Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, is an absorbing story of hope and love. It is set against the politically divisive period, World War II, where we experience the alienation forces between the Chinese, Japanese and America people. Henry is a Chinese-American boy who lives in Chinatown and is close friends with the only other non-white student at his school in Seattle. That friend is Keiko, a Japanese-American girl who lives in Seattle’s Nihonmachi (Japantown) district. 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.

Marty. Marty’s appearance at the beginning of the book painted him as a disgustingly privileged young American boy living it up at college. As the book goes on, though, and Henry’s relationship with his son deepens, there is more to Marty than meets the eye. Henry is so afraid that his son will not approve of his childhood friendship with Keiko that he at first does not want to tell their story for fear of tarnishing his late wife’s memory, but Marty is a young man who believes in happiness. When Seattle's Nihonmachi district (Japan Town) is rounded up after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, along with all US citizens of Japanese decent, Keiko and her family are interned for the duration of WW11 and the young couple are forced to lead separate lives. RHRC: What about people like conservative columnist MichelleMalkin who have spoken out in favor of the Japanese Internment, evenwriting a book about it– saying it was a just endeavor?

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Ford was a friend and fan of Harlan Ellison and in 2012 bought Ellison's first typewriter, a 1938 Remington Wireless Portable. Though Henry writes many letters to Keiko, he receives very few in return. The mail clerk, a young girl around Henry's age, sympathizes with him, and when Keiko does not appear at the Panama Hotel for the last meeting Henry had tried to arrange with her on what turns out to be V-J Day, the mail clerk brings him his returned envelope with a bunch of star lilies. Henry turns his attention to the girl, named Ethel Chen, and eventually marries her. On his deathbed, Henry's father insinuates that he had something to do with stopping the correspondence between Henry and Keiko. Henry and Ethel celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary, after which Ethel falls ill with cancer for seven years and Henry devotedly cares for her in their home. Though he thinks often of Keiko, Henry never lets his wife know and is a caring and devoted husband till the end. Henry also supports his son Marty at college, and welcomes Marty's girlfriend, a non-Chinese girl named Samantha, into their family. The novel concludes with Henry's son Marty locating Keiko in New York City, and Henry goes to see her.

SIMON: Henry and Keiko seal their love - and this is why I think it's such a sweet story, as opposed to other ways they could seal it - by buying a record. But even there, they run into prejudice. What?!? What kind of sentence is that? From an adult? Someone trying to evoke the feel of a Chinese immigrant to the US in the 1940's?! That kind of writing is a word that rhymes with spit.So this is a gentle love story against all the odds. They created memories and moments in their short time together that will never be forgotten. A piece of his heart was forever given to Keiko. Set in Seattle during the Japanese internment during WW2. This book has a sweeping feel to it. It starts out slow - but not slow in the sense who feel like you are waiting for paint to dry - but slow in the "This is really going somewhere" kind of way. It does go somewhere by the way. Once the ball gets rolling, this book sweeps you up into the lives of two friends who made a promise to see each other again. An impressive, bitter, and sweet debut that explores the age-old conflicts between father and son, the beauty and sadness of what happened to Japanese Americans in the Seattle era during World War II, and the depths and longing of deep-heart love.” —Lisa See Through intertwined timelines—one in the 1940s and one in the 1980s— Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet tells the love story of a Chinese American boy, Henry Lee, and a Japanese American girl, Keiko Okabe. Henry and Keiko meet in Seattle during World War II; they both attend an all-white school called Rainier Elementary. Henry is a first-generation American: his Chinese nationalist father hates Japanese people, whose forces have been at war with China’s for decades. Keiko is a second-generation American; both her parents were born in the United States. Henry and Keiko work in their school kitchen together, and though Henry worries about drawing his father’s ire for befriending a Japanese person, he begins spending time with Keiko outside of school. Aside from Keiko, Henry doesn’t have many people to talk to. His father has forbidden him from speaking Chinese at home, and since neither his father nor his mother speaks strong English, Henry’s home life has been incredibly quiet. This is Weekend Edition from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. The "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" is an actual place. It's also the title of Jamie Ford's debut novel. It is Seattle's Panama Hotel, where an old man named Henry Lee stands as the book opens and remembers an old, doomed love.