2009
AML Award:
Novel
Honorable Mention
Presented to:
Jamie Ford
For:
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford is the author's first published novel, but there is no sign of a beginner's effort here. The exploration of prejudice and its sad legacy, as well as the exploration of the bonds that can overcome such prejudice, not only between Chinese and Japanese, or American and Oriental, but also between Black and White, give this novel a depth and power that resonates long after the ending. The book describes a sweet young romance that develops between a Japanese-American girl and a Chinese-American boy in the months before the Japanese are "evacuated" from Seattle to "relocation camps" further inland. It also shows that Chinese-American boy forty years later, after his Chinese-American wife has died, learning that the belongings of some of the evacuated Japanese-American families are still in the basement of the Panama Hotel. His search in that hotel for what his young Japanese-American friend and her family may have left behind brings him closer to his own son, and offers a chance to heal sorrows from years before. The writing moves from war-time Seattle to forty years later with ease and grace, and the characters become so real and so engaging that the book is hard to put down. The Association for Mormon Letters is pleased to award this novel an honorable mention.
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