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There are currently 22 member reviews
for Love and Other Consolation Prizes
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Barbara Z. (Cherry Hill, NJ)
And the Winner is ....
Jamie Ford's new novel. A wonderful blend of historical fiction, unlikely friendship, coming of age, romance and a smidgeon of mystery. The story toggles between 1909-1911 and 1962, using the Alaska Yukon Pacific (AYP) of 1909 and Century 21 Expo of 1962 as bookends to the story. The story skillfully uses a true story of a child offered as a prize at the AYP World's Fair as the basis for the story about a young Chinese child sold for transport to America (human trafficking of Asian children used as slave labor) and later raffled at age 12. The winner, a 'Madam', of a highly respected house of prostitution sets the stage to integrate Seattle's colorful and seedy past as a central character in the story.
"Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" is one of my all time favorites and sets a high bar. This new novel is close to that high bar. The characters are wonderful, and I could picture so many of the scenes in my mind. I hope to see this book as a movie.
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Arden A. (Longboat Key, FL)
Another All-Time Favorite
I am a huge fan of, "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet," and that book resides on my all time favorites book list. Jamie Ford's second book, "Songs of Willow Frost," which I also reviewed thanks to BookBrowse, was not up to the standard of its predecessor. This book, however, is closer to the incredibly high bar set by the first book.
The book toggles back and forth between the early 1900s and the early 1960s. Ernest, the illegitimate son of a white missionary and a Chinese woman, tells his story to an adult daughter, a reporter who uncovered that her father was the young boy who was auctioned off at a raffle during the Seattle World's Fair in 1909. His story revolves around the "Madam" who won him in the raffle, and his life among the ladies of the night during a time when the women's suffrage movement was campaigning to shut down such houses of ill repute.
There is nothing I didn't like about this book: the setting, the eras, the depth of the descriptions of both the times and the characters, the entertaining story, the history lesson... all meshed together to make an excellent read. I wish it had lasted another 100 pages.
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Lynne B. (South Lake Tahoe, CA)
My Favorite Kind of Read-Love and Other Consolation Prizes
This is my favorite kind of read! If you love great characters, a bit of a mystery, family saga, historical settings and all based on factual events then this is a book for you. Jamie Ford has done exceptional research in presenting the story of a mixed race Chinese immigrant who finds himself orphaned on a boat to America, a ward of a prominent woman suffragist and then adopted by a well-known madam of the red light district. Interwoven with the life and culture of Seattle in 1909 and the backdrop of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition along with the more modern day World's Fair in 1962 called the Century 21 Expo, Ford explores the racial and economic discrimination of the times as well. I fell in love with the Young family and their search for true love both romantically and as part of a family. Ford takes us back in time throughout the story as Ernest Young becomes a 12 year old in 1909 and then struggles with rediscovering his past life as his journalist daughter confronts him with retelling his story in 1962 while his wife tries to remember her past in a recovery from syphilis treatment. The effects of syphilis on prostitutes of this time period play a key role in the story's turn of events as well as political graft and the women's suffrage movement. This is a story not to be missed!
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Carm D. (Omaha, NE)
Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford
Excellent read, I was excited to get this book to review, and then thought it could never live up to my expectations. Well it did! This is the story of a little Chinese boy who get sent to America and then gets raffled off at the first Seattle Worlds Fair at the turn of the 20th Century. Mr. Ford takes stories he has read from old newspapers and documents and weaves a fantastically beautiful story with shreds of truth running throughout. It is wonderful account of undying love and respect, heartbreak and unimaginable fear. I really enjoyed this book, everyone should do themselves a favor and read this book. Also a great choice for book club discussions.
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Susan R. (Towanda, PA)
"Bitter-Sweet"
Set against the backdrop of the 1909 Seattle World's Fair, Jamie Ford has given us a story beginning with the ocean transport of young children from China. The author alternates between the coming of age of three of those children and their present day lives fifty years later. The book provides a colorful look at the "Old Seattle" ranging from the raffling off of children at the Fair to fancy bordellos to the local Suffragist movement. The main characters are well developed as are many of the secondary characters. The Fairs - both 1909 and 1962 - figure prominently in the story. I would recommend this book as a book group selection as the discussion.
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Roe P. (Massapequa Park, NY)
Tears and Years
Jamie Ford has written another winner. I was a fan after Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, and he does not disappoint with his latest. It is based on a true story about a young Asian boy and how he spent his whole life pushing through trials and tribulations. Its about war, and love and family. The chapters alternate between 1903 and the present and by doing so it is easy to find yourself rooting for the main character.... It also serves to demonstrate life back in the old days and you learn facts about the war and the people who were impacted by it as you read along....If you have some extra time spend it reading this thoroughly enjoyable book...
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sande2000
Bookended Lives
Love and Other Consolation Prizes, by Jamie Ford is a wonderful, tender historical historical novel. It is a bookend style that begins with the 1902 Seattle World's Fair and ends with the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. The cast of characters is actually very small, but we get to know them very well. Their decisions are often based on other's happiness. They look for happiness without really knowing what it is.
This novel focuses a most unusual family bound by love and like purpose. We love them because they need our love. This book succeeds because we do. If I have a quibble with MS Ford it is with the pace of her narrative. A quickening might have enlivened several sections of this novel. Overall though, it is delightful and appropriate for younger and older readers and book clubs
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