A book with antonyms in the title

Title: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
Author: Jamie Ford
Publication date: 2009

The truth is I had some anxiety about this prompt. And when Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet popped up on a list of books available as a Book Club in a Bag from my local library, it seemed perfect. The fact that one of my fellow club members was reading the book when I suggested it and a second had read it a few months earlier, sealed the deal.

I've read several books about World War II (including one for this challenge) but I've never read a story about the Japanese-American experience of internment. It's certainly not a proud part of American history.
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Our story centers around Henry Lee, a Chinese-American man living and raised in Seattle. The story flips back and forth between present time (in this case 1986) and the past (1942-1945). Young Henry is surviving in two worlds: that of his Chinese parents' traditional household and the white prep school he's been granted a scholarship to attend. With anti-Japanese sentiment at an all-time high, and Americans happy to pass that discrimination on to all Asians, Henry is taunted and traumatized by schoolyard bullies daily.

One day, a second scholarship student arrives at the school. Henry befriends the Japanese-American girl Keiko and their relationship make for the flashback chapters of the book.

The book draws its name, in part, from the Panama Hotel, in which many families stored their personal possessions when the "evacuation" to internment camps began. Years later, the hotel gains a new owner who discovers a basement full of memories of a time forgotten by many ... but not forgotten by Henry Lee.

As he left the hotel, Henry looked west to where the sun was setting, burnt sienna flooding the horizon. It reminded in that time was short, but that beautiful endings could still be found at the end of old dreary days.

While I enjoyed this book, I've read so many wonderful books in recent weeks that I find myself holding my reading to a high standard. In another time, I might rate it higher. But I would certainly recommend it.

Three and a half stars

Next challenge: TBD