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Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Novel Hardcover – January 27, 2009

by Jamie Ford (Author)

4.5 15,454 ratings

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

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"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.

BONUS: This edition contains a Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet discussion guide and an excerpt from Jamie Ford's Songs of Willow Frost.

Print length

304 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Ballantine Books
Publication date

January 27, 2009
Dimensions

6.4 x 1.17 x 9.61 inches
ISBN-10

0345505336
ISBN-13

978-0345505330
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But choosing to lovingly care for her was like steering a plane into a mountain as gently as possible. The crash is imminent; it’s how you spend your time on the way down that counts.
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His father had said once that the hardest choices in life aren’t between what’s right and what’s wrong but between what’s right and what’s best.
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“I had my chance, and sometimes in life, there are no second chances. You look at what you have, not what you miss, and you move forward.”
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He’d learned long ago: perfection isn’t what families are all about.
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ford's strained debut concerns Henry Lee, a Chinese-American in Seattle who, in 1986, has just lost his wife to cancer. After Henry hears that the belongings of Japanese immigrants interned during WWII have been found in the basement of the Panama Hotel, the narrative shuttles between 1986 and the 1940s in a predictable story that chronicles the losses of old age and the bewilderment of youth. Henry recalls the difficulties of life in America during WWII, when he and his Japanese-American school friend, Keiko, wandered through wartime Seattle. Keiko and her family are later interned in a camp, and Henry, horrified by America's anti-Japanese hysteria, is further conflicted because of his Chinese father's anti-Japanese sentiment. Henry's adult life in 1986 is rather mechanically rendered, and Ford clumsily contrasts Henry's difficulty in communicating with his college-age son, Marty, with Henry's own alienation from his father, who was determined to Americanize him. The wartime persecution of Japanese immigrants is presented well, but the flatness of the narrative and Ford's reliance on numerous cultural cliches make for a disappointing read. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adutl/High School—Henry Lee is a 12-year-old Chinese boy who falls in love with Keiko Okabe, a 12-year-old Japanese girl, while they are scholarship students at a prestigious private school in World War II Seattle. Henry hides the relationship from his parents, who would disown him if they knew he had a Japanese friend. His father insists that Henry wear an "I am Chinese" button everywhere he goes because Japanese residents of Seattle have begun to be shipped off by the thousands to relocation centers. This is an old-fashioned historical novel that alternates between the early 1940s and 1984, after Henry's wife Ethel has died of cancer. A particularly appealing aspect of the story is young Henry's fascination with jazz and his friendship with Sheldon, an older black saxophonist just making a name for himself in the many jazz venues near Henry's home. Other aspects of the story are more typical of the genre: the bullies that plague Henry, his lack of connection with his father, and later with his own son. Readers will care about Henry as he is forced to make decisions and accept circumstances that separate him from both his family and the love of his life. While the novel is less perfect as literature than John Hamamura's Color of the Sea (Thomas Dunne, 2006), the setting and quietly moving, romantic story are commendable.—Angela Carstensen, Convent of the Sacred Heart, New York City
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Ford vacillates between a front story dominated by nostalgia and a backstory dominated by fear. The front story struggles to support the weight of the backstory, and the complexity Ford brings to the latter is the strength of this debut novel, which considers a Chinese American man’s relationship with a Japanese American woman in the 1940s and his son in the 1980s. Although Ford does not have anything especially novel to say about a familiar subject (the interplay between race and family), he writes earnestly and cares for his characters, who consistently defy stereotype. Ford posits great meaning in objects—a button reading “I am Chinese” and a jazz record, in particular—but the most striking moments come from the characters’ readings of each other: “Henry couldn’t picture bathing with his parents the way some Japanese families did. He couldn’t picture himself doing a lot of things with his parents. . . . He felt his stomach turn a little. His heart raced when he thought about Keiko, but his gut tightened just the same.” --Kevin Clouther

Review

“An impressive, bitter, and sweet debut that explores the age-old conflicts between father and son, the beauty and sadness of what happened to Japanese Americans in the Seattle era during World War II, and the depths and longing of deep-heart love.”—Lisa See

“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. This is a beautifully written book that will make you think. And, more important, it will make you feel.”—Garth Stein, bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain

“Mesmerizing and evocative, a tale of conflicted loyalties and timeless devotion.”—Sara Gruen, bestselling author of Water for Elephants

“A wartime-era Chinese-Japanese variation on Romeo and Juliet . . . The period detail [is] so revealing and so well rendered.”—The Seattle Times

“A poignant story that transports the reader back in time . . . a satisfying and heart-wrenching tale.”—Deseret Morning News

“A lovely combination of romantic coincidence, historic detail and realism that is smooth and highly readable . . . Ford does wonderful work in re-creating prewar Seattle.”—The Oregonian

“Heartfelt . . . 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

“Ford’s story of an innocent passion across racial barriers—and of the life of a man who forsook the girl he loved—is told with an artistic technique that makes emotion inevitable.”—Louis B. Jones

“A beautiful and tender masterpiece . . . a book everyone will be talking about, and the best book you’ll read this year.”—Anne Frasier

“A heartwarming story of fathers and sons, first loves, fate, and the resilient human heart . . . marvelously evocative.”—Jim Tomlinson

About the Author

The son of a Chinese American father, Jamie Ford is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels Songs of Willow Frost and Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. Having grown up in Seattle, he now lives in Montana with his wife and children.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Panama Hotel (1986)

Old Henry Lee stood transfixed by all the commotion at the Panama Hotel. What had started as a crowd of curious onlookers eyeballing a television news crew had now swollen into a polite mob of shoppers, tourists, and a few punk-looking street kids, all wondering what the big deal was. In the middle of the crowd stood Henry, shopping bags hanging at his side. He felt as if he were waking from a long forgotten dream. A dream he’d once had as a little boy.

The old Seattle landmark was a place he’d visited twice in his lifetime. First when he was only twelve years old, way back in 1942—“the war years” he liked to call them. Even then the old bachelor hotel had stood as a gateway between Seattle’s Chinatown and Nihonmachi, Japantown. Two outposts of an old-world conflict—where Chinese and Japanese immigrants rarely spoke to one another, while their American-born children often played kick the can in the streets together. The hotel had always been a perfect landmark. A perfect meeting place—where he’d once met the love of his life.

The second time was today. It was 1986, what, forty-plus years later? He’d stopped counting the years as they slipped into memory. After all, he’d spent a lifetime between these bookended visits. A marriage. The birth of an ungrateful son. Cancer, and a burial. He missed his wife, Ethel. She’d been gone six months now. But he didn’t miss her as much as you’d think, as bad as that might sound. It was more like quiet relief really. Her health had been bad—no, worse than bad. The cancer in her bones had been downright crippling, to both of us, he thought.

For the last seven years Henry had fed her, bathed her, helped her to the bathroom when she needed to go, and back again when she was all through. He took care of her night and day, 24/7 as they say these days. Marty, his son, thought his mother should have been put in a home, but Henry would have none of it. “Not in my lifetime,” Henry said, resisting. Not just because he was Chinese (though that was a part of his resistance). The Confucian ideal of filial piety—respect and reverence for one’s parents—was a cultural relic not easily discarded by Henry’s generation. He’d been raised to care for loved ones, personally, and to put someone in a home was unacceptable. What his son, Marty, never fully understood was that deep down there was an Ethel-shaped hole in Henry’s life, and without her, all he felt was the draft of loneliness, cold and sharp, the years slipping away like blood from a wound that never heals.

Now she was gone for good. She needed to be buried, Henry thought, the traditional Chinese way, with food offerings, longevity blankets, and prayer ceremonies lasting several days—despite Marty’s fit about cremating her. He was so modern. He’d been seeing a counselor and dealing with his mother’s death through an online support group, whatever that was. Going online sounded like talking to no one, which Henry had some firsthand experience in—in real life. It was lonely. Almost as lonely as Lake View Cemetery, where he’d buried Ethel. She now had a gorgeous view of Lake Washington, and was interred with Seattle’s other Chinese notables, like Bruce Lee and his own son, Brandon. But in the end, each of them occupied a solitary grave. Alone forever. It didn’t matter who your neighbors were. They didn’t talk back.

When night fell, and it did, Henry chatted with his wife, asking her how her day was. She never replied, of course. “I’m not crazy or anything,” Henry would say to no one, “just open-minded. You never know who’s listening.” Then he’d busy himself pruning his Chinese palm or evergreen—houseplants whose brown leaves confessed his months of neglect. But now he had time once again. Time to care for something that would grow stronger for a change.

Occasionally, though, he’d wonder about statistics. Not the cancer mortality rates that had caught up with dear Ethel. Instead he thought about himself, and his time measured on some life insurance actuarial table. He was only fifty-six—a young man by his own standards. But he’d read in Newsweek about the inevitable decline in the health of a surviving spouse his age. Maybe the clock was ticking? He wasn’t sure, because as soon as Ethel passed, time began to crawl, clock or no clock.

He’d agreed to an early retirement deal at Boeing Field and now had all the time in the world, and no one to share the hours with. No one with whom to walk down to the Mon Hei bakery for yuet beng, carrot mooncakes, on cool autumn evenings.

Instead here he was, alone in a crowd of strangers. A man between lifetimes, standing at the foot of the Panama Hotel once again. Following the cracked steps of white marble that made the hotel look more like an Art Deco halfway house. The establishment, like Henry, seemed caught between worlds. Still, Henry felt nervous and excited, just like he had been as a boy, whenever he walked by. He’d heard a rumor in the marketplace and wandered over from the video store on South Jackson. At first he thought there was some kind of accident because of the growing size of the crowd. But he didn’t hear or see anything, no sirens wailing, no flashing lights. Just people drifting toward the hotel, like the tide going out, pulling at their feet, propelling them forward, one step at a time.

As Henry walked over, he saw a news crew arrive and followed them inside. The crowd parted as camera-shy onlookers politely stepped away, clearing a path. Henry followed right behind, shuffling his feet so as not to step on anyone, or in turn be stepped upon, feeling the crowd press back in behind him. At the top of the steps, just inside the lobby, the hotel’s new owner announced, “We’ve found something in the basement.”

Found what? A body perhaps? Or a drug lab of some kind? No, there’d be police officers taping off the area if the hotel were a crime scene.

Before the new owner, the hotel had been boarded up since 1950, and in those years, Chinatown had become a ghetto gateway for tongs—gangs from Hong Kong and Macau. The city blocks south of King Street had a charming trashiness by day; the litter and slug trails on the sidewalk were generally overlooked as tourists peered up at egg-and-dart architecture from another era. Children on field trips, wrapped in colorful coats and hats, held hands as they followed their noses to the mouthwatering sight of barbecue duck in the windows, hanging red crayons melting in the sun. But at night, drug dealers and bony, middle-aged hookers working for dime bags haunted the streets and alleys. The thought of this icon of his childhood becoming a makeshift crack house made him ache with a melancholy he hadn’t felt since he held Ethel’s hand and watched her exhale, long and slow, for the last time.

Precious things just seemed to go away, never to be had again.

As he took off his hat and began fanning himself with the threadbare brim, the crowd pushed forward, pressing in from the rear. Flashbulbs went off. Standing on his tippy toes, he peered over the shoulder of the tall news reporter in front of him.

The new hotel owner, a slender Caucasian woman, slightly younger than Henry, walked up the steps holding . . . an umbrella? She popped it open, and Henry’s heart beat a little faster as he saw it for what it was. A Japanese parasol, made from bamboo, bright red and white—with orange koi painted on it, carp that looked like giant goldfish. It shed a film of dust that floated, suspended momentarily in the air as the hotel owner twirled the fragile-looking artifact for the cameras. Two more men brought up a steamer trunk bearing the stickers of foreign ports: Admiral Oriental Lines out of Seattle and Yokohama, Tokyo. On the side of the trunk was the name Shimizu, hand-painted in large white letters. It was opened for the curious crowd. Inside were clothing, photo albums, and an old electric rice cooker. The new hotel owner explained that in the basement she had discovered the belongings of thirty-seven Japanese families who she presumed had been persecuted and taken away. Their belongings had been hidden and never recovered—a time capsule from the war years.

Henry stared in silence as a small parade of wooden packing crates and leathery suitcases were hauled upstairs, the crowd marveling at the once-precious items held within: a white communion dress, tarnished silver candlesticks, a picnic basket—items that had collected dust, untouched, for forty-plus years. Saved for a happier time that never came.

The more Henry thought about the shabby old knickknacks, the forgotten treasures, the more he wondered if his own broken heart might be found in there, hidden among the unclaimed possessions of another time. Boarded up in the basement of a condemned hotel. Lost, but never forgotten.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books; First Edition (January 27, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0345505336
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0345505330
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.4 x 1.17 x 9.61 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #68,876 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,152 in Family Saga Fiction
- #4,331 in American Literature (Books)
- #4,762 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 15,454 ratings

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Jamie Ford

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Jamie Ford is the great grandson of Nevada mining pioneer Min Chung, who emigrated from Hoiping, China, to San Francisco in 1865, where he adopted the western name "Ford," thus confusing countless generations.

His debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, spent two-and-a-half years on the New York Times bestseller list and went on to win the 2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. His work has been translated into 35 languages. Jamie is still holding out for Klingon (that's when you know you've made it).

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Customers say

Customers find the story beautiful, delightful, and poignant. They praise the writing quality as well-written, well-composed, and amazing. Readers describe the characters as well-developed, interesting, and multidimensional. They also describe the emotional content as heartbreaking yet good. Readers appreciate the information quality, saying it's informative and relevant. They describe the storyline as extraordinary, believable, and explores family relationships.

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Story quality Writing quality Character development Emotional content Information quality Storyline Pacing Predictable storyline

1,595 customers mention "Story quality"1,556 positive39 negative

Customers find the story beautiful, delightful, and poignant. They say the major storyline is original and surprising. Readers also mention the book is a solid coming-of-age story set in a time period when few people were. They say it tells a personal story of family, love, and friendship.

"...in alternating chapters and dated with a dual timeline, this beautiful story unfolds. I loved the thought process and kindness that Henry possessed...." Read more

"...When Henry takes Keiko to the Black Elks Club, it is such a beautiful scene. I love it.Recommendation – Buy, Borrow or Skip?Buy it...." Read more

"...This novel is fabulous! It is beautiful, sweet and bitter (the title is perfect), romantic and emotionally stirring...." Read more

"...A wonderful way to introduce an older teen to that period of history. It's not Christian but there is no bad language...." Read more

529 customers mention "Writing quality"480 positive49 negative

Customers find the book well-written, well-researched, and readable. They also say the story is amazing and realistic.

"...Beautifully crafted, this book is a five star read for me and one I highly recommend." Read more

"...This novel is fabulous! It is beautiful, sweet and bitter (the title is perfect), romantic and emotionally stirring...." Read more

"...It's not Christian but there is no bad language. And like the title implies, there are some sad parts--but sweet ones too, and a nice ending." Read more

"...This book does an outstanding job telling the story of the history and attitudes of this time in Seattle, and Ford's descriptions of Seattle's..." Read more

218 customers mention "Character development"194 positive24 negative

Customers find the characters well-developed, interesting, and multidimensional. They also say Henry is likable and the historical aspect adds insight to the characters.

"...their life story with a very authentic feel and characters that are well developped and genuine...." Read more

"Unexpected, tragic, and sweet. I truly enjoyed the book. I loved the honesty of a character who didn’t live up to his parents expectations and felt..." Read more

"...This book is full of richly-developed characters, realistic and emotionally-drawing relationships and their struggles...." Read more

"Well drawn characters and an absorbing story. I enjoyed the past and present. There was a satisfying ending which is always nice" Read more

159 customers mention "Emotional content"145 positive14 negative

Customers find the emotional content heartbreaking yet good. They say it's sweet and melancholy at the same time. Readers also mention the book is a perfect balance between bitter and sweet.

"...This novel is fabulous! It is beautiful, sweet and bitter (the title is perfect), romantic and emotionally stirring...." Read more

"...Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was simply that, bitter and sweet...." Read more

"Unexpected, tragic, and sweet. I truly enjoyed the book...." Read more

"...This story is riveting, sad, and heartwarming. I could tell that Mr.Ford did his homework...." Read more

136 customers mention "Information quality"129 positive7 negative

Customers find the book very informative, interesting, and relevant. They say it's well-researched and has amazing descriptions of events and emotions. Readers also mention the book would be a great book for the classroom and thought-provoking.

"...HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET is an excellent choice for book clubs or for anyone craving a compelling story about human nature and..." Read more

"4 stars. Very informative novel and a great way to learn more about this period of our history...." Read more

"...As time progressed, I really grew fond of this book. This book has everything you need, if you are a hopeless romantic...." Read more

"...Within a month they become best friends. Jamie Ford did an amazing time describing events and emotions felt...." Read more

106 customers mention "Storyline"106 positive0 negative

Customers find the storyline extraordinary, believable, and realistic. They say it explores family relationships, loyalty, honor, and faith. Readers also mention the book builds on themes of loss, recovery, and growing up.

"...at adolescent love, their feelings are strong and their reactions completely believable...." Read more

"...a very authentic feel and characters that are well developped and genuine...." Read more

"...This book is full of richly-developed characters, realistic and emotionally-drawing relationships and their struggles...." Read more

"The storyline is factual and thought provoking and it makes me feel for the people who lived it in the past." Read more

125 customers mention "Pacing"55 positive70 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the pacing of the book. Some mention it's beautifully divided timeline, while others say it's slow and unreal.

"...excellent, but uninspiring and lacking creativity; most of the story is slow and only barely interesting enough to keep one’s interest...." Read more

"...we so often want from art is to move us emotionally, and this book did not disappoint...." Read more

"...It seems just plain unnatural. As for Henry's compulsion to find the phonograph record, even more unlikely...." Read more

"...Enlightening, moving and satisfying, "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" is a must-read." Read more

63 customers mention "Predictable storyline"19 positive44 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the predictable storyline. Some mention it's nice, complex, and suspenseful. Others say some subplots are transparently predictable and unconvincing.

"...Okay, some of the sub-plots are transparently predictable, but the major storyline is original, and the novel contains a surprising -- yet totally..." Read more

"...The characters are cut from cardboard, the plot is predictable, and the style is flat, pedantic and slow...." Read more

"Unexpected, tragic, and sweet. I truly enjoyed the book...." Read more

"...I found it a little predictable." Read more

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KWyly

Touching and captivating

Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2024

Verified Purchase

This is not only a love story between a husband and his dying wife, between a father and his son, and between childhood friends now grown up. It is also a saga of times past. Times that Henry Lee refers to as “The War Years.”

The story opens in 1986 as our protagonist, Henry Lee, an older Chinese gentleman, sees that the Panama Hotel is being renovated back to its full glory as it was before The War. The new owner is bringing up the unopened, unclaimed trunks that have been stored in the basement of the hotel for the last forty years.

Henry remembers the old hotel as it was in 1942 - a beautiful landmark standing between Seattle’s Chinatown and Japantown. Where the adults in those communities would not talk to each other but their kids played together in the streets.

In 1986, Henry is a widower. He cared for his dying wife at home for seven years which furthered his estranged relationship with their college aged son who wanted his mother to be cared for in a nice facility.

Henry and his own father had never had a relationship other than one fraught with tension and fear. His parents spoke no English yet he wasn’t allowed to speak anything but English at home. Communication was bad at best. Henry was a scholarship student at a prestigious all white private school. As a scholarship student, he served food in the school cafeteria and cleaned erasures and classrooms after school.

Tension was a way of life for 12 year old Henry as he navigated his parent’s old ways at home and the ever present bullies in the neighborhood and at school. He had no friends his own age.

In fact, his only friend was a black musician twice Henry’s age who played the saxophone on the street corner on Henry’s way to school. Every day, Henry gave his lunch to Sheldon and on the way home, he was given a coin from the day’s earnings. He usually bought a flower or a small treat for his mother.

Then one day, there was a new helper in the school kitchen. A girl. Keiko, a Japanese scholarship student, who had the same daily duties as Henry. They became close friends.

When Pearl Harbor was bombed, life changed rapidly for these young friends. Henry’s father made him wear a pin everywhere he went that read I AM CHINESE. But fear and prejudice was rampant against Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor. Like thousands of other Japanese Americans, Keiko and her family were rounded up, allowed one suitcase each, put on trains, and sent to relocation camps. Businesses and properties were lost. Many Japanese families from Seattle stored their most precious possessions in the basement of the famous Panama Hotel.

And now, the hotel was being renovated and those trunks untouched for forty years were being opened and items inside displayed. Henry got permission to go to the basement and search the trunks for an old record that meant so much to him and to Keiko.

Told in alternating chapters and dated with a dual timeline, this beautiful story unfolds. I loved the thought process and kindness that Henry possessed. I loved the curmudgeon-like cafeteria manager who was gruff and no nonsense but had a kind and wise heart. The bullies - kids and adults alike - are ever so mean as they focused in the only way the knew how to deal with what they didn’t understand. This story was strong in its gentleness, a story of survival and love in the rapidly changing world before, during, and after World War II. Beautifully crafted, this book is a five star read for me and one I highly recommend.

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Charlie Anderson

historical, emotionally compelling and inspiring story

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2016

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Henry Lee is a grown man nearing the end of his life. He has recently lost his wife to cancer and struggles to bridge the gap in his relationship with his college-attending son. One day he comes upon artifacts being unearthed from inside the Panama Hotel, and he is thrown back into a swirl of memories from his childhood, from a time when he promised to protect a family’s most precious possessions. Henry reflects on his friendship with Keiko, and he continues to sift through the remains in the Panama Hotel, looking for the belongings of Keiko and her family, and enlists his son and his girlfriend to assist him…while he slowly tells his story of friendship, defiance, and commitment to his own son.

The Players
Henry – a young Chinese-American boy torn in a world of white vs. Chinese. vs. Japanese

Sheldon – a black Jazz player Henry befriends

Keiko – a young Japanese-American girl who ends up attending Henry’s all-white school

Ms. Beatty – the school cook responsible for Henry and Keiko’s scholarshipping duties at school

Marty – Henry’s privileged son; Chinese-American living in a modern world

Samantha – Marty’s Caucasion girlfriend

The Quote
He walked to school each day, going upstream against a sea of Chinese kids who called him “white devil.” He worked in the school kitchen as white devils called him “yellow.”

Prosperity didn’t seem to reach locals like Sheldon. He was a polished jazz player, whose poverty had less to do with his musical ability and more to do with his color. Henry had liked him immediately. Not because they both were outcasts, although if he really thought about it, that might have had a ring of truth to it – no, he liked him because of his music. Henry didn’t know what jazz was, he knew only it was something his parents didn’t listen to, and that made him like it even more.

He thought about those three Japanese couple laying facedown on the dirty floor of the Black Elks Club in their evening finery. Being hauled out and jailed somewhere. He stared back at Mr. Preston, a man trying to buy land out from under families who were now burning their most precious possessions to keep from being called traitors or spies.

The Highs and Lows
Henry’s Inner Conflict. Henry is most conflicted in following his father’s rules and expectations. He ends up doing things that outright defy his father, and others that are done on the sly. Regardless, Henry spends three years being ignored by his father entirely, and told during such highly emotional times that he is a stranger, that he is dead to his father. Henry must choose between what is right and his father’s hatred for the Japanese. For a highly traditional family, it is not something that is easy for Henry, but it is something he must do.

+ 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.

– 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.

Marty. Marty’s appearance at the beginning of the book painted him as a disgustingly privileged young American boy living it up at college. As the book goes on, though, and Henry’s relationship with his son deepens, there is more to Marty than meets the eye. Henry is so afraid that his son will not approve of his childhood friendship with Keiko that he at first does not want to tell their story for fear of tarnishing his late wife’s memory, but Marty is a young man who believes in happiness.
Fathers and Sons. Henry mentions on more than one occasion his own perspective of his relationship with his father, comparable to a widening gulf with no conversation and very little reaction. At one point, he realizes he had enacted and enforced the same type of relationship with his own son, continuing the cycle, and makes a conscious choice not to.

Ms. Beatty. The school kitchen cook is more than meets the eye. She seems like a lazy, smoking white woman with little regard for the Asians working in her kitchen, but nothing could be further from the truth. When things get really sticky for Henry or Keiko, Ms. Beatty is there. She shows up the white kids who picked on Henry and Keiko. When Keiko is gone and in the internment camp, Ms. Beatty finds a way for Henry to get to her. Turns out Ms. Beatty has much at stake like Henry and Keiko. She’s just doing what she can.

Racism, Prejudices and People of Color. Yes, this book has it all: African-Americans, Chinese-Americans and Japanese-Americans in a time when all were shunned and unwanted in a homogeneous white society. They are left on the fringes, and even turn against one another – at least, the Chinese against the Japanese. They must make the clear distinction they are not Japanese, hence the “I am Chinese” button Henry’s father requires him to wear.

The Friendship. Henry and Keiko have such a beautiful childhood friendship. True, it is forged on the fringes of nonacceptance, exclusion and rejection by attending an all-white school – and having to scholarshipping through it.

Power of the Words. The language and images that Ford paints are absolutely beautiful. She creates such a world of nostalgia that forces the reader to reminisce with Henry, and fall in love alongside him.

The Take-Away
When Henry takes Keiko to the Black Elks Club, it is such a beautiful scene. I love it.

Recommendation – Buy, Borrow or Skip?
Buy it. This is not one to skip past, and I definitely wouldn’t borrow it.

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Top reviews from other countries

Mazy

The power of love

Reviewed in Canada on December 16, 2021

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This story is a lifetime long and ends with a new beginning. The power of love is prevalent, romantic love, parental love, the love of country and culture. Strong forces pushed and pulled at each other throughout. I truly enjoyed the characters in the story and will miss them as much as they missed each other.

Beck

Beautifully written

Reviewed in Germany on June 2, 2019

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Although I read this book years ago, the story is one that has never left my mind. It's beautifully written, a lovely story about true friendship and true love, set in a historical context I had heard little about before reading it. Over the years I've recommended this book often.
I read it in English on my Kindle , but I bought it in paperback as a present for German relatives in German, and the German translation is good.

原信一

Wonderful and heartwarming

Reviewed in Japan on June 3, 2024

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It is a story of love that resides in everyone’ heart and brings tears to my eyes when I finish reading it. I also could learn many aspects of people’s lives in Seattle during World War II.

blue

A Bittersweet Story

Reviewed in India on March 30, 2017

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a heart wrenching yet a beautifully touching story as well. Though the story is fictional the happenings of those times are real and that hurts and u wish that were fictional too.

R. E. Coleman

Slow start but a great read

Reviewed in Australia on November 14, 2017

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I loved the story. Once I got used to the flashbacks, it was a really gripping story. Highly recommended. I knew about the Japanese internment but the hatred between Chinese and Japanese origin US citizens was new to me.

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