Book Review: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

by Jamie Ford
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked this book, but it wasn't anything terribly awe-inspiring or thought provoking. The love story was cute and clean, if a little cheesy and far-fetched in parts. It was about a part of history that I really knew nothing about before reading this book.

I wish it would have gone a little deeper into the Japanese internment camp part. I would like to know more about the camps and the Japanese people in them. Did everyone feel like Keiko's parents did with regard to their American citizenship? Why didn't people come back and retrieve their things from the hotel after the war was over? How did being put in the camps affect their lives? Things like that.

I would have liked to hear more about the cook, and her role in the whole affair. What made her so willing to be helpful?

Also, I thought Marty accepted Henry's relationship to Keiko too easily, and pushed a little more eagerly for them to meet, than I would have expected in real life.

I want to know more about the "I am Chinese" button Henry wore. I want to dig into his thoughts about it; he said he hated it, but he used it in plenty of situations to get him out of trouble.

I guess, in the end, I just wanted a lot more out of this book. I wanted more culture and less love story. I wanted to go deeper. I wanted to get worked up, or passionate about, that time in history; or about personal relationships, father-son, mother-son, father-mother, friend-friend; or cultural barriers; but, I just didn't feel like this book had that in it.