Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford

I met Jamie Ford at our Library's Fundraiser last year.  I complimented him on Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, and told him how much I appreciated a sweet, happy ending.  He smiled and said to me,"Then you are going to love this one!" as he handed me back my personally signed copy.

He was right.  :-)

The set up is very similar to Hotel.  Three Asian youngsters trying to assimilate into America, this time in Seattle during the World Fair in 1909.   Like in Hotel, the reader almost immediately connects with the main character, in this case a boy called Ernest.  It is very easy to fall in love with these characters the way Ford writes them.  Maisie and Fahn are his two best friends/loves and of course a choice must be made, if not made for him.  Because Ernest was literally raffled off at the Fair, and the woman who "won" him runs a brothel.  And Ernest ends up loving his new family regardless of their line of work - he has completely lost the one he was born into an ocean away.

As we once again toggle between two times - the beginning and near the end of his life - Ernest reflects on his life, his choices, his loves and his secrets.  His grown daughters visit and ask questions which bring back many memories of the paths his life has taken.  Ford did a lot of research here, and actually based the premise on a true story (or as the author calls it, "lost history") of a baby named Ernest who was to be given away during the time of the fair, but was apparently never claimed.  And so this story was born.  Add in some side scenes nodding to the women's suffrage movement, the health hazards of the "trade," the transport of children and women to America for less than honorable purposes, and even the different levels of cribs - from downright abuse to the select education and expensive dresses Madam Flora's girls received in her respected establishment - and you have yourself an interesting, well presented, and emotional story based on truth.  And yes, the ending was quite the consolation prize......I love it!!!!