Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

The discovery during the 1986 renovation of Seattle's Panama Hotel of the stored belongings of many Japanese families triggers bittersweet memories for recent widower Henry Lee. He remembers the hotel when it was part of Seattle's vibrant Japanese American community. Henry was 12 years old in 1942,

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when Japanese Americans were rounded up and incarcerated during the U.S. war with Japan. Henry's friendship with and growing love for his Japanese American classmate, Keiko,were a source of conflict within Henry's Chinese American family. A couple of caring adults, including an African American jazz musician, provided support for Henry as he made some difficult choices. In the present (1986), Henry has as much difficulty communicating with his son, Marty, as he had communicating with his own father.

I listened to the audio version of the book. At first, the narrator's voice seemed a little dull, but the reader soon captivated me with his vocal characterizations. I could see Henry, Marty, and Henry's musician-friend, Sheldon, from their vocal characteristics. I grieved for Henry and Keiko – for the innocence lost to the war, for the racism they were confronted with as their growing independence took them outside the confines of their ethnic neighborhoods, and most of all for the separation that I knew was inevitable.

My father listened to several big chunks of the book while we were in the car, and it brought back memories for him. (He was in elementary school during World War II.) I was glad for the opportunity I had to hear some of his memories from the war years. The novel will appeal to many readers of all ages. It would be a great book to read and discuss with a parent or grandparent with memories of World War II. Highly recommended.

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The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

The present time is 1986 in Seattle when we are first introduced to Henry Lee, a recently widowed Chinese American. While he witnesses a press conference at the old Panama Hotel, the simple sight of a koi umbrella discovered in the basement

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by the new hotel owner, takes him back mentally and emotionally more than 40 years to the 1940’s. Told from his perspective as a man in his mid fifties and flashing back to when he was a boy of twelve, not only is this a coming of age story but it is also a story of the pangs and heartbreak of first love and the enduring essence of friendship. Easily combining a young love story with a war story, Ford weaves a magical tale.

Young Henry Lee was caught between two worlds, his American side and his Chinese side. At home from the age of 12 he was told to only "speak your American" and not the Cantonese that his parents spoke. His father, a proud Chinese Nationalist, wanted his son to become Americanized so he sent him to an all white prep school. Unfortunately, Henry found himself ostracized and taunted due to his Chinese heritage. It didn’t help that his father made him wear an “I am Chinese” button, thinking it would protect his son from the burgeoning anti Japanese feeling after the attack on Pearl Harbor. When a young Japanese girl, Keiko Okabe, began work in the school cafeteria with Henry, he found acceptance for who he was and it is this friendship that was at the heart of the story and what a wonderful;y bittersweet story it became.

Right after President Roosevelt signed the executive order for all Japanese to be rounded up and placed in internment camps, a lot of families hurriedly placed belongings in the basement of the old hotel for storage. Keiko and her family were forced to leave their home taking only what they could carry. Henry was heartbroken as he and Keiko had become very attached to each other despite the anti Japanese sentiments belonging to Henry’s father and many others in the community of Chinatown.

Ford moves the story along seamlessly between the years bringing in age old themes of father-son conflicts. Henry and his father had a hard time communicating as has Henry and his son Marty. Another element of the story is Henry’s lifelong compassionate and caring friendship with Sheldon, a member of the Seattle jazz scene. The search for a treasured memory from the jazz era is a key component to help Henry open up communications with his son Marty.

Ford does an admirable job with his heartbreaking look at racial and cultural discrimination in a time of war, while conversely incorporating characters with giving hearts and compassionate natures. Ford writes with a simple clarity and his wonderful descriptions puts readers right into the location. It’s so easy to get into the heads of all the characters, I could feel the fear and sense of helplessness from them and almost hear Henry’s heart beat as he says goodbye to Keiko at the camp. So emotionally charged, it will pull at your heartstrings from beginning to end. I’m sure this short review does not do this book justice, but suffice it to say, I loved almost every character and the book as a whole.The characters I didn't like was solely because they were simply unlikeable in nature. Jamie Ford is a very talented author of whom I am sure we have not heard the last. If you only read one debut novel this year, it should definitely be this one.

A sincere thank you to Mr. Ford and his publicists Diana Franco and Lisa Barnes from Random house for an advance copy of this absolutely delightful book.

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I've read some reviews that thought this book was over the top on the sentimental scale, but I truly enjoyed it. This is a moving tale of innocence and love during one of the darker chapters of our nation's history. Watching Henry struggle to reconcile his own feelings with his father's bigotry

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against the backdrop of the interment process was captivating; I literally couldn't put this book down.

I found it heartbreaking that it was Keiko's family, better assimilated and determined to view themselves as American, that suffered while Henry's "I am Chinese" button kept him safe in an uncertain world. As all of Seattle unraveled around them, Henry and Keiko tried so hard to remain true to the principles of acceptance, and it was so often unexpected people that helped them along their way.

Unlike most books that flashback to the WWII period, I did not find myself irritated by the present-day narrative. Henry's interactions with his son, and gradual realization that he was repeating the same mistake of silence were as compelling as his history with Keiko, and I was delighted at the resolution of the novel.

A highly recommended 5 stars for this one!

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This is a story that is deeply touching and moving, it is about young love as well as about love and honor between children and their parents. I was entranced from the start when Henry a Chinese-American man, learns that Seattle's Panama Hotel has discovered unclaimed belongings of Japanese

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Americans. This is based on the real discovery of these items that were stored in the basement when Japanese families were sent to internment camps in the 1940's. The story is told from two different time periods, the 1940's starting when Henry was 12 years old and from the 1980's when Henry is in an older man and recently widowed. When Henry was 12 he was sent to a private white school and his parents make him wear a button that says "I am Chinese" so he is not mistaken for being Japanese. There not only does he have to deal with racism and bullying but on the bright side he develops a friendship with Keiko, a Japanese-American girl his age. Keiko and her family are later sent away to internment camps with hundreds of other Japanese families from Seattle. The story weaves back and forth from the past to the present and we learn much about the effect the internment and this painful time had on the Japanese and those who cared for these families. There is much focus on sharing parts of Seattle's history of culture, architecture and Jazz. This is woven throughout the novel and much is based on real history and experience. We learn what happens as Henry moves forward in life and the relationships that he develops and how he growns into manhood and the effect his childhood experiences have on him as an husband, father and friend.

The dialogue and characters are rich and vibrant. The story touched me on a deep level and the characters jumped off the page and felt real. This is a coming of age story that allows you as the reader to truly experience the bitter and the sweet that one can experience in life. I look forward to more books written by Jamie Ford, this is his first novel and I expect many more wonderful books ahead.

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Oai deki te ureshii desu ....How are you today, beautiful?

That quote from the book says it all....what an incredible, heartfelt, interesting story...this book is set during during World War II and is about the childhood love of a Japanese girl and a Chinese boy during World War II and takes place

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specifically during the encampment of the Japanese people who lived in Seattle, Washington...it will keep your interest and teach you some history...I learned about The Panama Hotel in Seattle, Washington.

It also is about the conflict between Henry and his Chinese father and the beauty of friendships...it also has some music facts in it for all you jazz fans.

I don't want to give too much away, but it is a nostalgic book and one you will want to tell others about....it is similar to Snow Falling on Cedars.

You will absolutely enjoy it and love it. I loved the story and the lessons learned.

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This is a simple and sweet story of love against all odds. The story begins in 1986 when middle-aged Henry Lee happens to be walking by the abandoned Panama Hotel in Seattle where the trunks and suitcases filled with the memories and long-ago hopes of Japanese families shipped off to internment

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camps were stored, and forgotten. As the items are being exhumed Henry watches as an old paper umbrella is unfurled, its golden koi fish revolving around its edge, and Henry is swept back to 1942.
It is the beginning of WWII in Seattle and young Henry Lee is dutifully wearing his “I am Chinese” button as demanded by his nationalistic father. But this paltry announcement is not enough to dissuade the belligerent young thugs from taunting him, or the hostile store clerks from ignoring him, or his classmates in his all white school from avoiding him. Into his world appears young Keiko, a second generation Japanese American. When she begins her scholarship duties alongside Henry in the school kitchen they are immediately drawn to each other, only to be torn apart when the Japanese community is relocated.
Ford has created likeable characters and captured a small slice of ignoble history.

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The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter And Sweet by Jamie Ford is the story of Henry Lee, jumping back and forth in time from 1942 when Henry is twelve to 1986 when Henry is a recent widower. The book explores his complex relationships with his parents in the past and his son in 1986. The book also

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deals with cultural identity and issues of racial discrimination.

Due to the ongoing war in 1942, Henry’s parents see that sending Henry to China to finish his education will be impossible. Therefore, they decide he needs an American education and arrange for him to attend a local public school as a “scholarship” student. This means that Henry must work at the school in order to be educated. He meets and works with another student, a Japanese girl called Keiko. Soon he and Keiko are seeing each other outside of school and Henry introduces her to his great love “jazz music”. Their friendship advances at an elevated rate mostly due to dealing with the discrimination they both face. All too soon the two young people are forced apart as Keiko and her family, along with all people of Japanese descent are removed to the internment camps.

In 1986, Henry is dealing with the recent death of his wife, Ethel. He realizes that he has made many of the same mistakes his own father did in his relationship with his son. He begins to understand that he must make the effort to open up and communicate, reveal some of his inner thoughts and feelings. When a cache of Japanese belongings are discovered in a old hotel, Henry is able to link both his past and present together.

There are some problems with this book, however. I found the depth of Henry and Keiko’s relationship hard to totally believe in. They knew each other such a short time before being separated, and, also I think they were too young, at twelve, to have such adult feelings. I know this has been mentioned before, but I too, found the computer references a little glaring. I don’t think home computers and the internet were readily available in 1986.

I found this a quick read, especially considering how much is packed into its pages, but ultimately this is a story of love and friendship that endures. A tad overly sentimental but a satisfying read. I had great sympathy for Keiko and her family, I grew up on the West Coast of Canada and knew of Japanese families that had been sent to the Canadian internment camps, losing both their homes and businesses. I think this book is a worthwhile read, a good jumping off spot to learn about a piece of our history that doesn’t necessarily reflect well upon us.

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This one has been sitting on my shelf for several years.  When our book club chose it for the October meeting, I decided to get an early start.  I've read several books about the Japanese internment camps.  All have been written from the point of view of the Japanese.  But I knew little if

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anything about the impact of the Japanese-Chinese enmity resulting from centuries of cultural rivalry and fueled by the Japanese invasion of Chinese territory before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Henry, a 1st generation Chinese boy, born in the US, is sent by his parents to an all-white school where he is constantly confused with "the Japs". As a scholarship student, he is given a job in the kitchen, where he meets Keiko, a Japanese girl who is 2nd generation American.

Their bittersweet friendship, which Henry must keep from his parents, blossoms in spite of the fact that Keiko's family is rounded up and taken to a camp, first in Washington State, and later in Idaho.  Throughout the story, Henry is mentored by a black jazz musician who befriends both of these youngsters, helping them visit and stay in touch through the long war years.

The story opens in the 1980's, as Henry is searching through property left by Japanese in the Panama Hotel looking for a jazz recording that had been his and Keiko's song.  Told in a back and forth story between the 1940's and the 1980's we see how Henry confronts racial prejudice, how the war feelings of the era influenced everything that happened to both these young people.

Ford writes the story objectively and sympathetically from both sides.  The reader is presented with a tale that is at once hopeful and full of tears.  Without making judgement, Ford leaves the reader to decide whether there was a right or wrong, and who if anyone was at fault.  I'm thinking this will generate a really good discussion in a few weeks.

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The discovery of personal belongings of Japanese-American families sent to internment camps during WWII in the basement of the Panama Hotel in Seattle triggers Henry Lee's memories of childhood and his long-lost childhood friend and sweetheart. His best friend at the American school was Keiko

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Okabe, the only other nonwhite kid that attended. Henry is forever a loyal and dedicated friend despite numerous obstacles, including separation, discrimination and family disapproval.

The novel jumps from the time of the war to 1986. Which usually I don't like, but here it works well in setting the tone of the book. You get to see him as a young kid and experience his life in Chinatown and around Japantown of Seattle during this difficult and sad time in American history. You then see how different his life is as an adult and parent as he searches for items that once belonged to Keiko. I loved seeing the relationship between Henry and his son Marty change during this time of discovery and searching. It just shows how many misunderstandings and assumptions kids make about their parents. Marty comes to see his dad in a whole new way and Henry finds he is not over losing his friend so long ago thanks to his son.

So many emotions were brought out in me while reading this book. Anger at the kids who terrorized Henry and Keiko at their school and at the cruelty of adults towards Americans who were very much loyal citizens. Sadness when reading about the loss of so many personal belongings, memories and heirlooms. Hope that future generations of these families will never have to experience such prejudices and hatred in their lifetimes. Happiness in young love and finding lost loves. A beautiful story I recommend to everyone.

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Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was appropriately named – it’s a sweet childhood love story surrounded by the bitterness of the “real” world. Henry, a Chinese boy, befriended Keiko, a Japanese girl, at the beginning of World War II. They were the only two Asian students at an

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all-white school in Seattle, assigned to work in the kitchen as part of their scholarship program.

Both students shared many similarities – from being cast as outsiders in their schools to a love of jazz. They survived the harsh racial climate of the time, eventually culminating into the evacuation of Keiko and her family to a work camp in Idaho. Could their friendship endure the climates of war and seclusion?

I was surprised that this book was not classified as a young adult book. Henry and Keiko were about 13 years old, which seemed a young age for such protestations of love and commitment. I wish the author, Jamie Ford, made his characters a bit older so that their love story would have been easier to believe.

With that said, Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was a good read filled with excellent characterization, plot development and historical information on the treatment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. I especially loved the jazz theme, which I learned was “the scene” during 1940’s Seattle. If you love historical fiction tinged with a love story, then give Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet a try.

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Advanced Reader's Copy:
This is a coming of age story of Henry Lee, a Chinese American widower who grew up during WWII in Seattle. We meet Henry in his mid-50's, in 1986, as a new widower in front of the Panama Hotel, where a huge stash of Japanese items have been discovered during a restoration

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project. The Japanese items date from WWII and the time of the Japanese internment camps.

In Henry's reverie about the Panama Hotel, we meet his younger self in 1942. Henry is the only child of parents who long to see him be a successful American and at the same time have strong roots back in his Chinese heritage. In service of the first aim, they send him to an all white preparatory school outside of Chinatown and require him to speak only English at home, even though neither parent speaks English. In service of the second goal, they plan on sending him back to China for secondary education at some point in the future. And he is required to wear a button on his shirt at all times that says "I am Chinese".

"Scholarshiping" at the prep school is sheer misery for Henry where he is bullied and discriminated against in the classroom and during his work in the school cafeteria. His one friend is Sheldon, an African American street musician, who plays jazz saxophone, and keeps a protective eye out for Henry in exchange for Henry's lunch.

Things begin to brighten for Henry when Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese girl also begins to "scholarship" at school and a friendship develops as they work off their tuition in the lunchroom and after school. However, things also become more complicated for Henry. His father is a staunch Chinese nationalist who despises the Japanese because of the war.

The story seamlessly moves the reader back and forth between 1986 and the WWII years. We see the 1986 Henry seek out jazz recordings as a way to fill the vacancy left by his deceased wife. At the same time we see friendship between Keiko and Henry develop during 1942 and the evacuation of Keiko and her family to the Japanese Internment Camps.

It is a poignant story of love, loss, and relationships complicated by national identies. The writing style is spare and simple. It's a good read for adults, but I could also imagine this as a great Young Adult Readers title.

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Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a delightful and tragic book all in one. It is full of hope even during the direst of moments. Crossing over time lines, the novel goes back and forth between the sort of present (1986) and the past (World War II). It is the story of Henry Lee, a young

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Chinese-American growing up in Seattle, Washington, and an older Henry, who is searching for something even he is not sure he will find and trying to piece his life together as he makes peace with the past.

The Panama Hotel had been boarded up since the 1950’s. One day in 1986, as Henry is walking by, he notices a crowd gathering outside the hotel. He stops to see what is going on. The new owner of the hotel has uncovered a treasure trove of belongings, presumed to be hidden in the basement during the early 1940’s by the Japanese-Americans who were forced to leave behind their lives and everything they owned because of an executive evacuation order. The Japanese-Americans were believed to be a threat to national security. The concern was that any of them could be spies or saboteurs, and so they were locked away in internment camps “for their own protection.” The sight of a beautiful Japanese parasol reawakens memories in Henry to a past that is never completely out of his mind.

Stephanie Kallos’ Broken for You instantly came to mind as I read the first chapters of this novel. Both are set in Seattle and have elderly protagonists. In Broken for You, Margaret Hughes is surrounded by antiques collected by her father from the Jewish people who had been forced into concentration camps all over Europe. In Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry finds himself in the basement of a hotel, looking through the belongings of those who were interned during the war. Both Margaret and Henry have led full lives and yet they both feel something is missing and are in need of some sort of resolution to their pasts. Even among so many similarities the two books are completely different. The stories are told in their own unique fashions and go into completely different directions. Still, it was hard not to think of the one, at least at first, while reading the other.

In 1942, Henry is an innocent child of 12 years of age, untouched by the scars his father carried. His father, a proud Chinese man, did not like the Japanese because of the violence they inflicted on his friends and family in China. He saw it as a good thing that the Japanese were being persecuted in the U.S. during the war as they were the enemy, a common enemy shared with China. That part of Henry's family's history is so removed from Henry that he does not fully understand why his father holds so much animosity towards the Japanese, including Japanese Americans.

Henry’s father dreamed of sending his son to school in China once he reached his teen years, but with the war and the growing resentment towards the Japanese, Henry’s father and mother decided to push their son into an entirely different direction. Henry was instructed only to speak English both inside and outside of his home. In a home with parents who barely spoke English, this would prove to be difficult on many levels. In addition, Henry was enrolled in an exclusive private school where he was the only non-white student. At least until Keiko Okabe arrived.

Even before Keiko came to the school, Henry was tormented by the school bullies. The “I am Chinese” button his father made him wear did nothing to prevent the never-ending razing he got for being Asian. Keiko’s appearance on the scene only made things worse, and yet it also made things more bearable for Henry. He wasn’t alone anymore. The two formed an instant friendship.

Keiko was second generation Japanese. The daughter of a lawyer, she did not speak Japanese. She was American through and through. Henry and Keiko’s relationship blossomed, and yet she was not someone he could tell his parents about. His father’s hatred of all things Japanese made that impossible.

As the two grew closer, the situation in Seattle and around the country heated up. The war closed in around them. The persecution of Japanese-Americans intensified. Henry was devastated when Keiko was taken away from him, forced into an internment camp. He was not sure he would ever see her again.

I was in middle school when I read Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston, a memoir of one woman’s experience during and after her internment at the Manzanar camp during World War II. I had heard about the internment of civilian Japanese Americans before that, but not in much detail. Farewell to Manzanar had a profound impact on me at the time. I would later read the novel Obasan by Joy Kogawa, a fictional account of one family’s experiences in an internment camp in Canada. The novel was drawn in large part on the author’s own real life experiences. Up until that point, I had not realized Canada had also been involved with interning their Japanese-Canadian population.

As you can guess, it was this part of Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet which most moved me. It was both sad and tragic. So many lives uprooted out of fear and prejudice. So many lives destroyed.

I cannot leave out mention of Sheldon. Sheldon was a black jazz musician, playing his saxophone on the street for money, while hoping to make it big. He was a constant in Henry’s life and one of my favorite characters. Jamie Ford did a good job of offering readers a glimpse at the layers of discrimination during the early 1940’s, not only for the varying Asian groups in the United States, but for blacks as well.

The novel is not just about the internment of the Japanese-Americans, however. It is so much more than that. It is also about family, particularly the relationship between father and son. Henry and his son, Marty, do not talk to each other. Henry never really could talked to his own father and he isn't sure now how to talk to his son. His wife had been the person to facilitate much in their relationship. Now that she is gone, Henry must figure it out for himself. There is much Marty does not know about his father, especially his past. And there is much Henry does not really know about his son, including his son’s perception of him. So much stood in the way of Henry and his own father having a good relationship, and the influences of that relationship on Henry can clearly be seen in his relationship with Marty. Fortunately for both Henry and Marty, it is not too late to try to fix what is broken.

And then there is the love story: love lost and found. Keiko and Henry had so much going against them during the war years. The stress of the times and their separation did not help matters. While the story of Keiko and Henry takes center stage, the story of Ethel and Henry should not go unnoticed. They too shared a special love and devotion. I liked the fact that Jamie Ford was kind and gentle to Ethel's memory throughout the novel. I spoke much of Henry's character.

There is romance, friendship and broken hearts. There is tragedy and hope. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet lives up to its title. There is definitely the bitter, but in it all, there is the sweet. I truly enjoyed Jamie Ford’s novel. Henry and Keiko are great characters, even if seemingly a little too perfect at times. They both suffered much in their young lives. I flew through Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. It touched my heart, made me laugh and cry, and left a smile on my face as I closed the book for that last time.

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This was an ER book that I wanted pretty badly, but it wasn't meant to be. I knew that if I didn't receive it for Early Review, I would definitely buy it when it came out for sale. Luckily, fate stepped in and my sister was chosen to be an Early Reviewer. Once she was done, the book made its way to

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me...OH happy day!
When I received the book, I was reading two other books and I wanted to give this book all of my focus and attention. For some reason I knew it was special before I even cracked the binding. I wanted to read the book at a comfortable, yet slower pace and to fully understand the story, really drink it in like a fine aged brandy (even though I don't drink brandy, sounded good though, didn't it?!) I am so glad I did...I guess you could say I got very drunk from the last analogy.
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is not your classic love story of love found, lost and found again. This story tells of a time in our nations history that is heartbreaking for many and a time that many would like to forget. It speaks volumes on racial division across all cultures. It also shows how our ancestors dealt with war, not knowing how to fix problems and doing something that they believed right and the only possible way of keeping our country safe, at the time. The story shows how there have always been those that do not accept other cultures on any level and those that do, even when taught not to. All of humanity is created equal and deserve friendship, respect and love and this is Henry's story.
Take your time and enjoy the story. It is definitely worth it!

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Hotel on the Corner of Butter and Sweet is Jamie Ford's beautifully written debut about Henry, a Chinese American growing up in Seattle during World War II. Henry struggles with his identity, his stubborn father, and when his best friend, a Japanese American girl, is sent to an internment camp he

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has to decide between love and loyalty.

This book is like a little slice of history complete with the sights, sounds and smells of Seattle during World War II, jazz music, salty sea air, and the sweet taste of duck sausage. There are so many themes touched in this story that it should feel overly crowded: first love, father-son relationships, immigrants, racism, and looming over everything World War II. Yet the story flows around and through Henry seamlessly and it is easy to find yourself deep in his world.

I completely and unashamedly fell in love with this book from the very beginning. At first I raced through it eager to see what would become of Henry, later I slowed my progress wanting to prolong my time with him and anxious about his ending. When the end came it was perfect, bitter and sweet, but so satisfying too.

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In “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet”, Jamie Ford does a lovely job of blending fact and fiction, and of putting human faces on a horrible part of American history.

It’s surprising, sometimes, what you can learn from works of fiction. Though I was aware of the reprehensible actions of

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our country towards Americans of Japanese descent in World War II, I never knew that one of the internment camps was right in my backyard. In May of 1942, the Puyallup fairgrounds unofficially became “Camp Harmony” – where almost 7400 American citizens were imprisoned before being shipped to other camps.

We learn this through the eyes of Henry Lee, a Chinese American, who as a child and as an adult, tries to understand the events in Seattle in 1942 and their effect on his role as a husband and father forty years later.

“Henry kept staring at the photo albums, faded reminders of his own school days, looking for someone he’d never find. I try not to live in the past, he thought, but who knows, sometimes the past lives in me.”

Henry, 12 years old in 1942, has grown up in a time of war. Blackout curtains, ration books, radio reports of battles – these are all a part of his daily life. But once he meets Keiko, a Japanese American girl (and the only other non-Caucasian at his school) – his view of the war, his parents and the world changes.

Through his friendship with Keiko, he is drawn from Chinatown to Nihonmachi – the Japanese section of Seattle. He’s always known what it is to be an outsider, looked at differently, but in Keiko’s world, he learns what is like to be seen as an enemy, even in one’s own homeland.

In order to prove their “American-ness” – the Japanese citizens of Seattle destroy all traces of their former life, their culture. The very things people treasure the most, photographs, mementos…all are either hidden or burned.

“The photographer looked haunted by the scene in front of him. Haunted by the touchable, tangible reminders of life. “I burned it all.” Henry had seen all he could take. Turning, he ran home, still tasting the smoke.”

Henry is a wonderful character. When we see the world through his 12-year old eyes, we see a world turned inside out – irrational fear of that which is different, acceptance of the destruction of freedom in the name of security, blame of those who are “not like us”… a world that despite our progress in many other ways, still exists in 21st Century America.

The child Henry is far wiser than many of the adults around him, sometimes in ways that while profound, seem a bit too perfect.

“For the first time Henry realized where he was, standing on one side of an unseen line between himself and his father, and everything else he’d known. He couldn’t recall when he’d crossed it and couldn’t see an easy way back.”

And later, “He’d be thirteen in a few months; maybe this was what it meant to stop being a boy and start being something else, Henry thought as he put his coat back on and headed for the door.”

In “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet”, Jamie Ford creates two different worlds. One is sweet and innocent and lovely – the little world of friendship and young love that is created between Henry and Keiko. Together they can face anything, yet are ultimately torn apart by a mob mentality society driven by fear. That society, that other world, is painstakingly recreated by Ford in all of its shameful detail.

Henry Lee, a young man far better than the times in which he was raised, accomplishes the rare feat of learning from the lessons of his youth and becoming a better man, a better husband, a better father than his own.

Our world, however, has not learned its history, and as such, is doomed to repeat it.

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This is the story of Henry Lee, a Chinese-American boy, and Keiko Okabe, a Japanese-American girl, who come to know each other in a Seattle school. Henry's father has a strong dislike for the Japanese and is among the Chinese merchants glad to see the Japanese removed from their community. Henry,

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on the other hand, has developed a relationship with Keiko and is sad when the Japanese are removed to internment camps. This was not one of the finer moments of American history, and the reader shares Henry's feelings as he tries desperately to keep in touch with his friend. Unfortunately he loses touch. Years later when the Panama Hotel is being restored, some of the belongings of the Japanese who were removed are discovered. Henry finds Keiko's sketch book and a record which meant a lot to the two of them. Will the two ever reunite? Read the book and find out. I always empathize with the Japanese-Americans whenever I read a novel about their internment. The writer does a good job of showing yet another twist in this story by showing how those who had befriended the Japanese-Americans also suffered.

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Jamie Ford's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a pot of water on the stove that takes a long time to boil. Henry Lee is the main protagonist, but really his story happens nearly 45 years in the past, and those are the chapters that breathe and live. Much of the present day (1986) life of

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Henry Lee is somber and lifeless.

"He'd meant to finish it when his son, Marty, went away to college, but Ethel's condition had worsened and what money they'd saved for a rainy day was spent in a downpour of medical bills, a torrent that lasted nearly a decade." (Page 8)

The death of his wife, Ethel, from cancer six months before happens early on in the book. Readers are left with a drifting character who really doesn't find his way into his own story for about 100 or more pages. When we finally delve into his young love with Keiko, the story blossoms into an emotional torrent, especially when they are ripped apart from each other.

Discrimination is on every page given that in 1942 the United States was drawn into World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. For Henry's father, the war began many years before when Japan invaded his homeland. Henry and his father have a tenuous relationship -- a relationship that is mirrored in the present between Henry and his own son, Marty.

"'He was vehemently against all things Japanese. Even before Pearl Harbor, the war in China had been going on for almost ten years. For his son to be frequenting that other part of town -- Japantown -- would have been bad form. Shameful to him . . . '" (Page 105)

Readers will appreciate the immersion into war-time America with its simmering angst against Asians -- not just the Japanese -- and the plight of those second generation Asians who try to maintain their livelihoods and tout their American loyalties in a nation that increasingly wanted to get rid of any reminder of war. Overall, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a meandering novel about love, growing up, dealing with discrimination, and more, but in a way readers may find that the sequencing of events and alternating chapters between present day Henry and his younger persona could have been executed better. In many cases the present day chapters take away from those during the war years, halting the narrative and adding little to the story's arc.

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Whenever I finish a book like this, I never know how to write about it, only because I never know how to put down on paper the emotions that are churning through me when I finish the book. Jamie Ford's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is the kind of book that takes me there, into the story,

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completely. It transports me to that time, filling me with the emotions of the characters; their loves, their fears, their hopes. And hope is what this book is ultimately about. Hope and faith. And knowing that even though sometimes you will lose sight of that faith and lose hope entirely, it isn't always gone.

The book is split between time; the 'now,' Seattle of the 1980s, and the 'then,' Seattle of the 1940s. The story opens with Henry Lee wandering by the Panama Hotel, where a stockpile of suitcases and personal belongings have been found in the basement of the hotel. These articles are from another time, a time that Henry thought was well behind him. Henry is Chinese, and has lived in this part of Seattle for most of his life. When he was a boy, his father and mother wanted him to be accepted as American, sending him to private school rather than having him attend the local Chinese public school. During his time at school, he meets Keiko Okabe, and the two become friends. The problem here is that Keiko is Japanese, and Japan is at war with both the United States and with China during this time, and Henry's father has forbidden any involvement with anyone or anything Japanese. Keiko was born in the USA, at the same hospital, in fact, that Henry was born in. She speaks no Japanese. She is fully American, but this makes no difference to Henry's father, or anyone else for that matter. She is Japanese, and therefore, the enemy.

Henry and Keiko's friendship, and eventual love, transcend all these boundaries, and even though they are kept apart by Henry's families strict prejudices, they find ways of seeing each other outside of school. Eventually, the US government moves (or evacuates) anyone of Japanese descent to internment camps farther inland, for their own 'safety,' or because anyone could be a Japanese spy. Keiko's family is swept up in this 'evacuation' and moved to their camp, where Henry, through an unlikely source, finds a way to continue visiting Keiko. Eventually Keiko and her family are moved farther inland, making impossible for Henry to continue visiting, but he writes faithfully every week, even when her letters are becoming fewer are farther between.

Reading about the 'evacuations' and the camps that the Japanese families were sent to made me embarrassed and angry to be American. That we would stoop to such lows was a shock to me. I guess not living during that time, I wouldn't understand the full emotions that everyone was feeling then, but to look back from now, I almost can't understand how something like that could happen. The word 'unfair' kept going through my mind while I read these portions of the book.

I found the interactions between Henry and his father, and then in turn, Henry and his own son very interesting. To see how Henry handles his father and his prejudices, and how he tries not to act the same way with his son, and yet falls into similar patterns, and how they cope with that. There are so many layers to this story, and each one opened an entirely new set of emotions for me.

There is so much more than what I've described that goes on in the book, but I hate to give anymore away. The ending left me with goosebumps, and that's all I want to say about it. It may seem a little predictable toward the end, but it was still a perfect ending to this beautiful story, a story about faith and hope, families, and rising above the boundaries of simple race and heritage to become the person you are meant to be.

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Jamie Ford's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet follows Henry, the son of Chinese immigrants in Seattle in both 1942 and 1986. The story starts in 1986, when Henry hears a news story about the personal items of Japanese internees discovered in the basement of the nearby Panama Hotel. His

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curiosity spiked by an item he sees brought out of the hotel, Henry, a recent widower, decides to go to the basement of the hotel to look around. The story then moves into flashback, and Henry remembers 1942 and his friendship with Keiko, a 12 year old Japanese-American he met at school. As Henry and Keiko get closer, Keiko's family gets closer to "evacuation" to an internee camp. When they are evacuated, both Henry and Keiko are devastated, but promise to remember each other. Will their memories hold, or will the war tear them apart?

Overall, I thought Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was a wonderful story of two teenagers caught up in turbulence and hatred aimed at Asian-Americans in general and Japanese-Americans in particular during WWII. The novel does a good job of capturing the emotions of the evacuation of the Japanese from Seattle and of young Henry losing his best friend and young love. The characters and emotion are not as strong in the 1980s, but there is plenty to catch a reader in the 1940s story. At times Ford does rely on cultural stereotypes, particularly with the African-American characters and with Henry's father, a staunch Chinese nationalist. But this rough characterization is overshadowed by the strength and emotion of the story.

I would recommend this book to just about anyone--and lovers of historical fiction especially. This was a good debut novel, and I will be interested to see what else Ford writes.

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Henry Lee is Chinese. The button on his coat will tell you that if you see him on the street, walking to his all-white prep school. His home in the Chinatown of 1940's Seattle sits only blocks from Nihonmachi, the Japanese section of the city, but to his parents Nihonmachi is a no-mans land filled

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with evil, murderous people. America and China are both at war with Japan and the atrocities in his homeland only serve to further demonize the Japanese in Henry's fathers eyes. Henry's parents want him to be American and in an excess of zeal for this goal ban him from speaking Cantonese at home even though that is all they understand. This is the first of many disconnects for Henry. He is caught between cultures, teased and laughed at by the other Chinese children for going to the white school and then bullied at that school by his white classmates. Drawn to the jazz he hears on his walks to and from school, Henry strikes up a friendship with Sheldon, a black street musician. The music touches a place in Henry that nothing else has in his young life. In school, as a "scholarship" student, Henry must work in the school cafeteria every day at lunch with Miss Beatty, the gruff lunch lady. This is yet another opportunity for his fellow students to make fun of him as Miss Beatty leaves him to serve lunch alone while she goes out for her break as soon as he gets there. Then one day, there is another scholarship student in the cafeteria to help him, an Asian girl named Keiko. Henry is no longer the only Asian in the school, but he is still the only Chinese student.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet deals with many things - race and ethnicity, family, loss, Seattle jazz and the Japanese internment during the war. However, the true essence of this novel is a love story. It is a story of hope against great odds and the surprise and joy of finding something that you thought was lost forever. This is a beautifully written novel, telling Henry's story in two parts. First there is the boy of the 1940's and then the man, forty years later, widowed with a grown son - and then an interplay between the two. I think the format works quite well, coaxing the story out in its own time, at its own pace. I think this is going to be one of the must-read books of 2009.

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Six months after the death of his wife, Henry Lee finds himself in front of the Panama Hotel where a treasure trove of Japanese families’ possessions, stored in the basement of the hotel for safekeeping all these many years, has just been found. Henry suspects that some of those possessions

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belong to the family of his first love, Keiko, a love that he has never forgotten. Traveling back in time to 1942, we meet twelve-year-old Henry, a second generation Chinese immigrant “scholarshipping” at a preppy white school. As he reluctantly makes his way every weekday morning from Chinatown in Seattle to school, he is teased by the Chinese kids for being a “white devil;” when he gets to school he is teased by the white kids for being Chinese and is a target for the school’s bullies. Life at school as the only Chinese kid is pretty lonely for Henry. Part of his “scholarshipping” includes working at the school cafeteria alongside a surly lunch lady, Mrs. Beatty. One day, Keiko, a young Japanese girl, shows up to work alongside Henry. She too is “scholarshipping.” A friendship, which slowly evolves into an innocent romance, blossoms between the two.

A friendship, let alone a romance, with a Japanese girl is more than a little problematic for Henry. His father, a Chinese nationalist, disapproves of any and all things Japanese. He sees the Japanese as enemies of his beloved China and the United States. Henry hides his relationship with Keiko from him and his mother until the government starts rounding the families in Japantown up and Keiko asks Henry for help hiding some of the families precious possessions. After Keiko and her family are interned Henry finds ways to see her, but when she and her family are sent to a camp out of state, the two lose contact with each other. Henry grows up, marries and has a son of his own, but the discovery of the treasures at the Panama Hotel and his newly widowed status makes Henry confront the questions of should he and could he find Keiko again.

Although the story is mostly about the childhood romance between Henry and Keiko, I read it because of its historical context. I learned a little about the Japanese plight post Pearl Harbor: the incredible prejudice they encountered (before and after they were sent away); the vultures sweeping down on Japantown and buying real estate for pennies on the dollar and making a healthy profit after the “evacuation.” One of the most surprising things to me was the fact that the U.S. government told the interned Japanese that they were being evacuated and relocated into these camps for their “own safety.” When Henry visits the camp he wonders why, if the Japanese families are being interned for their own good, the machine guns are being pointed inside, not outside the camp. When Henry notices that the Japanese prisoners greatly outnumber the guards, he asks Keiko's father why they don't try and take over the camp. He replies, "Loyalty. We're still loyal to the United States of America. Why? Because we too are Americans. We don't agree, but we will show our loyalty by our obedience. Do you understand, Henry?"

I have never read a book about this particular scene in U.S. history, even so, this story felt incredibly familiar. I think I was expecting more here (what, I’m not sure) than what I actually got. There’s a friendship here between Henry and a black jazz musician, Sheldon, which adds a great amount to the story. It’s also the author’s way of introducing us to the Seattle jazz scene which was a pleasant and unexpected bonus. Other than that, though, some of the characters’ actions, which I assume were supposed to surprise me, felt incredibly predictable.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was an enjoyable read and it kept my attention to the very end. Once I finished it, though, I felt like I had just watched a movie on the Hallmark channel. Nothing wrong with that; I think I was just expecting something more.

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The book involves the modern day story of Henry Lee and his relationship with his progressive son Marty; magnified since the death of their wife and mother. Henry is struggling to find his way as a widower, his loneliness pulls him out of his home, out to walk in Seattle.

One day, Henry walks past

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the old Panama Hotel. The Seattle hotel has been boarded up since Japanese families were sent to internment camps in WW II. As Henry stops to watch, the new owner of the Panama discovers the treasures and belongings of the Japanese families; and specifically a parasol, which jolts Henry’s memory back to Seattle in the 40’s.

Henry is the only son Chinese parents who have instructed him to speak only “American” at home. That neither of them understands the language only serves to isolate the young boy. He is sent to an all white “scholarship” school where he is taunted for being Japanese (even though Henry dutifully wears the "I am Chinese" button his father gave him.). His life is miserable, everyday he gives his lunch to a street musician on the way to school to avoid being accosted by the school bully. The musician and he develop a sweet friendship, which lasts throughout the book.

Eventually a new student joins the school, a Japanese-American girl named Keiko Okabe. Keiko is proud to be American born. Happy to have found each other, struggling with the ways they are treated as second-class citizens, Keiko and Henry develop a friendship.

In the 1940’s Henry’s father is a Nationalist who remembers the history of the Japanese and the Chinese. He is unforgiving of a relationship between Henry and Keiko. On the other hand, Keiko’s family welcomes and respects Henry in their lives. Eventually Keiko and her family are sent away to internment camp, but Henry is determined and visits them. The two are eventually separated, but not before promising friendship without end.

The story follows the misery of prejudice and hate of the war. It keeps the theme of friendship alive with three very different relationships Henry forges. I liked this book. It is well written and it ends nicely.

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I recieved this book through the Library Thing early readers' program. I found it a very delightful read . Henry, the main character, has just become a widower. There is conflict between Henry and his son based on generational and cultural levels, Henry being influenced by the old Chinese customs

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and his son being fully Americanized.

When Henry learns that the Hotel has been sold, and during renovations, possessions of Japanese people who were interned during WWII were discovered, the story shifts back to those days and Henry's recollections of his friendship with a Japanese girl named Keiko. They met when they were the only Asian children sent to an all-white school. Henry's father wanted him to become "Americanized" and sent him to the all-white prep school. Of course, he was the bullied and ostracized by the other students. When Keiko comes to the school, he has an ally, and they form a bond. They eat luch logether and work in the cafeteria. They begin to see each other outside of school, enjoying the active jazz music scene prevalent in Seattle before WWII.

They become separated when Keiko's family is sent away. Henry finds ways to see her by helping his friend who goes to the camps to help feed the internees. When Keiko's family is sent to another camp in Idaho Henry manages to visit with her. They make a pact to write to each other and meet when the war is over.

I thought this was a very sentimental story. I very much liked the characters, thinking they were fully fleshed out. I especially came to like Henry's son and his fiancee. They were so good to Henry, especially when they located Keiko for him and arranged the reunion between them.

I liked this book so much that I am circulating it among my book club friends.

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Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet This novel definitely fit the "sweet" portion of the title. It flashed back and fourth between the mid 1980's, when Henry, a fifty-something Chinese widower, who learns that an old hotel has been reopened and various items left by Japanese families during

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WWII have been left there. It then flashes back to Henry as a 6th grader during WWII, who befriends Keiko, a Japanese girl, and the only other Asian student at his all-white school. The relationship between the two is very sweet, if a maybe a bit unrealistic for 6th graders. The father-son relationships between Henry and his father, and his son are quite interesting. Overall this is a good read that moves along fairly quickly at just under 300 pages.

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