Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: The international bestseller and word-of-mouth sensation

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As a Brit, unsurprisingly, my education about WWII focused mainly on Britain and the rest of Europe. Consequently, I thought the description of what happened to Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor was fascinating. The book was also refreshingly non-preachy, reporting the events and leaving the reader to make their own moral judgements.

Jamie Ford was born on July 9, 1968, in Eureka, California, but grew up in Ashland, Oregon, and Port Orchard and Seattle, Washington. His father, a Seattle native, is of Chinese ancestry, while Ford's mother is of European descent. Henry’s Father. Henry’s father migrated to the United States at age 13, after having quit school. He works in the neighborhood fighting to protect the Chinese and their cause. He fights for China on US soil. He fights for China in China. He fights for China in Japan and in Russia. He does everything possible on the ground in the US to support his cause, and he is a highly respected individual in this community.

Jamie Ford tells Henry and Keiko's story in a flowing style which switches regularly between past and present. His characters are generally decent (or at least well-meaning) people and the story is fast moving with some excellent scenes including a memorable chase. However my overriding feeling for the book is a degree of poignancy that I have not experienced for some time. A few kids took pity on him, though, those being his former classmates and one-time friends, kids he'd known since the first grade like Francis Long(ph) and Harold Chu(ph). They just called him Casper, after the friendly ghost. At least it wasn't Herman the Cat Nip or Baby Huey.

I wanted so much more from this book.........but sadly I just did not get it. This could have been a wonderful historical novel but it ended up being a cute love story and perhaps I expected too much from the book in the first place and therefore was disappointed with the read.

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This is the story of Henry, an American born Chinese American and his family, including his dogmatic and anti-Japanese father.

a b Vermillion, Allecia (January 31, 2019). "A Musical Version of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet?". SeattleMet . Retrieved February 16, 2020. Keiko. She is such a sweetheart with such a love for life. She is all things bright and warm and fun and loving for Henry. She makes him feel alive and like there is more outside his father’s household. She stalwartly stands up for who she is – Japanese-American. Despite several instances when Henry could have saved Keiko from her fate by wearing his “I’m Chinese” button, Keiko refused. She endured the unjust punishment on her heritage. SIMON: Jamie Ford. His new novel is "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet." Nice talking to you. Mesmerizing and evocative, a tale of conflicted loyalties and timeless devotion.” —Sara Gruen, bestselling author of Water for ElephantsThe story very interestingly brings the foreign and age-old conflicts between China and Japan to US shores and tarnishes the family acceptance of any relationship, even though Henry and Keiko are both naturalised American citizens. With the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941 and the declaration of war between the USA and Japan, there is an overwhelming division between the Japanese and all other communities. As a consequence Japanese immigrants are interned in camps, their personal belongings are stored in the Hotel on the Corner, The Panama Hotel, and their remaining properties and businesses are looted. JF: I wanted to give the book a more redemptive ending. That’s a literaryway of saying, “And everyone lived happily ever after.” The age-old conflicts between China and Japan mar the family acceptance of any relationship, even though Henry and Keiko are both naturalised American citizens. With the bombing of Pearl Harbour and the declaration of war between the USA and Japan, there is an overwhelming division between the Japanese and other communities. As a consequence all Japanese immigrants are interned in camps, their personal belongings are stored in the Hotel on the Corner, The Panama Hotel, and their remaining properties and businesses are looted. A rich, tender, personal story so touching and full of history I should know, but didn't. Pulled at my heartstrings and made me longingly linger over and over the last few chapters.