Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet Events Quotes

In the middle of the crowd stood Henry, shopping bags hanging at his side. He felt as if he were waking up from a long forgotten dream. A dream he'd once had as a little boy. (1.1)

He and Marty hadn't talked much since the funeral. Marty stayed busy as a chemistry major at Seattle University, which was good, it seemed to keep him out of trouble. But college also seemed to kee...

He was a polished jazz player, whose poverty had less to do with his musical ability and more to do with his color. Henry had liked him immediately. Not because they were both outcasts, although if...

Henry wasn't sure which was worse, being picked on for being Chinese, or being accused of being a Jap. Though Tojo, the prime minister of Japan, was known as "the Razor" because of his sharp legali...

The sum total of Henry's Japanese friends happened to be a number that rhymed with hero. His father wouldn't allow it. He was a Chinese nationalist and had been quite a firebrand in his day, accord...

Henry practiced the Japanese words, saying them over and over as he kept walking—until the faces on the street turned from black to white to Japanese. (7.35)

But that was all Marty knew of his father's childhood, though he did know that his father had had a hard time of it as a child. Why? He never asked, it somehow seemed sacred, and Henry rarely share...

The extra goodies had been at Henry's insistence. He knew his son did okay with the food on campus, but they didn't have anything that compared with a dozen fresh hum bau—and besides, steamed por...

Seattle's thick fog, which slowed down traffic on the streets and made trouble for ships sailing in and out of Elliott Bay, had become a blanket of comfort, hiding homes and buildings from phantom...

"That's fine. Be who you are," she said, turning away, a look of disappointment in her eyes. "But I'm an American." (12.101)

"I thought that too at first, but I think a lot of people just don't want to go back. Sometimes that's the best thing to do—to live in the present." Henry understood. Honestly, he did. He knew wh...

"Hah? Plenty of Chinese workers—plenty of colored workers. They so short on labor even Boeing hiring Chinese now. Todd Shipyards is hiring and paying the same wage as Caucasian," his father said,...

"People are getting rid of anything that might connect them to the war with Japan. Letters from Nippon. Clothing. It all must go. Too dangerous to keep. Even old photos. People are burning photos o...

He thought of Ethel too. What would she think? Would she approve of him snooping around down here, digging into the past? The more he thought about it, the more he realized what he'd known all alon...

Ethel's last year had been a rough time. When she'd been lucid enough to engage the both of them, he and Marty had seemed to get along famously. But once her health declined, and the word hospice c...

Henry could see Samantha out of the corner of his eye as he tended to the tree; it was like she was checking off an imaginary list. "You're a great cook, you like to garden, and you're the best fis...

After more mixed translation on Henry's part, they ended their bilingual discussion, agreeing to disagree, each warily eyeing the other. (20.30)

Henry nodded, taking the handle of the little red wagon, heading for home, down the darkened, empty streets of Japantown. Pulling behind him a lifetime of memories. Memories that he'd hide, and a s...

Was it fear? Hatred? Or just youthful boredom that drove Denny here, to Japantown, where families hid and locked their doors, hiding their precious possessions, fearing arrest. While Denny stood on...

"That's been Pop's Holy Grail—rumor is they printed a handful back in the forties, but none survive today," Marty explained. "Some people don't even believe it ever actually existed, because when...

The clerk stood there, her fist dug into her hip. "We don't serve people like you—besides, my husband is off fighting…" "I'll buy it," Henry said, putting his "I Am Chinese" button on the count...

Almost as scared as he was to tell his parents he was meeting Keiko. He'd hinted to his mother—in English no less—that he had a Japanese friend, and she had immediately shot him her stink-eye,...

"He talks to you every day. What do you mean, why won't he talk?" "He talks, but he doesn't listen to me." (26.18-19)

Henry breathed a sigh of quiet relief and sat down on an old milk crate. Like so many things Henry had wanted in life—like his father, his marriage, his life—it had arrived a little damaged. Im...

"Did Mom know about all this?" Henry felt the Ethel-shaped hole in his heart grow a little emptier, a little colder. He missed her terribly. "A little. But when I married your mother, I never looke...

A few blocks from home, Henry found the nearest trash can and threw his new button on the heap of overflowing garbage—broken bottles that couldn't be recycled for the war effort and hand-painted...

"I'm sorry," Henry said; he suddenly felt foolish having come empty-handed. "I didn't bring you anything." "That's okay. It's enough that you came. I knew you would. Maybe it was my dream. Maybe I...

Henry looked at his son and the young woman he was obviously enchanted with. Holding their cups. Feeling the burn. How different they were. And how little it mattered. There differences were unnoti...

"Can I ask you something, Pops?" Henry nodded again. "Did you keep Mom at home to spite me?" (34.11-13)

"I send you to school. I negotiate your way—into a special school. I do this for you. A top white school. And what happens? Instead of studying, you're making eyes with this Japanese girl. Japane...

But from that moment on, he began to feel like a ghost in the little brick apartment he shared with his parents. They didn't speak to him; in fact, they barely acknowledged his presence. They'd spe...

But somehow Henry's mother, sorting the mail first, found the letter each week and slipped it underneath his pillow. She never said a word, but Henry knew it was her doing. She did her best to be a...

Their good-bye had been a formal one. After he'd decided to let her go (for her own good, he reminded himself), he'd kept a polite distance, not wanting to make it harder on either of them. She was...

As soon as he stepped out on the sidewalk, Henry immediately felt self-conscious. Like the eyes of the world were on him, and Sheldon too. There wasn't a person of color anywhere in sight. Not even...

"Henry, this isn't about us. I mean, it is, but they don't define you by the button you wear. They define you by what you do, by what your actions say about you. And coming here, despite your paren...

I love her. Henry paused at the thought. He didn't even know what that was, or what it meant, but he felt it, burning in his chest—feeling fuzzy inside. Nothing else seemed to matter. Not the som...

For his father, leaving at age thirteen was a matter of pride, even though, deep down, Henry sensed a lot of emptiness and sadness along with it. Now on the bus heading home, he knew what his fathe...

This time he waited months for a reply, and when it came, Keiko seemed even more confused and busy than ever. He'd written her two more times while waiting and couldn't tell which letter she was re...

When she asked, "What's become of the old neighborhood—is it still deserted?" he could only say, "It's changed. New businesses have moved in. New people." She seemed to know what that meant. No o...

It was during this stolen moment, this spot of quiet melancholy, that Henry saw what he most wanted, and most feared. Standing across the street, staring directly at him, were a pair of beautiful c...

"We both" —Sheldon paused, then caught his breath again— "know why you were always looking for that old record. Always known." His breathing slowed. "Fix it," Sheldon managed to say one last ti...

"I'm sending you back to find what's missing. Sending you back to find what you let go. I'm proud of you, Pops, and I'm grateful for everything, especially the way you cared for Mom. You've done ev...