BOOK REVIEW: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Debut novels fascinate me. If it is great, can the author follow with something equally great? If it is not so great, will the author grow into a Pulitzer winner? Jamie Ford has fallen someplace between the great and the not so great with his debut HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET.

The story is told by Chinese/American Henry, both as a recently widowed man in 1986 and as a twelve year old boy in 1942. Henry grew up in Seattle and was given a firsthand view of the early jazz scene in Seattle and the strong anti-Asian feelings that led to the internment of the Japanese/Americans by the United States government.

The Panama Hotel had been boarded up for over forty years, but as Henry is walking by one afternoon he discovers that it has been bought and that the new owner has found trunks left by the local Japanese when they were forced from their homes. As the new owner opens a Japanese parasol, Henry starts to remember his life in 1942.

Henry’s father was very proud of his Chinese past and hated the Japanese for their war with his home country. He was also very proud that his son was going to an all-white elementary school, not knowing the abuse that Henry faced every day.

Henry worked in the cafeteria to pay for his scholarship and when Keiko, a Japanese/American scholarship student, joins him they soon become friends. But, Keiko and her family are “re-located” with the rest of the Japanese population and although he does visit the camp where she and her family are held, Henry eventually loses track of her. He goes on with his life, marries, has a son, and becomes widowed, but has never forgotten his childhood friend.

I enjoyed this story. The characters are likable and at times the language is beautiful. The contrast/similarities of the relationship between Henry and his father and later of Henry and his son were well done. I am not too concerned with historical facts when I read, but there were several anachronisms that even I caught, rear projector television and online support groups in the ‘80’s for example. Jamie Ford will have to learn to do better research for future books; readers can be experts on minor details and find mistakes to be jarring. To me, the book had enough good in it to overshadow the inaccuracies. This may be an author to keep an eye on.