When you are sad that you have come to the end of a book, you know you have a winner! Jamie Ford has a talent for taking something from history and developing a complex and beautiful love story around it. The characters in this book are so well developed that you feel that you know them. I loved this book!

A wonderful new book by a talented author, it juxtaposes the 1909 Seattle World's Fair with the next one, 50 year's later. The main character is half Chinese and raffled off. The winner is the madam of a brothel! Lots of rich history interspersed in this wonderful story

Moving between the early 1900s and 1962, this novel tells the love story of Ernest and Gracie. Beginning with a memorable viewing of matricide by five year old Ernest, we follow his journey from China to Seattle, being taken under the wing of a strict temperance leader, and then being raffled off to the city's leading brothel. There Ernest finds security and family and friendship at last and becomes especially close to Maisie and Fahn. Fast forward to the 1962 chapters and we learn that Ernest has married one of those childhood friends, now named Gracie, and that she is suffering from dementia from dormant syphillis, perhaps temporarily. One of their daughters is a journalist who wants to write a feature story about her parents' origins, and Ernest wrestles with whether to betray Gracie's secret past. This is a tender story of overcoming the hardships of poverty and prejudice and finding youthful romance as well as mature love and devotion.

Jamie Ford has written another beautiful novel. Wonderful characters and heartbreak abound in this historical fiction that takes us through two time periods. Highly recommended reading.

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!

I Just finished reading Jamie Ford’s Love and Other Consolation Prizes, a novel inspired by a true story about a boy whose life is transformed at Seattle’s epic 1909 World’s Fair.

Unfortunately, I disagree from the majority of the reviewers but I am here to give an honest review in a respectful manner.

I am a fan of Mr. Ford and read his other two books. But I must say, on this one, I hardly felt any connection. I couldn’t feel empathy with some of the characters. I sometimes found myself very bored, skimming paragraphs, and would easily put the book down and not want to go back to it. I really craved for more action.

I must say the storyline was very interesting and included topics or themes such as Human Trafficking, Friendship, Love, Prostitution and more. But unfortunately, the story dragged, no high peak moments that would emotionally stir me. I kept on reading and reading waiting for that moment to arrive.

I really expected much more from the author!

Maybe next time...

Sweet story. Likable characters. Although I did enjoy the parallel stories, I would have liked more information about the characters in their later lives. Love Jamie Ford. Read them all!

I really enjoyed the author's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Was hoping thos would be close to that levrl. I felt it was disjointed and it had trouble keeping my attention. Not a great title, in my estimation, not an awful one. Sort of a middlin' title. Looking forward to reading another of Jamie Ford's books in the future.

3.5. / 5 stars
"To Ernest, the fairs were merely bookends, sentinels carved from stone, rooted in bedrock, immovable. His life, Gracie’s life, was the mystery caught in between. That was worth writing about."

This is a compelling novel based on the true story, of a boy who was "raffled off" during the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific-Exposition of 1909. The years between that World's Fair and the one of 1962 contain the tale of three main characters - how they wrestle with their past and determine their future. The pace of the story labored in the middle pages, but I enjoyed the plot and would recommend this to any reader who has "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" on their favorites list.

I was so looking forward to reading this book based upon the description. Unfortunately I was disappointed, the book is one of those that once you finish, you can really sum up the entire story in about 3 or 4 sentences. None of the characters are developed during the book, I didn't feel attached to any members of the family. It touched on the transport of small children to America from countries where their families had sold them for money in the early 1900's to survive and how they coped with their new situations. The entire book just skimmed the surface of each life, it could have been so much better if we could have related and went into the depth of Ernest's married life, his growing up of his children, and the true feelings of how each character felt during their lives and situations. The book is told in present and past tense, sometimes the switch between the two was confusing, and the ending was a nice touch, but not much explanation on the illness. Shallow, is the best word to describe the read.

Love and Other Consolation Prizes was a thoroughly delightful book. While I had never read any of Jamie Fords books prior to this, you can rest assured that I am going to now! This book is written beautifully and seamlessly moves from past to present. His character development is keen while not giving too much away. He has you following his characters to the very last page of the book! It was also interesting from an historical perspective. I did not know anything about the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition. Jamie Ford writes so wonderfully that you find yourself transported there. You are seeing the AYP through the eyes of each character. I will not divulge any more in order not to spoil anything. The only thing I will divulge is that you read this book.

His best one yet.

Jamie Ford has another not-to-be-missed read with "Love and Other Consolation Prizes." Ernest Young is the half-Caucasian son of a poor Chinese woman who abandons Ernest when he is 5 years of age, leaves him to be sent to America, which she believes is the only choice she has. After attending boarding school due to a "benefactor," Ernest's hopes to continue his education are dashed when he is offered as a raffle prize at the 1902 Worlds' Fair. The holder of the winning ticket is the madame of the most successful brothel in Seattle. Ernest makes his new home as a houseboy/chauffeur for Madame Flo and two of her "girls," Mayflower and Fahn. The joys and sorrows and construction of this unlikely family group will grab the reader's heart and not let go.

What a wonderful love story enriched with history of this country and beyond. It was so refreshing to read the truth of what happened to orphan children who came to America years ago.. Society has changed but it is an important part of history everyone should know about. I highly recommend this book, Jamie Ford has a way of writing that draws you in and keeps you there. Another best seller read this book, it will leave you with knowledge and a new look on life

On my To Read pile is Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford. I read the description and knew I would love it and I am hopeful that the story is going to pull me in! Those are the best kinds of books!

Synopsis

For twelve-year-old Ernest Young, a charity student at a boarding school, the chance to go to the World’s Fair feels like a gift. But only once he’s there, amid the exotic exhibits, fireworks, and Ferris wheels, does he discover that he is the one who is actually the prize. The half-Chinese orphan is astounded to learn he will be raffled off—a healthy boy “to a good home.”

The winning ticket belongs to the flamboyant madam of a high-class brothel, famous for educating her girls. There, Ernest becomes the new houseboy and befriends Maisie, the madam’s precocious daughter, and a bold scullery maid named Fahn. Their friendship and affection form the first real family Ernest has ever known—and against all odds, this new sporting life gives him the sense of home he’s always desired.

But as the grande dame succumbs to an occupational hazard and their world of finery begins to crumble, all three must grapple with hope, ambition, and first love.

Fifty years later, in the shadow of Seattle’s second World’s Fair, Ernest struggles to help his ailing wife reconcile who she once was with who she wanted to be, while trying to keep family secrets hidden from their grown-up daughters.

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A wonderful story of love, loss, humanity, morality, and so much more. The story of Ernest was fascinating and although I kept speculating who he would end up, I think I always knew who it would be in the end. To make a story about a brothel and all the characters involved one I didn't want to put down is quite a feat. Congrats to the author!

Jamie Ford has another wonderful book out. I couldn't put it down. His book Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is one of my all time favorites. But his new book, Love and Other Consolation Prizes, has moved me just as much. A biracial Chinese and American boy loses his baby sister and his Mom gives him away thinking he will have a better life if he came to America. Things went quickly down hill from there until he went to Seattle's World Fair in 1909.
This is based off a true story and switches back and forth between Ernest as a growing boy starting in 1902 and his older years with his wife and daughters.
A must read for everybody!!

As a young boy, Ernest's mother put him on a boat bound for the united states. After surviving the journey, Ernest is taken on as a charity student at an elite boarding school. When twelve year old Ernest he tells his benefactress that he wants, he is taken to the World's Fair and auctioned off. He is won by a madam of a brothel, whose women are known for both their beauty and their brains.

The book alternated between a young Ernest and Ernest fifty years later. I thought the elder Ernest story line was unnecessary. It made the book move slowly and took away from the shocks and growth young Ernest experienced. Despite this criticism, the book was well written and mostly entertaining. Overall, worth picking up.

I received early access to this book in exchange for sending honest feedback and I couldn't be more pleased. It was a pleasure to read this story of deep and lasting love.

In the early 1900s Seattle is a town full of vice where foreign-born children, sold or given away by impoverished parents, can wind up auctioned off as servants, as entertainment at a street fair. This is Ernest Young's origin story. Half-white, half-Chinese, Ernest passes through the hands of a moralistic do-gooder before he lands as a minimally paid servant in a house of prostitution. There he becomes friends with two girls. One is a Japanese born girl, another servant, and the second is the secret daughter of the establishment's Madam. Ernest falls in love with both.

The book ties together two stories. One is Ernest's life around 1909, when, as a child, he navaigates the politics of a popular brothel with powerful patrons. The second story is Ernest, circa 1962, navigating the illness of his wife, Gracie, with some help from his two grown daughters.. What ties the two tales together are two world's fair, both of which figure prominently in the lives of Ernest and his two childhood friends.

The book is beautififully evocative of the early 1900s, when Seattle is still a lawless place and there's much to be learned about hypocrisy and the moral war being fought by the wealthy against the downtrodden. But, above all this is a tender love story about love that can last a lifetime and the resiliency of human beings to heal from the most horrid experiences. A very powerful read.