Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet: A Novel
By: Jamie Ford / Narrated By: Feodor Chin / Afterword By: Jamie Ford
Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
Has a bit of a “Author’s first book” feel (Since it is!), but it’s oh so lovely!
As I’m a total audiobook addict, I get my audiobooks all across the board via sales on Audible, Audiobooks(dot com), Kobo, and Chirpbooks. But I dunno about y’all, but for me, I very much love when I come to the end of an Audible book and there’s the: Audible hopes you enjoyed this program bit. I can usually say Yea or Nay (With a satisfied smile or with an urge to throw my device at the wall), but here with Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, I got goosebumps as I’d been walking home listening, and I could only sigh blissfully and think: Oh I did, I did! Cuz, really, this audiobook has it all: The plot, the characters, the history, the writing style, and spot on narration!
Don’t let Jamie Ford’s name fool ya: He’s the descendant of one Min Chung, a mining pioneer who took the name of Ford, so Jamie Ford has the Street Cred when he writes of Asian Americans. Noooo, saying he has firsthand knowledge of Japanese internment camps in the 1940s is going too far, but even THAT smacks of authenticity based on solid research and delivered with an incredible writing style. Don’t get me wrong: The book has its flaws in that it could’ve gone deeper, and I’ll say what NO editor wants to say to a first time author: The book could’ve been longer (Something an editor would hiss at, cuz who wants to take a chance on more costs associated with EXTRAAAA words?). And I do wish it was, as the ending, while beautiful, is very abrupt.
Still, there was indeed that happy sigh I had at the end, so all’s well, really.
The book opens with a spiritually numb Henry Lee joining a crowd poking around in the Panama Hotel (Does exist, says Ford in the afterword), and a plethora of suitcases, and many, many items speak to the fact that this was a place where Japanese families stored belongings before they were forced onto trains headed for internment camps. Henry sees it for what it is: Where hopes and dreams came to die. But it also instantly reminds him of Keiko, the Japanese girl who was his friend but who soon came to mean so much more to the young Chinese boy, barely coming of age, Henry was.
The story alternates between Henry as an older man with his attempts to find remnants of Keiko in the Panama Hotel, and with his relationship with his kinda sorta estranged son (Here’s another area where I thought Ford coulda played up more tension between the two, but who am I to jack with a fine story?). And then it flashes back to the 40s where he and Keiko are coming of age. This part of the story is rampant with the racism of the times, the bullying by white schoolmates (Henry’s dogmatically Chinese father actually wants Henry to Americanize himself quickly… but oooooonly to a certain point…), the dignity of Keiko’s Americanized family, and Henry’s own mother and father who are very much still of the Homeland and their hatred for what the Japanese have done in China. Keiko being Henry’s friend is NOT a good thing.
Japanese families are swept into camps, and Henry must find ways to stay in touch with Keiko, learning to become a solid and faithful young man in the process. He is guided by a jazz musician who serves as the book’s best philosophical character, someone who shows Henry and Keiko life and laughter and devotion. Really, some books have such characters coming off as caricatures who serve only as devices of the story, but here Ford creates a simply beautiful relationship that grows as time passes.
Feodor Chin does an AWEsome job with the narration, delivering tension, hatred, and the agonies of growing up as balanced with the older Henry and his reawakening. I have a few more Feodor Chin narrations of books in my Library, so I look forward to checking those out soon… tho’ there are sooo many audiobooks, sooo little time. But at least I know I can hear this week’s other selection, Mrs. Rossi’s Dream, without trepidation re: Narration!
I can wrap this up by saying stuff about how we don’t want such a poisonous time of our nation’s history repeating itself with fears of The Other running rampant. But I think History repeats itself, no matter the best intentions of part of the populace. Besides, this audiobook doesn’t cast blame; it’s simply the weaving together of stories of a time and of a few places, as experienced by two really, really well-written characters.
Ford has another audiobook out that I’m eyeing. But -again-
Sooo many audiobooks, sooo little time. But this was just such a gosh darned lovely book that who knows? Maybe Time will honor me with a few extra hours… to kinda sneak another dazzler into my life!
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