In the opening pages of Jamie Ford’s 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’s Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families,left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.

This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry’s world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While “scholarshipping” at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young 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 only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.

Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel’s dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family’s belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice–words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.

I would say that is the best book I have read this year.  I have often enjoyed fiction stories that are entwined with a taste of non fiction as well and that is what we have here.  What a fascinating way to piece a story together!  Set in Seattle during World War II, Jamie Ford has based this book around the details of 1942 and the evacuation of all Japanese ancestry to camps featuring Henry as a young man of 12 years old as well as present age Henry in 1986.

From the very first page I fell in love with this story.  I am amazed how little I know of this time period and reading

about what happened to those of Japanese ancestry during the war really was heart wrenching.  I could imagine what it felt like to be separated from everything you knew – home, job, life, material possessions… all taken away.  All because of your heritage.  The characters in Keiko’s family were wonderfully created as loving and positive and they stayed a family through thick and thin.  They were portrayed the exact opposite of Henry’s family, and that is a large part of this story.

The Panama Hotel, which is featured in this book – still exists today as a tea house and the in the story, the articles that are mentioned to have been found in this hotel is true and you can go there even today and see many of the items on display.

I could go on and on RAVING about this book.  It is a wonderful read as well as a deep and intense look into our history.  Highly recommended for historical fiction fans as well as fans of light romance.

ABOUT THIS BOOK

What the Eldredge bestsellers Wild at Heart did for men, and Captivating did for women, LOVE & WAR will do for married couples everywhere. John and Stasi Eldredge have contributed the quintessential works on Christian spirituality through the experience of men and the experience of women and now they turn their focus to the incredible dynamic between those two forces.

With refreshing openness that will grab readers from the first page, the Eldredges candidly discuss their own marriage and the insights they’ve gained from the challenges they faced. Each talks independently to the reader about what they’ve learned, giving their guidance personal immediacy and a balance between the male and female perspectives that has been absent from all previous books on this topic.   They begin LOVE & WAR with an obvious but necessary acknowledgement:  Marriage is fabulously hard.  They advise that the sooner we get the shame and confusion off our backs, the sooner we’ll find our way through.

LOVE & WAR shows couples how to fight for their love and happiness, calling men and women to step into the great adventure God has waiting for them together. Walking alongside John and Stasi Eldredge, every couple can discover how their individual journeys are growing into a story of meaning much greater than anything they could do or be on their own.

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If you know me and have read my reviews, you would know that I do not like self-help books.  I just don’t.  I say this now as it may be easy to look at this book and label it self-help.  I want to clarify it is not.  What the Eldredges have so wonderfully packaged here within the pages is an important message on living your marriage well.  Yes – let’s get real, it is not always going to be the heart pounding romantic “I can’t wait for him to call” moments.  In fact those early days of the butterflies are hard to remember when the work hours are long, the bills are high, and lets face it – maybe you really havent connected in a while.  The Eldridges give a strong Biblical approach to marriage that was a refreshing look into what is true.

I have read both Wild At Heart by John Eldridge and Captivating by Stasi Eldridge.  Both, amazing writers. I knew when I seen this book that it would be one I would want to read and the joint efforts of this couple really paid off.  An honest and “tear down the walls and bare the truth” kind of book that at times had my laughing and at times thinking deeply about what I had just read.

My Amazon Review

I received my copy as part of a tour with Waterbrook Multnomah