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What Members Thought
I really want to say this book was bittersweet, but given the title that would be too easy. The story was heart-renderingly tender and poignant. I knew that nearly all Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during WWII, but I got a deeper glimpse into this travesty through the Okabe family's story. You sort of know how the story is going to go, yet at some point you just let yourself get lost in it and surrender your emotions. The looking at the past from the present narrative seemed e
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3.5***
Henry Lee, a 12-year-old Chinese American, has only one friend at Rainier elementary school in 1942 Seattle. She is his fellow cafeteria worker/scholarship student – Keiko Okabe – a second-generation Japanese American. The events of World War II will greatly affect these two young people, on the cusp between childhood friendship and teenage love. Fast forward to 1986 Seattle, where Henry has recently lost his wife, Ethel, to cancer. When the Panama Hotel’s new owner begins renovations to r ...more
Henry Lee, a 12-year-old Chinese American, has only one friend at Rainier elementary school in 1942 Seattle. She is his fellow cafeteria worker/scholarship student – Keiko Okabe – a second-generation Japanese American. The events of World War II will greatly affect these two young people, on the cusp between childhood friendship and teenage love. Fast forward to 1986 Seattle, where Henry has recently lost his wife, Ethel, to cancer. When the Panama Hotel’s new owner begins renovations to r ...more
Wonderful book - great story all the way through - super effort for a new author. Highly recommend for those who like historical fiction - takes place jumping back and forth between 1942 and 1986.
This book is very enjoyable for what it is. It isn't an exceptionally well written novel, or one that delves deeply into the issues or history that are the backdrop to the story, but the plot was extremely satisfying.
There are two timelines to the novel: the "present" (set in 1986) and the past, set between 1942 and 1945. The novel follows Henry, a first-generation Chinese boy in Seattle, who meets Keiko, a second-generation Japanese girl, at an otherwise all-white school. The two become friend ...more
There are two timelines to the novel: the "present" (set in 1986) and the past, set between 1942 and 1945. The novel follows Henry, a first-generation Chinese boy in Seattle, who meets Keiko, a second-generation Japanese girl, at an otherwise all-white school. The two become friend ...more
A truly bittersweet book, perhaps a little too much on the sweet side to make it a great book, still very enjoyable. Henry Lee, a middle-aged Chinese American in Seattle, finds himself at loose ends after his wife's long death from cancer. When the belongings of several Japanese families forced into internment camps during WWII are unearthed at a local hotel, Henry is thrust back into the past and a childhood romance with "the enemy," a Japanese girl named Keiko. Ford's writing is lovely, and he
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Every now and then, I happen upon a book that turns out to be totally different than I expected.
"Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" looked huge when it was standing on my bookyhelf waiting to be read. I thought it would be a story with a broad scope, multiple characters and slow storytelling. I got a chick lit book instead. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.
The flowery page design (beautiful!) and large font of my edition should have been a hint, but this was one of the quickest r ...more
Jan 10, 2013
Nancy Brady
rated it
it was amazing
Shelves:
library-book,
book-exchange-library-group-read
The Panama Hotel is at the junction of Japantown and Chinatown, at the junction of friendship and love, and at the junction of family and friend--and its renovation forty years later leads Henry to revisit the World War II years in Seattle and his friendships (with Sheldon and Keiko) and family relationships (with his father and mother and his son).
Overall, a wonderful historical novel with a few anachronisms regarding the Internet, but otherwise, worth the read.
Overall, a wonderful historical novel with a few anachronisms regarding the Internet, but otherwise, worth the read.
A very good book. I found it interesting and informative. I loved the love story of Henry and Keiko and how it endured through all the years. I found the historical part of the novel fascinating, I haven't read much about the internment camps and my heart broke for all of these families who were forced to leave their homes and most of their possessions and yet most remained loyal and true to America.
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Lovely story. Loved the characters. Good narrator.
Henry & Kieko
Henry & Kieko
Feb 11, 2011
Erin Carney
marked it as to-read
Feb 17, 2011
Martha
marked it as to-read
May 10, 2011
HeatherMarie
rated it
really liked it
Shelves:
3-wwii,
4-japan-or-japanese,
6-library,
4-china-or-chinese,
6-audiobook,
3-2000s,
6-dead-tree
Dec 16, 2011
Anne (Booklady) Molinarolo
marked it as to-read
Oct 30, 2012
Connie N.
marked it as to-read
May 10, 2016
Mariam
marked it as to-read
