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In 1986 a long boarded up hotel is open to developers. Old boxes stored in the basement are brought up and shown to the news media waiting outside. Henry Lee, a Chinese American widower, watches as a Japanese parasol of bright red and white with a large koi on it is unfurled and twirled, and Henry is transported back to his youth in 1942 Seattle. The only son of Chinese parents, Henry attended a white school to become more "American". The only other Asian student is Keiko, a girl of Japanese des
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Just by coincidence, this is the second book in a row that I have read with the subject being the effects of Executive Order 1099 and the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. Given today's immigrant topics, these two books have been very timely.
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet has two timelines occurring: 1986 where we meet Henry Lee, who has just lost his wife Ethel. As he stands watching current activity outside the Panama Hotel, he is emotionally taken back to his childhood i ...more
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet has two timelines occurring: 1986 where we meet Henry Lee, who has just lost his wife Ethel. As he stands watching current activity outside the Panama Hotel, he is emotionally taken back to his childhood i ...more
Henry Lee is a Chinese American man whose wife has just died after battling cancer for 7 years. Someone has recently purchased the old Panama Hotel that has been boarded up since WWII. Inside they make a discovery of items that have been stored there by the Japanese that were sent to interment camps during WWII.
The story then flashes back to Henry as a child that was sent on scholarship to the white school by his parents. There he meets Keiko Okabe a Japanese American child that has been sent o ...more
The story then flashes back to Henry as a child that was sent on scholarship to the white school by his parents. There he meets Keiko Okabe a Japanese American child that has been sent o ...more
This was the best book I've read in a long time. Emotional, honest, happy, heartbreakingly sad, educational, beautifully written, wonderfully developed characters - it had it all. It'a a story of complex family relationships, first love, war, Japanese internment camps, prejudice and resolution. The main characters, Henry and Keiko, were beautifully written and believable, and the secondary characters were equally well written. This is one of those books you just don't want to see end.
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This was the story of a Chinese-American boy growing up in Seattle during WWII and the friendship he has, despite his parents, with a Japanese-American girl named Keiko. This focuses on a difficult subject-the internment camps for all those of Japanese descent during the war. I enjoyed reading of his life during war rather than seeing how his life turned out in the 1980s as he tracks down a specific jazz record that was special for him and Keiko.
This was a wonderful story. Many different aspects from young love, family dynamics, prejudices, cultural identities. It was a mishmash of so many things that were real and honest. Told in a past and present format, the male protagonist takes you on a journey to find something he lost. I would highly recommend it.
3.5/5 - this is a fictional story about the friendship between a young Chinese boy and Japanese girl during the 1940s in Seattle. It goes back and forth between the 1980s and 1940s.
New twist on World War II. Interesting to see how the different ethnic groups within the US dealt with the war and were affected by it. Very interesting after reading Hawaii.
Jun 22, 2013
Jenny Gudgen Spradlin
marked it as to-read
Feb 27, 2014
Des
marked it as to-read
Jul 07, 2014
Jonathan
marked it as to-read
Aug 28, 2014
Tzivi
marked it as get-out-of-my-feed
Aug 03, 2016
Allie Ivanova
marked it as to-read
Jan 13, 2017
Yvonne
marked it as to-read
Jul 13, 2019
Arielle Vanessa
marked it as to-read
