This book came to me via the roundabout recommendation of a woman who had been there – not to the Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, as Jamie Ford’s latest novel is titled, but to a Japanese internment camp, which encompasses a large part of this story.

Written by a man of Chinese descent with a thoroughly American name, it tells the story of another Chinese man, Henry Lee, whose backward glance into his past begins in 1986. That’s when a stash of possessions left by Japanese families as they were sent to internment camps is discovered in the basement of Seattle’s Panama Hotel. One of these belongings, a parasol, triggers Henry’s memories of Keiko Okabe, a Japanese girl he befriended in sixth grade. Though their friendship formed first as an alliance at their all-white school, their relationship soon blossomed into something much more, which continued even after Keiko was sent with her family to a Japanese internment camp. Not until half-a-lifetime later does Henry’s son, Marty, learn what really happened to his father during those wartime years, and the truth, unveiled at last, brings with it the hope of healing to their troubled relationship.

Ford tells his story in split narrative: young Henry (1942-45), and old Henry (1986). His prose, though simple and direct, yields emotional impact that ranged for me from shame over this very un-American part of my country’s past; to exasperation over Henry’s unhealthy relationships with his father and his son; to optimism, prompted by words such as Keiko’s father’s as he’s carted from his home: “You just gave me hope, Henry….And sometimes hope is enough to get you through anything.”

Ford saves some surprises for the end that provide a more bitingly satisfying conclusion than I anticipated. A coming-of-age tale and love story all in one, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet offers not only a glimpse into an unfortunate period of American history, but also the hope of triumph after adversity.