The Pageturners Library Book Club will discuss “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” on Wednesday, March 23, at 10:15 a.m. in the Community Room at the Coeur d’Alene 702 E. Front Ave. . The discussion will be led by Virginia Johnson. Here is the discussion guide she has prepared.
The discussion is open to any adult reader. No registration is required.
“Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” tells the story of Henry Lee, a boy of Chinese heritage who is eleven years old growing up in Seattle when the attack on Pearl Harbor marks the entrance of the United States into World War II. But it is also the story of Henry Lee later in his life when a surprising discovery in the old Panama Hotel brings back memories of a time when Japanese-Americans were rounded up and sent to intern-ment camps.
Among the awards presented to this novel are the following:
2010 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature
2010 Washington State
2009 Montana
2009 Borders Original Voices Selection
2009 Director’s Mention, Langum Prize for American Historical Fiction
2009 Book Browsers Favorite Book Award Runner Up
ABOUT JAMIE FORD
Jamie Ford is the great-grandson of Nevada mining pioneer Min Chung, who emigrated in 1865 from Kaiping , China , to San Francisco Oregon and near Seattle Montana
SOME QUESTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION
- How believable is it for a twelve-year-old to meet and later remember the “love of his life”
? - What attitudes toward immigrants are still present in the
U. S. ? - Do generational differences and struggles like those between Henry and his father and Henry and his son still exist
? Examples? - Why is Henry’s father so mean to him
? - How would the novel differ if jazz were not a component of it
? Would any other kind of music have worked just as well? - Tell about a time when you experienced the phenomenon Henry describes on page 115: “When the music played, it didn’t seem to make a lick of difference if your last name was Abernathy or
Anjou - Where – if at all – did you find humor in this story
? - Jamie Ford suggests that to “hear” the song, “Alley Cat Strut,” you should listen “something of that era played VERY LOUD. Too often we think of jazz as background music, rather than headlining performances.” Which song of the 1940s would you choose as your “Alley Cat Strut”
? ”
P.S. Here is the list of songs and their performers Jamie Ford suggests as the “sound track for the novel”:
“On the Sunny Side of the Street,” Sidney Becket
“I’m Through with Love,” Arthur Prysock
“Them There Eyes,” Billie Holliday
“When I Fall in Love,” Nat King Cole
“Perdido” the Quintet (Live at Massey Hall)
“Blues in the Night,” Kansas City
“My Man’s Gone Now,” Sarah Vaughan
“If,” Jane Monheit
“And So It Goes,” Karrin Allyson
“Whatever Possessed Me,” Chet Baker
“My One and Only Love,” Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane
- Of major elements of design of the novel—plot, character, setting, point of view—which would you say stands out most
? - Is this, as one reader called it, “an implausible love story”
? Or as another said, is it “as saccharine and overly sentimental as the title suggests”? Explain. - As he prepares to bury his father and marry Ethel, Henry thinks “he’d do what he always did, find the sweet among the bitter.” When does he always do that
?
SOME SOURCES
www.randomhouse.com/highschool (excellent guide with additional readings about the period, including movies)
www.jamieford.com (an excellent source of information about and comments by Ford; good way to get to know him)
www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_Hotel_corner_bitter_sweet
www.litlovers.com/guide_hotel_bitter_sweet
“Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.” Kirkus Review 76 (20): 1086. 2008-10-15
“Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.” Publishers Weekly 255 (37): 40. 2008-90-15
Clouther, Kevin (2008-11-15). “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.” Booklist 105 (6):27
Burkhart, Joanna M. (10/1/2008) “Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet” Library Journal 133 (16):56
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