Jan. 27, 2009
BOOK REVIEW: 'Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet' Explores Family, Cultural Tensions in WWII Seattle
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
Jamie Ford's "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" (Ballantine, 304 pages, $24) is a debut novel with abundant sentiment but not sentimentality as it describes the friendship and love between Chinese-American Henry Lee and Japanese-American Keiko Okabe in early 1940s Seattle.
The two 12-year-olds are the only Asian students in a private school and are drawn to each other in a Seattle where the city's ethnic groups don't mix. The fifth-grade scholarship students share a love of jazz, an integral part of Seattle's music scene at the time, and become friends with a black saxophone player named Sheldon, who is in his mid 20s. Henry is continually victimized by bullies Chaz Preston and Denny Brown -- classmates at Ranier Elementary -- because of his ethnicity and especially because of his friendship with Keiko.
It only gets worse after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and when the federal government starts rounding up Japanese-Americans in early 1942. The internment of 110,000 Japanese-Americans, promoted by racist Californians and others on the West Coast and promulgated by President Roosevelt in his February 1942 Executive Order 9066 -- against the advice of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and others -- is vividly described by Ford, himself of part Chinese ancestry.
Complicating the friendship is Henry's Chinese-born father, who doesn't want his son fraternizing with the "enemy." His father wants Henry to succeed in the U.S. -- which accounts for his son's studying at a prestigious all-Caucasian school -- but he wants his American-born son to retain his identity as a ethnic Cantonese. His father supplies Henry with an "I Am Chinese" button to distance him from Japanese-Americans.
The novel toggles between the war years and 1986, when the 56-year-old Henry is now a widower, having lost his wife Ethel to lung cancer. He took early retirement from his job at Boeing to care for his terminally ill wife. The conflict between Henry and his dogmatic father is mirrored in Henry's often rocky relationship with his college student son Marty, a brilliant senior chemistry major at Seattle University. Marty is as rebellious as the young Henry and is engaged to a Caucasian fellow student, Samantha, who charms Henry with her skill at cooking his favorite Chinese dishes.
A friend to both Henry and Keiko at Ranier Elementary is the "lunch lady," Mrs. Beatty, a tough, chain-smoking woman who hires the two friends to help in the school kitchen. Later, Mrs. Beatty helps Henry meet Keiko at a temporary "internment" camp at the Pulayup state fair grounds near Tacoma. She does this by hiring Henry as a kitchen helper for her food preparation job at Camp Harmony's mess hall. Sheldon helps Henry out by suggesting a bus trip to the Minidoka camp, near Eden, Idaho, where Keiko and her family are interned -- and lending moral support to his young friend by accompanying Henry on the trip from Seattle to Idaho.
Both Sheldon and Mrs. Beatty verge on cliche' characters at times, but the author's handling of them is usually deft. Marty at times sounds like a character from "Flower Drum Song" -- especially with his "Pops" greeting to his father -- but Marty shows his love for his father in the novel's denouement.
If you liked "Snow Falling on Cedars," you'll enjoy reading "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet." I wouldn't be surprised if both Oprah and major Hollywood studios are in contact with Jamie Ford.
Publisher's web site: www.ballantinebooks.com
Author's web site: www.jamieford.com
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BOOK REVIEW: 'Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet' Explores Family, Cultural Tensions in WWII Seattle
By David M. Kinchen
Huntingtonnews.net Book Critic
Jamie Ford's "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" (Ballantine, 304 pages, $24) is a debut novel with abundant sentiment but not sentimentality as it describes the friendship and love between Chinese-American Henry Lee and Japanese-American Keiko Okabe in early 1940s Seattle.
The two 12-year-olds are the only Asian students in a private school and are drawn to each other in a Seattle where the city's ethnic groups don't mix. The fifth-grade scholarship students share a love of jazz, an integral part of Seattle's music scene at the time, and become friends with a black saxophone player named Sheldon, who is in his mid 20s. Henry is continually victimized by bullies Chaz Preston and Denny Brown -- classmates at Ranier Elementary -- because of his ethnicity and especially because of his friendship with Keiko.
It only gets worse after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and when the federal government starts rounding up Japanese-Americans in early 1942. The internment of 110,000 Japanese-Americans, promoted by racist Californians and others on the West Coast and promulgated by President Roosevelt in his February 1942 Executive Order 9066 -- against the advice of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and others -- is vividly described by Ford, himself of part Chinese ancestry.
Complicating the friendship is Henry's Chinese-born father, who doesn't want his son fraternizing with the "enemy." His father wants Henry to succeed in the U.S. -- which accounts for his son's studying at a prestigious all-Caucasian school -- but he wants his American-born son to retain his identity as a ethnic Cantonese. His father supplies Henry with an "I Am Chinese" button to distance him from Japanese-Americans.
The novel toggles between the war years and 1986, when the 56-year-old Henry is now a widower, having lost his wife Ethel to lung cancer. He took early retirement from his job at Boeing to care for his terminally ill wife. The conflict between Henry and his dogmatic father is mirrored in Henry's often rocky relationship with his college student son Marty, a brilliant senior chemistry major at Seattle University. Marty is as rebellious as the young Henry and is engaged to a Caucasian fellow student, Samantha, who charms Henry with her skill at cooking his favorite Chinese dishes.
A friend to both Henry and Keiko at Ranier Elementary is the "lunch lady," Mrs. Beatty, a tough, chain-smoking woman who hires the two friends to help in the school kitchen. Later, Mrs. Beatty helps Henry meet Keiko at a temporary "internment" camp at the Pulayup state fair grounds near Tacoma. She does this by hiring Henry as a kitchen helper for her food preparation job at Camp Harmony's mess hall. Sheldon helps Henry out by suggesting a bus trip to the Minidoka camp, near Eden, Idaho, where Keiko and her family are interned -- and lending moral support to his young friend by accompanying Henry on the trip from Seattle to Idaho.
Both Sheldon and Mrs. Beatty verge on cliche' characters at times, but the author's handling of them is usually deft. Marty at times sounds like a character from "Flower Drum Song" -- especially with his "Pops" greeting to his father -- but Marty shows his love for his father in the novel's denouement.
If you liked "Snow Falling on Cedars," you'll enjoy reading "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet." I wouldn't be surprised if both Oprah and major Hollywood studios are in contact with Jamie Ford.
Publisher's web site: www.ballantinebooks.com
Author's web site: www.jamieford.com
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