r***@gmail.com
2020-01-28 01:41:19 UTC
Dearest readers,
After a political digression we will turn our attention to our readers: today we find the material is *Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet* by Jamie Ford. Mr. Ford's novel concerns episodes in the life of an Asian-American man from the "International District" in Seattle from the World War II period on.
The story of Asian-American life in the Western US during the war is a sad and complicated one: sad on account of the well-known internment of Japanese-Americans for "security reasons" during the war, but complicated on account of the multiple Asian nationalities resident in places that cannot really be described as "ghettoes" in cities like Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco.
Henry Lee describes his background as that of a "Chinese nationalist", but the narrative of the novel reveals that it can hardly be described as a *Leitmotiv* of his life in Seattle over the decades. During the tense early period of the Pacific conflict he befriends Keiko, a Japanese girl who lives in a nearby neighborhood which is forbidding to him: Keiko and Henry negotiate the complexities of the internment together.
The rest of the novel discusses Asian-American life in Seattle during the following decades, where Henry, his father, and his son puzzle out the role of Keiko in their lives. An abiding theme of the book, one which *enragees* would do well to ponder as seriously as they can, is how none of the main characters in the book can be described as "fascists": their tolerant and open-handed deliverance of their somewhat-inherently-toxic cultural legacy to America is an example to emulate.
"Credit and power to Jamie Ford" is hardly a thought to have; to preserve and understand the images of American life in the book is a task to strive for to the utmost.
Jeffrey Rubard
After a political digression we will turn our attention to our readers: today we find the material is *Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet* by Jamie Ford. Mr. Ford's novel concerns episodes in the life of an Asian-American man from the "International District" in Seattle from the World War II period on.
The story of Asian-American life in the Western US during the war is a sad and complicated one: sad on account of the well-known internment of Japanese-Americans for "security reasons" during the war, but complicated on account of the multiple Asian nationalities resident in places that cannot really be described as "ghettoes" in cities like Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco.
Henry Lee describes his background as that of a "Chinese nationalist", but the narrative of the novel reveals that it can hardly be described as a *Leitmotiv* of his life in Seattle over the decades. During the tense early period of the Pacific conflict he befriends Keiko, a Japanese girl who lives in a nearby neighborhood which is forbidding to him: Keiko and Henry negotiate the complexities of the internment together.
The rest of the novel discusses Asian-American life in Seattle during the following decades, where Henry, his father, and his son puzzle out the role of Keiko in their lives. An abiding theme of the book, one which *enragees* would do well to ponder as seriously as they can, is how none of the main characters in the book can be described as "fascists": their tolerant and open-handed deliverance of their somewhat-inherently-toxic cultural legacy to America is an example to emulate.
"Credit and power to Jamie Ford" is hardly a thought to have; to preserve and understand the images of American life in the book is a task to strive for to the utmost.
Jeffrey Rubard