Original review posted: Mar 19, 09

I have to admit that I did not like this book. Mr. Ford is a decent writer, and while he did research 1942 fairly extensively, he did a crappy job portraying 1986. I was alive in '86. I was ten, in fact. While my memory of the time is going to be different than that of a 50 year old character, I wound up being very tired of the repeated anachronisms. In one paragraph--on page four of the book, I believe--the narrator tells the readers that the main character's s More...

I loved this book, but I had one minor annoyance with it. The author had 4 anachronisms: the book is set (in part) in 1986, and yet the son is in an "on-line" grief support group, and used the internet to look up a lost friend, and there is talk twice about digital conversion of records to CDs.

This book is told by a 50+ year old second generation Chinese-American. It is told in two different time periods, and flows back and forth between the 1940's to 1986 seemlessly. It is the story of a young More...

Switching between 1942 and 1986 this is an easy read on a complex subject. A historical romance with a Romeo & Juliet twist, this time the doomed love affair between Henry, a Chinese American and Keiko, a Japanese American; its historical focus the internment of Japanese Americans during WW2.
I loved the inclusion of Seattle’s music scene, the symbolism of the lost jazz record interwoven throughout, the passages that escalated it above a pure romance novel. (view spoiler)[ In one, after the Japanese had al (hide spoiler)] More...

Oy vey.
I really did want to like this book. It sounded like the perfect book for my mood: Not too highfalutin or literary, but a good story I which I can immerse myself and escape to a different time and place.
As I went on Goodreads a few days ago to add the book to my list of 'currently reading' however, I came across a number of really bad reviews. Disappointed, and somewhat deflated, I nevertheless read on trying to ignore the negativity, stay positive and try to like the story and get into More...

This newly-published book got a lot of hype and was favorably reviewed by authors I have read and loved (not to mention being Costco's pick of the month :]), but I was disappointed by the overly sentimental tone and predictable plot. Henry Lee, son of Chinese immigrants, has just lost his wife to cancer (it is 1986), and the book is a series of flashbacks to 1942 and his friendship with a young second-generation Japanese-American girl named Keiko, his first love. The relationship is complicated More...

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford, Release Date 1/27/2009, $24.00

I've just finished reading Jamie Ford's forthcoming novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, and am still basking in the glow. The characters are fully realized, the title is a real attention grabber, and the story fleshed out with plenty of local and period detail. Ford provides an intimate look at life on the homefront during WWII from the uncommon perpective of an earnest Chinese-American boy and his More...

Great book. I love novels based on historical fact. I finished it in just a day and a half. Hard to believe it is a first novel. I am looking forward to more from this author. I looked up some of the people and places mentioned in the book, just to see if they were real - and was pleased to find that they were. Of course if I had read the acknolwedgements at the end of the book I would have known that already.

"Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" is as saccharine and overly sentimental as the title suggests. It is historical fiction for the Nicholas Sparks set -- an emotionally heavy-handed novel that is well told, but not particularly well written.

There are some diamonds in the rough, though: the historical aspects of the novel are very interesting; the relationships depicted in the book, while not always believable, are complex; and, the issues related to cultural identity and racial discrimin More...

I'm always a little behind the curve when it comes to reading blockbuster NYT bestsellers. I think a part of me resists because I love finding "little" books that deserve kudos and talking about them. But I had heard so many good things about THE HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET that I bought it, though I sat on it a while before I cracked it open to read. Once I did, I was hooked instantly by the wonderful character of Henry Lee, a 12-year-old boy in Seattle's Chinatown during the early More...

If this isn't an eye opening book, I don't know what is.

This is a story of a 1st generation Chinese American boy named Henry in 1942 Seattle. During World War II his father wants to ensure no one confuses him for the ostracized Japanese and sends his son to an all white school with an "I Am Chinese" button on his clothing. There he meets 2nd generation Japanese American girl named Keiko. Though Henry's father has a passionate hatred for the Japanese, Henry develops a sweet, deep and secretive f More...

A rich, tender, personal story so touching and full of history I should know, but didn't. Pulled at my heartstrings and made me longingly linger over and over the last few chapters.
Set durring the height of Nihonmachi district (JapanTown) area of Seattle, Washingtom. You jump from 1986 to 1942 thoughout the story. To tell the tale of Henery Lee an intelligent, brave, 12yr old Chinese American quickly growing into a man thru struggling WWII times. He has a strained relationship with his father mi More...

Although this is probably one of those implausible love stories that D. Steele might have written, the story is so much bigger and deeper because the author uses a first love to describe the differences and similarities of three generations of Chinese fathers and sons and what it means to be "American".

The setting moves back and forth between Seattle's International District during WWII and contemporary Seattle. So, that gives it a special geographical interest to me. The author gives an intima More...

I was interested in this novel primarily because of its depiction of anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States during the 1940s. Ford does a nice job of showing some of the injustices perpetrated against Japanese Americans, who were evacuated from their homes, stripped of most of their possessions, and sent to internment camps despite little evidence that they presented any real threat to U.S. national security. Through the eyes of a young Chinese American boy, we see the destructive effects More...

My book club read this book and when I passed the cover in an airport I knew I just had to read it. When my girlfriend found it on sale it put it on my list.

Okay this is a do not pass up book, the reading is light goes quickly but the story is deep. I can't help but think of my very first real crush I had in the seventh grade, it my first attempt at understanding the very adult feeling I was having towards Tony. The funny thing is I can't tell you my husbands birthday but I can still remember th More...

3.5 stars


I really liked this story. The characters were well developed and the scenes were so descriptive I felt like if I listened hard enough I would hear jazz playing in the background. It's the story of a young Chinese boy and Japanese girl during WW2 who find a soul mate in one another. They are separated when the U.S started relocating the Japanese into camps. They spend most of their lives apart and married to other people, only to find one another later in life after their spouses die. I More...

I absolutely couldn't put this love story down. An ill-fated romance falls victim to racial segregation and social mores yet survives in the soulful times of jazz clubs, and World War. A must read! I cried!!!

I tend to enjoy novels that flash back and forth from past to present, and this novel was no different (though "present" is 1986). The story features Henry, a Chinese man in his fifties who lives in Seattle. The bulk of the events take place in the early 1940's during the heart of WWII, when Henry was only twelve. His Chinese parents enact several harsh rules for their son: sending him to an American school where he's beaten and teased for being Chinese, insisting he speak to them only in Englis More...

Hotel made me cry, made me laugh and brought me joy. It's a beautifully written and tender story about first love, the human experience surrounding racial divides, generational conflicts, and the internment of Japanese Americans. You won't be disappointed with Hotel.

I fell in love with the main character of this book from the first chapter. A wonderful story of love told through the lens of racism, prejudice, and war. Good storytelling combined with memorable and endearing characters. Highly recommended.

What a beautifully written book! But also so sad and eye opening. I had, of course, heard of the Japanese interment camps in the western US during WWII, but I had no idea what was involved, really. It's so difficult for me to imagine that such things went on right here in my own country. I do think the book has the wrong title, although I have no idea what title I would give it. I just don't think the title conveys much about the book, or the right impression of what is inside.

I cried multiple t More...

I really wanted to rate this book a 5 and if I gave half ratings I suppose I'd give it 4.5. This book just drew me into the setting of Seattle during the 1940s and the internment of American citizens who were of Japanese decent during WWII. This book, in fact, made me cry which is an effect that few books have on me. I tend to be a fairly stoic person and that carries over into my reading but by the time I was finishing this book I was all weepy and glad no one was around to see me working my wa More...

Amazing - simply amazing! I couldn't put this down. I loved Henry, a Chinese-American boy during WWII, trying to figure if he's Chinese or American, really being neither, and falling for a Japanese American girl. Beautifully written.

I loved this book so much. I am glad I didn't read any of the reviews before I downloaded the Kindle sample. By the end of the sample I was hooked and purchased the book and no bad review could have ruined it for me. (people seem to be really upset about a few errouneous references to the internet in the 80s. Yes, I got that, too, but it really didn’t ruin the book)

Apart from the historical setting of Japanese internment during the World War 2, something I didn’t know much about, I was truly int More...

I read this with my book club. I felt it was too elementary a treatment for my knowledge of the subject.

Great book.... a lovely story told in a wonderful voice...

It is hard to believe that this was a debut novel written by Jamie Ford. He did an outstanding job writing this story, and the book will make you feel, think, cry and smile. I found this gentle tale of love and friendship and loyalty between unlikely classmates to be delightful.

The date was 1942 and Henry was the only Chinese student in an all white school. One day a new person enters the story. It is Keiko, a Japanese girl who will work with him in the school cafeteria since the are both schol More...

Ne abbiamo lette a migliaia di storie d'amore impossibili, difficili, romantiche ecc.
Perciò, per quanto riguarda la trama è inutile dilungarsi.

Elencherò solo le impressioni nate casualmente mentre leggevo.
La frase a pag.0, contenente una citazione di Duke Ellington mi ha indispettito. Mi secca da morire vedere la lingua italiana maltrattata dall'oralità, dal gergo giovanile, e dagli inglesismi, francesismi eccetera.. Ma dai libri, di solito mi aspetto una cosa diversa. Perciò veder tradotta la More...

First of all, I am so proud of myself for finishing a book club book before book club meets! Secondly, I loved this book! I loved the slow, unfolding of Henry's life, while at the same time being dumbstruck by what happened here in America during the Japanese internment camps. We grew up hearing about the Nazi atrocities, but little is taught about the camps we had here. In fact, when a student was researching concentration camps prior to the reading of Anne Frank, and found Crystal City, Texas More...