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.