Hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet

Format:

Book (large print)

Title:

Hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet

Author:

Ford, Jamie.

ISBN:

9781410414977

9781594134968

Publication Information:

Waterville, Me. : Thorndike Press, 2009.

Physical Description:

507 pages (large print) ; 23 cm.

Series title(s):

Thorndike Press large print core series.

Summary:

Set in the ethnic neighborhoods of Seattle during World War II and Japanese American internment camps of the era, this debut novel tells the story of widower Henry Lee, his father, and his first love Keiko Okabe.

Program Information:

Accelerated Reader AR UG 5.7 15.0 145257.

Subject(s):

Japanese Americans -- Forced removal and internment, 1942-1945 -- Fiction.

Widowers -- Fiction.

Large type books.

Japanese Americans -- Forced removal and internment, 1942-1945 .

Seattle (Wash.) -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

Seattle (Wash.) -- Fiction.

Washington (State) -- Seattle.

Genre:

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Dallas Public Library	LARGE PRINT - FORD	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

In 1986 Henry Lee, a Chinese American widower, 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 a new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families left behind when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, memories take him back to the 1940s and an innocent love.

Author Notes

Jamie Ford graduated from the Art Institute of Seattle in 1988 and worked as an art director and as a creative director in advertising. He is also an alumnus of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers and the Orson Scott Card's Literary Boot Camp. His books include Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet and Songs of Willow Frost.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

New York Review of Books Review

On the eve of America's World War II internment of its Japanese residents, 12-year-old Henry Lee meets his first true love. Her name is Keiko, and she's the only other Asian at Henry's otherwise all-white Seattle elementary school. She's also Japanese, which lies at the heart of Henry's subsequent struggles - with his Chinese nationalist father; his racist, bullying classmates; and, finally, his brutally suspicious country. The hotel of the book's title is the real Panama Hotel, and that's where Ford's story begins, with the basement discovery of what Seattle's Japanese families left behind when they were sent to the camps. The tale jumps between 1986, just after the death of Henry's wife (whose name is not Keiko), and the 1940s, setting up its driving mystery: What happened to Henry's dark-eyed childhood sweetheart? Though the story of life in war-era Seattle and the detention of the city's Japanese families, including Keiko's, is rich in detail, its characters feel thin. Henry is terribly earnest and seems always too old for his age - at 12, he has the caution and calm of a 56-year-old; at 56, Ford refers to him as "Old Henry Lee."

Library Journal Review

Chinese American Henry and Japanese American Keiko bond as the only Asian students in a Seattle elementary school in 1942. The two are the victims of both racist attitudes and the patriotic fervor following Pearl Harbor. While emphasizing their deep friendship, first-time novelist Ford also conveys the minute details of that particular time and place. Feodor Chin's (Journey of a Thousand Miles) energetic, sensitive reading makes the story moving without ever resorting to sentimentality. Recommended for Asian Americans and those interested in Pacific Northwest history. [Embeddable audio clip available through library.booksontape.com; the Ballantine hc was described as "a vivid picture of a confusing and critical time in American history," LJ 10/1/08.-Ed.]-Michael Adams, CUNY Graduate Ctr. Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.