Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

First of all, how great is this title? Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. It's the kind of title that jumps out at me, and makes me want to read before I even know the basic plot (aside from the obvious theme of the bittersweet dishes life usually serves). I'm glad to report that author Jamie Ford's debut didn't disappoint; his take on the U.S. internment of Japanese citizens during World War II (told from the point of view of a 12-year-old Chinese boy) is poignant and utterly unique.

The story begins with Old Henry Lee, a Chinese-American gentleman, standing at the entrance of the Panama Hotel, a formerly grand building that in its heyday stood at the juncture between Japantown and Chinatown. For Old Henry Lee, the hotel also stands at the juncture between his past and present, and the novel moves between boyhood flashbacks and present-day occurences that remind him of those turbulent, yet somehow incredibly sweet, days.

As a child Henry Lee's father makes him wear an "I am Chinese" button to his mostly-white school every day, but children mock him and call him "Jap" or "Jap-lover" regardless. When Keiko, a pretty young Japanese girl, enrolls in the same school, Henry is surprised to discover in her a true and beautiful friend. He hides the friendship from his father, who bitterly hates all people and things Japanese, and must also come to grips with the fact that Keiko and her family are to be taken without reason and sent to a "prison" camp far away. Henry struggles with questions of love and loyalty, hope and despair, reason and injustice; who is he, and who is Keiko? What draws them together, and what makes them different? Even more important, what makes them the same?

Ford's writing is succinct and clear, yet encompasses a level of depth and thoughtfulness rare in modern American fiction. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is more than a story, and will instill in readers the knowledge and sense of thoughtfulness that are hallmarks of a work of literature well-done.

An oak.