Book review: HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET by Jamie Ford

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

By Jamie Ford

Ballantine Books

301 pp

Predictable but sweet

What this book accomplishes is painting a vivid picture of the post-Pearl Harbor dynamic on the West coast, particularly within the international district in Seattle. But if you’re looking for a unique plotline, you may be disappointed.

But despite the predictable nature of the Japanese-Chinese Romeo-and-Juliet-type story, this novel is a quick and worthwhile read if you like sweetheart stories and happy endings. Definitely no star-crossed suicides here.

Henry, a Chinese boy, and Keiko, a Japanese girl, both earn scholarships to an all-white middle school, an honor for their respective parents hoping to raise American children. Though Henry’s family vehemently hates the Japanese for their nation’s war against the Chinese homeland and forces Henry to wear a button declaring “I am Chinese,” Henry is captivated by his new friend, whom he bonds during their daily work-study—serving cafeteria slop to the white kids in the school.

Their budding friendship and innocent romance is pre-maturely ripped apart by the US directive to round up all Japanese for internment camps, American citizens or not. But in the most unlikely ways, Henry is able to seek her out when Keiko’s family is first shipped to Camp Hope, the interim facility at the state fairgrounds where whole families live in individual livestock stalls, and then later finds her in the 10,000-person plus containment city in middle-of-nowhere Idaho.

So Henry successfully professes his love and vows to wait for her release, but what would cross-culture, long-distance love be without the ignorant meddling by a disapproving parent, one of the books many clichés.  

But despite Henry and Keiko’s formulaic relationship, one character does intrigue—Sheldon, the street-performing sax player who takes Henry under his wing. Sheldon gives dimension to the story, not only through the metaphorical broken record-recording of his performance at the Black Elks Club, but by giving the reader a vision of little known jazz history. By the end of the novel, readers should be able to hear the music that brings all three characters together in their own melting-pot friendships.

Book review: THE HELP, by Katheryn Sockett

The Help

By Katheryn Sockett

Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam

464 pp

Genuine Characters

The sure sign of a well-written character is the incorporation of both flaws and favors within her personality. Each voice portrays balance, but it is Miss Hilly, the hateful and prejudiced socialite in ­The Help, that proves Sockett’s ability to truly write beyond stereotypes.

The novel tells the story of the relationship between the black help and white debutantes of Jackson, Mississippi, in the years leading up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It portrays both the cruelty of Southern mentality and the love that overcomes the engrained mindset of racist society.

This is an easy-to-read, can’t-put-it-down novel with memorable, lovable, and despicable characters. Told through the voices of three narrators, the personalities, and clash thereof, read are akin to the addictive dynamics of a soap opera, but without the clichés. Aibileen and Minny are two of the black housekeepers share their perspective, along with Skeeter, the awkward, career-driven white lady who befriends “the help” in hopes of publishing her first book—an expose of Southern relationships between maids and mistresses.

And then there’s the antagonist, Miss Hilly—the Junior League president and the representative of racist Southern attitude. She spearheads a campaign called the Home Help Sanitation Initiative, which actively encourages white families to provide a separate bathroom for the help in order to protect white citizens from the diseases of Nigras. But beyond her bigoted beliefs, she is a vindictive character in general, vowing revenge to whoever wrongs her, regardless of her color or position in society. Imagine the high school mean girl all grown up but without the wisdom of age.

But despite how easy it is to hate Miss Hilly, especially as the story is largely told through two African American voices, one scene toward the middle of the book, describes Hilly’s relationship with her children.

“One thing I got to say about Miss Hilly, she love her children. About every five minutes, she kiss Will on the head. Or she ask Heather, is she having fun? Or come here and give Mama a hug. Always telling her she the most beautiful girl in the world. And Heather love her momma too. She look at Miss Hilly like she looking up at the Statue a Liberty. That kind a love always make me want a cry. Even when it going to Miss Hilly. Cause it make me think about Treelore, how much he love me. I appreciate a child adoring they mama.”(184).

The value of this scene is two-fold. First it establishes Aibileen’s gentle nature and Christian heart. Despite being a victim of Miss Hilly’s and her own boss, Miss Elizabeth Leefolt’s, cruel demeanors, she is able to acknowledge small glimmers of balance in their characters. And secondly and most importantly, because Aibileen doesn’t hate Miss Hilly, we can’t hate Miss Hilly, even though both she and readers despise her.

This is not just a book about injustice. It’s a book about hope, about perseverance. It’s a story about the strength of human spirit. It’s about the bonds of love that develop in even the most unlikely scenarios. And most importantly, it is a book about reality, bringing us back to a time and place we may never have experienced or may want to forget. But we should not forget.

Playland!

Cavan on the Kiddie Boats.

Today we took Cavan to the annual family outing at Playland, a local amusement park. When we went last year, but at one and a half years old, she was too small to ride any of the rides, even in Kiddie Land. But this year, at 37 inches tall, one inch taller than the minimum, Cavan was eligible for nearly every ride. And boy did she love it.

For Cavan's first ride, we opted for the Kiddie Boats. The kids sit in a floating boat and can turn a steering wheel and ring a bell as it slowly floats around in a circle. Since adults can't ride with the kids, we wanted to start her off with the gentlest ride in the park. Well, immediately after, she ran to each ride, pointing and yelling, "I want to ride the motorcycles! I want to ride the horseys! I want to ride the trucks!"

Everyone loves the merry-go-round.

All of those rides were some version of sit on the "car" and ride around in a circle. After four successful and wide-smile rides, Cavan pointed to the Kiddie Coaster. She not only exhibited no fear or anxiety with any of the previous rides, but was daring enough to ride by herself without any coaxing. I anticipated that the Kiddie Coaster would be too fast, but Hubby said, "Nah." And as Cavan sat next to another little girl about her size, she put thumbs up before the ride started and then she was off, smile and all.

The coaster only went around the track once, and when it pulled into the station, Cavan had a distressed look on her face. She wasn't crying, but she ran toward the exit and jumped into Daddy's arms. Then she said, "It was too fast! I don't like that one!"

But that didn't stop my brave little girl from riding more rides. She just double checked that each new ride "wasn't too fast" before she got on. 

Getting measured. 37 inches tall.

Mommy, 9-months pregnant. Walking around in
90-degreeweather was a bit of a chore.

Books read 2010-2011

After a week or so hiatus, I'm finally back at the computer. Perhaps it's the 94 degree weather. Perhaps its Cavan's two-hour-and-counting nap. Perhaps its the fact that I can no longer bend over or walk comfortably, therefore sedentary activities are much more appealing. But regardless, I'm back, and it feels good to write.

Many timely topics have come and gone over my brief break from blogging. I could revisit my two weeks living as an extreme hoarder. (Actually, we just cleaned the carpets and painted the bedrooms, so everything, I mean every piece of crap we had stored in our rooms and closets, was living in the hallway, the bathroom, the living room and even our cars. Yes, we turned our cars into storage units. That is a sure sign of hoarding, right!?)

I could go into detail (complain) about the uncomfortable reality of month nine of pregnancy. (Yesterday, I could not even fit into my maternity swimsuit from Cavan's pregnancy and had to resort to wearing Hubby's swim trunks and a T-shirt. Apparently my ass is now as bigger than my husband's considering I didn't even need to tie the drawstring.)

But, since it is the summer, how about discussing my summer reading list.

Last year, I read 29 new books (not counting books that I re-read for teaching purposes like Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, etc.) Here is the list. One day I intend to write a little blurb about each with recommendations and/or critiques, but for now, a starring system is all I can muster.

* I wish I hadn't wasted my time (no entertainment or literary merit)

** Not great, wouldn't recommend, but I'm not wishing for those hours back

*** Good and/or beach-read. Not exactly a literary masterpiece, but entertaining and/or interesting for the time it took to read.

**** Highly recommend! Please read so we can talk about it.

***** One of the best I have read in a long time.

Adult Contemporary

• City of Thieves by David Benioff ****
• Black Swan Green by David Mitchell *
• Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff **
• Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood by Alexandra Fuller ****
• Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay ***
• Little Bee by Chris Cleave ****
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson ****
• Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn ****
• Bel Canto by Anne Pachett *****
• A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseni ****
• Mudbound by Hillary Jordan ****
• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen ****
• The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls*****
• Lucky by Alice Sebold ****
• The Good Thief by Hannah Tinti ***
• The Life of Pi by Yann Martel **** 
• Chelsea Chelsea, Bang Bang by Chelsea Handler****
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison*** (very literary, but a chore to read)
• The Crucible by Arthur Miller****

Young Adult (most of these I read for high school student recommendations. BUT, I absolutely recommend the 4-stars to adult readers).

• Paper Towns by John Green***
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman***
• How to Build a House by Dana Reinhardt***
• Split by Swati Avasthi*** (good for boys)
• Rules by Cynthia Lord***
• The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd ***
• The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie***
• Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins****
• Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins****
• Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins****

Read so far in 2011. 

• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein****
• The Magicians by Lev Grossman***
• Room by Emma Donahue****
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom****
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy****
• Funny in Farsi by Faroozeh Dumas***
• Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy***

As you can see, I am a bit behind on my reading quota this year. Here's what I have lined up for the summer. We'll see if I can get through the list, considering we are already a week into July.

• Truth and Beauty by Ann Pachett
• Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (yes, I'm an English teacher, and no I have not yet read this book. It's about time!)
• Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
• The Help by Katherine Sockett 

I'll try to post mini-reviews as I go through the list. That's a lofty aspiration considering I'll have a newborn in a few weeks, but it's good to have a goal, right?!