July 28

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (2009)
By Jamie Ford

Set in 1940s Seattle during the backdrop of World War 2, this is sweet coming-of-age story is about prejudice, injustice, and friendship.  Like Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See (Feb 4), this story is told from the perspective of adolescents.  12-year-old Henry Lee is a Chinese student at a prep school where the white kids either ignore or bully him, until he meets Japanese student Keiko, with whom he develops an instant friendship.  Where adults sometimes fail to look beyond a person's appearance, Henry and Keiko have a bond that goes much deeper.  That relationship is interrupted, however, when Keiko's family is taken away to be held in a Japanese internment camp.  The book actually opens about 40 years after the preceding events, with Henry (now a widower) witnessing the opening of the old Panama Hotel, where a cache of displaced Japanese peoples' belongings, there since the war years, is found.  Henry is sure Keiko's old umbrella is among the treasures, and he starts to think about her, and wonder how he can best raise his own son to avoid the prejudice and mistakes of the pre-war years.