Bitter and Sweet

I finished Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. It was a good book, very sweet and very cute. As one interviewer said of Jamie Ford’s book, it was written about a time when love was really love, and it was refreshing to see that kind of purity in print.

There were a number of factual problems which I couldn’t help but notice. As an amateur historian, I have to point certain anachronisms, factual bloopers, and stylistic questions. These didn’t ruin the story, but fixing them could’ve improved it:

1. One’s hair doesn’t fall out with radiation treatment for cancer (p. 34). It’ll fall out if you endure radiation from an A-bomb, but not from cancer treatment–cancer radiation is much less, and it’s focused only on the cancerous region of the body.  Sometimes cancer patients will shave their heads, but that’s something totally different.

2. The International District was not called the International District until 1951. (page 72)

3. Casper the Ghost didn’t become commercially known until 1945 (p. 13).

4. Throughout the book, there’s no reference to the Great Depression, which preceded the War.  One would think that such an economic collapse would affect everyone.

5. Henry’s easy entry/exit to the camps was a bit hard to believe.

6. Nothing seemed to come out of anything else.  It was as if Henry landed in 1942 and had had his knowledge of history and growing up wiped out.  He didn’t seem to know what it was like to grow up in the 1930′s.  (If this makes sense…)

7. During some of the internment scenes, it read like a history book rather than a novel, almost, “by the way, did you know that Japanese Americans were drafted and joined the 442?”  I also felt as if the characters had a 1980′s omniscience while they were undergoing the massive turn of events during the 1940′s.

Anyway, enough complaining about details.

I thought this book was a lot of fun.  A historical romance between an Asian American man and woman?  Unheard of, never done before, excellent.  Towards the end of the novel, it really took off with equal measures of suspense and drama; I couldn’t stop turning the pages.  Some have questioned whether or not it’s high literature, and they’re right–it isn’t.  But how fun was this novel!

For those who haven’t picked it up yet, let me make a recommendation: get it.  I don’t want to give too much away, but there’s a romantic aspect in this novel that I haven’t seen anywhere else in Asian American literature.  It was a simple love story.  Reading this novel was pure joy.  It was love back when love was love and nothing more.  It removed all the sexual aspects–and believe it or not, I thought the story was lacking when I was part way through the novel–but in the end, the sweetness was excellent, something that I have never read before within the Asian American sphere.

By the way, one thing I have to note.  While I was reading this, I got the feeling that Jamie Ford is a really nice guy.  As Akrypti mentioned, his blog is really nice too.  I don’t think you can fake this.  He genuinely comes across as a super-nice guy.

I’m hoping he gets a movie deal out of this.  This would be an excellent opportunity to put an Asian American romantic story on the big screen, as well as call attention to a historical injustice.  In the movie version, Jamie and his team can probably clean up some of the bloopers.  I felt that the novel itself really took off when he stopped chasing the historical details and began to focus on the people.  I think the story has broad appeal.

In short, check out this book and let me know what you think!

Related posts:

1. My next Amazon purchase (along with the aforementioned Secret Identities)
2. People Who See Dead People
3. Asian Red Face May Indicate Risk of Cancer
4. Women Hold Up Half the Sky
5. The Art of the Neg