Amazingly, there was sweet as well. This book is the story of a young Chinese boy, Henry and young Japanese girl, Keiko Okabe. They meet at school as the only two non-white children who are on scholarship. At first Henry is distrustful of Keiko because of what his father has taught him about Japanese people, but soon they become friends. This fact he must hide from his father. Soon he and Keiko are running around Nipponmachi (Japan town) and he becomes a friend of the entire Okabe family.
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a story that bounces from the 1940s to the 1980s telling Henry's story of his friendship with Keiko, the inevitable internment of her family at Camp Harmony the so-named temporary internment camp at the Puyallup Fairgrounds in Puyallup, Washington.
It also tells the story of Henry's relationship with his mother and father who cannot speak English and yet forbid Henry to speak their native tongue Cantonese because of their desire for Henry to appear more 'American'. Yet, at the same time, his father forces Henry to wear a button on his shirt every day that states, "I am Chinese". This is so people will not mistake him for Japanese. Henry's sad relationship with his parents result in Henry's father disowning him and refusing to speak to him for several years when Henry was only 12 or 13 years of age. Henry's relationship with Keiko drives his father to do some fairly harsh things, all in the name of protecting Henry.
In 1986 after Henry's wife dies he begins the pursuit of finding an Oscar Holden record that ultimately brings out the whole story of Keiko, the internment camps his father and what happened all of those years ago.
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a well-written and very readable story. It catches and holds on to you and makes you want to keep reading it. For me, it was one of those books that I thought about during the day when I wasn't reading it - and it made me want to get back to reading it!
Rating: 7 / 10
ISBN: 9780345505330
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Year Published: 2009
Edition: 1st / 2nd Printing
Remainder: No