it is a microcosm for the difficulty immigrants of all colors experience as they struggle to simultaneously hold onto their cultural traditions and adapt to new ones. We feel Henry’s frustration at being stuck between two worlds—not white enough for this all-white school and not Chinese enough (he doesn’t speak the language) for the Chinese school—and we remember the thrill of first love and the heartbreak of its end.
Jamie Ford has given us a beautiful story told with vivid and cinematic detail, memorable characters, and timeless themes. He creates the corner of bitter and sweet as both a physical place—the Panama Hotel—and Henry’s emotional home-base, and he explores the experiences of Chinese- and Japanese-Americans during World War II with sensitivity and insight. My only complaint is that Ford gives Henry thoughts and feelings beyond the maturity level of most 12-year-olds, but he does it so well that it seems believable. I loved every page of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, and I didn’t want it to end. I have a feeling this will be one of my favorites of 2009. 4.75 out of 5.
Visit the author’s website and blog, and share your own thoughts about Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet here.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Rebecca Schinsky
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What a great review. I can’t wait to read this one!
I’m so glad you liked it! This is one that I really want to read.
I have heard nothing about good things about this and I cannot wait to get to it, it is definitely one of the next 2 or 3 books I am going to read.
Sounds like a beautiful story — and, of course, I love the cover! I totally judge books by their exteriors, unfair as that may be.
I’ll keep an eye out for this one!
Fabulously comprehensive reveiw for a fabulous book. I only posted my review so far on Lt and B&N. I loved the book and know it will be on my ten best for the year. It it just wonderful! Anyone who reads this will not be disappointed.
Bravo, Rebecca! This is a lovely beautiful tale! This will add to my TBR list for sure.
Okay, I give in! I’ll get the book!
So glad to read a little about this book, which was given to me at a recent book festival. I’d just tossed it in with my luggage and hadn’t really read the book flap. So glad I have it now! Thanks for a great review.
And thanks for your interesting comments today on my blog about book covers.
[...] I haven’t had nearly as much time with Cutting for Stone as I’ve hoped, but I did review Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which was my favorite fiction read of the month. (See my [...]
What a thorough review! This one is definitely going on my list of “books to search for” list.
I agree with your comment about Henry’s thought sometimes being older than his age. But overall thought this was a wonderful book.
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[...] by Rebecca @ The Book Lady’s Blog Jamie Ford, author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (my review) appeared on NPR’s Weekend Edition this morning. Click here to listen to him read from and [...]
Glad to hear you enjoyed the book. This one’s on my wish list. Would it be okay to post a link to your review on the book reviews page at War Through the Generations?
[...] loved Jamie Ford’s recent debut Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (my review), and I’m really having fun following The Bittersweet Blog right now, as Jamie writes about [...]
Just wanted to let you know that I enjoyed this book also and linked to your review on my site: Random Wonder.
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I loved this book. Jamie Ford is a wonderful writer and evokes such emotion in the reader. The title says it all – a bitter sweet story.
This is one of my favorite new books of the year, I can”t wait for Jamie’s next book.
It was hard to follow it with another book because I kept thinking about Henry and Keiko.
I hope someone writes a screenplay, it is a movie waiting to happen.
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Glad you liked this so much. I won a copy and then saw a negative review. Thanks for your thoughts on it.
It’s not a perfect book, but the story is rather enjoyable. Will look forward to hearing what you think.
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I enjoyed the book and liked your review. I do agree with you that the maturity level given to a twelve year old boy is a little hard to believe. Just a quick correction though, Henry did speak Chinese. On page 11, he is told by his parents at the age of 12 to “stop speaking his native Chinese”. He also speaks in Chinese to his father when he is sick (page 207). Also, on page 31 when Henry is speaking to the photographer in Nihonmachi, he notes “the young photographer’s English seemed near perfect compared with Henry’s own grasp of the language”. He does argue on page 238, when discussing the issue of going to China to school, that “I don’t even speak the same dialect as the village he came from”. I think the disconnect he feels with going to school in China is more a cultural one and an issue of a 13 year old not wanting to leave his friend and home, rather than a language issue.
Sorry if it was unclear—I know he was capable of speaking Chinese; I was referring to the fact that he’s not allowed to.
[...] Leave a comment Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. Here is a review from The Book Lady’s Blog. This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. ← Mayflower: A Story [...]
I just read it for school and loved it.
anna´s last [type] ..My creative space
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Hey!
A wonderful view of the book!
I just wonder if I coulc borrow some of what you have written, for a schoolassignment?
Lots of hugs from Norway!
By borrow do you mean plagiarize? No. Do your own homework.
No, that is not what I ment, but ok, thats fine.
It’s fine as long as you quote and cite your sources appropriately.
[...] Book Review: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford | The Book Lady’s Blog [...]
One of my book clubs just chose this book, and even though I haven’t started it yet, I got a text from one member who says she’s hating so far. I got worried, so came here to read your review. Rebecca, I trust you…so I will tell her to keep at it! I’ll come back to let you know what I think.
Have a great weekend!
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