LiterariLeigh

I was talking with a friend the other day about her book group. She wanted me to recommend a novel set during World War II that's not too graphic. I can understand that - they are interested in the time period, but don't want to feel like an emotional wreck when they finish reading.

My suggestion was Jamie Ford's beautifully written book The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. It begins in the 1980's with Henry, a Seattle man who learns that items belonging to Japanese immigrants have been found in the basement of the Panema Hotel. We find out that Henry is Chinese and as a child during World War II he made friends with a Japanese girl named Keiko. The attack on Pearl Harbor turned people against the Japanese, even though Keiko was born in Seattle. Henry's father makes him to wear a button that states "I am Chinese", not that it makes much difference to the other children. The story alternates between the 40's and the 80's, telling how Henry acquires a love for jazz, Keilo and her parents are forced to move to a Japanese internment camp, and the lengths Henry goes to try and keep his young love safe.

The war in America is something I haven't read about to often in novels. What was happening to people living in the United States, not just in Europe and Japan. Ford's book is engaging and thought provoking. Consider what patriotism and belonging really mean.