If you’ve been following my blog, you know my favorite genre is women’s fiction, but historical fiction is a close second. Today’s recommendation fits this second category. It is one that would be enjoyed by both men and women readers. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford educates readers of the injustices done to immigrants in America during WWII through a sweet story of an unlikely friendship.
The fictional protagonist Henry is the son of a Chinese immigrant living near Seattle during World War II. When Henry gets a scholarship to attend the all white school, he doesn’t fit in. He becomes the target of bullies because he looks like the enemy.
When Keiko shows up on scholarship, Henry knows his father would not approve of their developing friendship because of her Japanese ancestry. His father holds a grudge against the Japanese for invading his homeland of China. This isn’t enough to keep Henry from forming a friendship with the only person in school he relates to.
When Keiko’s family (and all the other Japanese families in the area) are rounded up and transported to internment camps, Henry has to decide how far he is willing to disobey and disrespect his father for the sake of his friendship. Readers will marvel at Henry and Keiko’s ingenuity in making the best of a bad situation while remaining loyal to a country that feared them.
This is a story of opposites: of friendship and love as well as hatred and racial injustice, of honor and loyalty as well as betrayal and lies. Told through dual timelines, readers experience the immediate effect of WW II inside the U.S. borders as well as its long term impact on Henry’s life in the 1980s. Many wonderful fictional stories have been written about Europe during WWII, but it is rare to get a glimpse of this side of the story, here inside our own country. I recommend reading this book not only because it is a good story, but because it may fill in gaps in some readers’ understanding of history.
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