More than just a metaphor, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet takes us on a paper faded journey filled with the subtle sights and sounds of a time long gone.
It's a love story, a coming of age story, and a historical narrative all wrapped into one. It's also a curious look backward in time, where we meet a young Henry Lee and watch how both small and major events help shape him into the man we come to love by the end of the book.
The book begins shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor with a young Henry as the only Chinese student at a local school in Seattle. His strict immigrant parents have chosen to send him there, as opposed to the traditional Chinese school, in hopes that Henry might be viewed and accepted as more American. Like many children born to immigrant families, he is still expected to obey the laws and influence of his Chinese heritage. Henry carefully manages to keep a foot in both worlds until he meets Keiko Okabe, a Japanese girl who like him, works in the kitchen as part of her "scholarshipping" agreement.
As the relationship between Henry and Keiko deepens, so does the anti-Japanese sentiment in Seattle. Homes are ransacked and shops destroyed. Eventually all Japanese , including Keiko, are rounded up and shipped off to interment camps.
The drama that unfolds for both Henry and Keiko is captivating. Author Jamie Ford manages to insert beauty and humanity into his characters, which are believable and flawed. The plot is woven with care and devoid of the dreaded holes that plague many books. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet ended the way it began; full of promise and a tinge of sadness that the story eventually had to come to an end.
