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Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet |  | Author: Jamie Ford
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $8.24
as of 9/4/2010 03:54 CDT details
You Save: $6.76 (45%)
New (44) Used (22) from $7.43
Seller: BRILANTI BOOKS
Rating:  302 reviews
Sales Rank: 104
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Edition/1st Printing
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 0345505344
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780345505347
ASIN: 0345505344
Publication Date: October 6, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780345505347 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Product Description
"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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 302
 Good read September 3, 2010
Debbie Fecteau (Glen Burnie, MD USA)
This was a book club choice this last summer. It was a very good read. It was a love story and a history lesson regarding the Japanese interments during WWII. Very interesting.
Fascinating premise, lots to ponder September 2, 2010
Dori Jones Yang (Newcastle, WA)
This book has a fascinating premise and a bittersweet story. In the wartime years of the 1940s, a 12-year-old Chinese American boy befriends a girl of Japanese heritage, defying his father's hatred of Japan. Forty-some years later, as a grown man, he goes on a search for an item she left behind when sent to an internment camp. It's not a classic romance, yet it tugs at your heart. Definitely a fresh take on history, with lots of angles to ponder. After living 20 years in the Seattle area, I never realized that part of what we now call Chinatown was once known as Nihonmachi, Japantown. Now I think of it every time I go there, passing the Panama Hotel, remembering Keiko and Henry and their fascination for jazz.
Wonderful! September 1, 2010
Holly Rader
This book was a wonderful summer read! I loved the historical references, and enjoyed the fact that the hotel was an actual historical landmark in Seattle! Cute book!
hotel August 31, 2010
Truth Seeker (WA)
I loved this book- sweet, poignant, endearing. I wanted to give Henry Lee the biggest hug several times during reading this book.
 Needs Much Editing for Background Details August 28, 2010
BarbaraW
I enjoyed The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet because it had a good historic perspective of both the Seattle International District and the internment of the Japanese Americans in WWII. But there were many flaws in the details of the book:
- I'm not sure how 12 year olds at that time could have been so undertanding of their relationship. I was born in 1942 and 12 years later (at the age of 12)and in Washington State, my schoolmates and friends didn't have that kind of understanding.
- There seems to be some research by Jamie Ford to understand the early 40's. But, much background on 1986 is fully later than that time framework. Such as looking up Kieko online; CD's; using laser to copy records to digital. That's a sign of a lazy writer.
- Finally, the blatant geographical errors. Jamie says he spent time at the Panama Hotel to get background. But, he certainly didn't explore the International District or the area around it. Even in 1942, to look toward the waterfront from the International District, one looked West, not North; if Rhodes Dept Store existed on 2nd Ave, one would not walk home from there via the Ferry dock on the waterfront (since 2nd Ave was between the International District and the waterfront); there would be no skybridge from Union station to the Ferry dock (a matter of many blocks); Puyallup was then, as now, northeast of Tacoma, not south; Walla Walla was a small farming community, but the apple farming community Henry would have gone through on the way to Minidoka was Yakima, not Walla Walla; and, finally, flying from Seattle to NYC, even in 1986, was best done on non-stop flights from Seattle to Kennedy.
As a reader who is always intrigued with the locales and history of the books I read, finding all the above errors were quite distracting. Even more so as a native of Washington state and long-time resident (and active tourist) of the Seattle area.
Given the above comments I don't think I'll be ready any future books by Jamie Ford -- and I'm sorry because he definitely had a good story and some good historical atmosphere.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 302
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