Do Keiko and Henry Meet Again in Hotcobas

This week, nosotros gathered to hash out Jaime Ford's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.  Overall, nosotros had a cracking discussion and added a new member.  We too celebrated National Friends of the Library Week by handing out these pins I had fabricated for all of the Berwyn Friends of the Library (one of the other hats I wear at the Library is FOL Liaison).

Hither is the publisher'southward summary  to put us all on the aforementioned page:

In the opening pages of Jamie Ford'south stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle'due south Japantown. It has been boarded upwards for decades, but at present the new possessor has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded upwardly and sent to internment camps during Earth War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.

This simple act takes erstwhile Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the tiptop of the war, when young Henry's globe is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his male parent, who is obsessed with the state of war in China and having Henry grow up American. While "scholarshipping" at the sectional Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a immature Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship–and innocent love–that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left but with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other volition exist kept.

Now the word:

• We began with taking a vote of liked, disliked, and so-and so.  We had xiv likes, 2 so-then, and 0 disliked.  The so-sos agreed that they loved thinking near the book, but Henry point of view made for thin, non-lyrical language.  It worked, but they prefer more flowery language. The vast majority of the group nevertheless liked the volume, had quite a bit to say about why equally you will see.
• Nosotros talked about the internment army camp effect for awhile.  Comments included how enlightening information technology was to learn more virtually this troubling time in our history.  Nosotros talked well-nigh how hands the Japanese went to the camps.  At one indicate there were 10,000 in a campsite; they could accept easily over powered the guards, but since they desperately wanted to show their fidelity to America and some even felt guilty about what Japan was doing they only wanted to comply.  One woman shared how when she watched the newsreels of the Japanese evacuations as a child, she was under the impression that this was all done to protect them; she continued to retrieve that until recently.  As you can come across just talking nigh the internment angle was a rich discussion point.  I ended this part of the discussion by mentioning that maybe the fact that we don't know as much about this part of our history is a large reason why this volume is so popular with book clubs.
• This novel has an interesting style.  We get Henry's perspective at two distinct times in history, 1942 as a 13 twelvemonth old, and 1986 as a recent widower.  Merely the author chooses to have Henry speak in each time frame from that time frame.  Henry of 1986 is not looking dorsum at 1942.  When we are in the 1942 chapters, Henry is a child.  Overall the grouping really liked this narrative style.  They called it rich and unique.  They also felt that it helped to increase their enjoyment of the great secondary characters here.  People particularly liked Mrs Beatty and Sheldon.  Seeing Sheldon through young and onetime Henry was mentioned as specially enjoyable.
• This likewise led to a discussion of what a wonderful "voice" Henry has.  Ford has created a clear and strong voice for Henry. He is very controlled, calm, and honorable throughout. Some were frustrated that he is not more exciting or flowery, but as I said to those people, if Ford had started having Henry speak in metaphors, we would all be complaining how out of character it was.  The novel is apparently written, but Henry is plainly spoken.  It all adds to the strength of his character.  We appreciated this consistency every bit readers.
• Sheldon came up over again.  We saw him equally the novel'due south catalyst.  We discussed how he made Henry visit Keiko in the internment camp, how he gave Henry the concluding tape to give to Keiko and how his decease brought Keiko and Henry back together later on forty years.  He also gives the reader a touchstone of a more familiar kind of racial injustice.  Sheldon mentions discrimination of African Americans in passing, but in this novel we are involved in the discrimination against the Japanese and Chinese and the fighting between the Japanese and Chinese against each other.  This is new to about readers, only with Sheldon commenting from the more familiar (to the reader) bespeak of view of the African America struggle, we all see the bigger picture.  Sheldon was also at that place to show how Jazz, i of America'due south indigenous musical forms, unified Americans beyond race and served as a minority vocalisation.  As you tin can see, nosotros liked Sheldon.
• We then moved on to a give-and-take of the differences in the generations equally we move from the immigrant to the American.  Nosotros used Henry, his Dad, and his son Marty every bit our examples.  This then led to people generously sharing their personal family immigrant stories.  That is another line of discussion which this novel  easily invites.
• Of form we discussed Henry and Keiko'due south human relationship as children.  Someone said they did love each other, but more like best friends. This led to apply request if Henry gave upwardly on Keiko too easily.  Nosotros were mixed saying yep and no.  People were good nearly sharing their personal arguments on both sides.  In end nosotros agreed whether or not we thought he gave up also easily, we would have ultimately been dissatisfied with the novel if Henry had ditched Ethel for Keiko because Henry was noting if not honorable.  He e'er made the honorable choice, no thing the personal cede that choice entailed.  This besides led to a side give-and-take of the other sacrifices made by characters in the novel.
• Henry's son Marty's human relationship with his white fiancee, Samantha was too discussed.  As i lady put it, to Henry, Samantha is a ray of sunshine that opened up Harry and warmed the air betwixt Marty and Henry.  Samantha is Marty'due south Keiko, noted another participant.
• The catastrophe was discussed at length. SPOILER Alert At the end, Henry shows up at Keiko's apartment and they begin talking to one and other.  I asked people to vote if this last scene meant they would outset up a deeper human relationship again or if he would spend some time with her and then go abode, continue up a correspondence, but not become much deeper.  I was surprised that 12 or the 16 voted for a deeper human relationship.  I used textual clues, such as Henry not being able to mend the broken tape and his comments well-nigh how some things can never be fixed, along with the endmost lines of the book which remark how they were standing again as if on opposite sides of the contend to argue that in that location would always exist an insurmountable wall between them. But someone else said that the overall theme of the book is that broken relationships can be healed.  We went dorsum and forth and agreed to disagree.  However, information technology is important to point out that Ford does have bear witness in the novel on both sides of this issue which once again, makes for a not bad discussion point and may be another clue as to why this book has been such a hit for book groups.
• We talked a flake about the title.  The hotel is the only place where the pre-internment Japanese experience was preserved.  It is likewise the site of Henry'due south "last stand" for Keiko and against his father.  And the story is what happens between the bitter part of the story and the sweet office.
• Finally, we concluded as usual with words or phrases to describe the volume:
• poignant
• internment
• love
• bittersweet
• honorable
• respect
• absorption
• loyalty
• repeatable history
• heritgae
• romantic
• racial bug
• information technology could happen again

Readalikes:  Books we accept read as a group before which came up as readalikes were Samurai's Garden by Gail Tsukiyama. which nosotros discussed here and When the Emperor was Divine past Julie Otsuka which was discussed before I kept the web log but is a novel about Japanese internment.

When I was reading this novel, I kept thinking that the Pacific Northwest setting and Young Henry'southward struggle beingness not Chinese enough for the Chinese kids and not American enough for the American kids was like to Sherman Alexie'southward The Absolutely Truthful History of a Part-Fourth dimension Indian, which has a modern setting but tackles the same issues in the Native American community.

For other suggests, NoveList listed Sea of Poppies past Amitav Ghosh, The Help by Katherine Stockett, and A Gesture Life past Chang-rae Lee which all look at cantankerous racial relationships.  And for nonfiction I like the choice of suggesting Brother, I'grand Dying by Edwidge Danticat which is the writer's memoir of her family unit's immigration to the US from Haiti.

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Source: http://raforall.blogspot.com/2011/10/bpl-book-discussion-hotel-on-corner-of.html

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