I have read and loved Jamie Ford's first novel Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, so I was pleased to hear that he would be coming to the 2018 BookMania!. His latest is Love and Other Consolation Prizes (#695) which features the story of a young boy auctioned off as a raffle prize at the first Seattle World's Fair in 1909. Fast forward to 1962, when Ernest Young's daughter is a journalist pursuing human interest stories to highlight the 1962 World's Fair with its iconic Space Needle. When she happens upon old stories of the raffled boy, she has no idea that she will be unraveling long-concealed family secrets.
It's unfair to label people, but I think of Jamie Ford as the male Lisa See. Since she is one of my favorite authors, that's meant to be a compliment, even though their styles are very different. What they do have in common, however, is their interest in exploring their Asian backgrounds and the discrimination immigrants from the Far East faced.
I couldn't wait to find out what happened to Ernest next as he moves from China to America where the winning raffle ticket is held by Seattle's most prominent madam. There in the Tenderloin Ernest will find the first real home he has ever known. I won't say more than that, because the pleasures in this book come as the layers of character and plot are unpeeled here, but if you love a good story, well told, then this is a book for you. Highly recommended.
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