The story and plot of Love and Other Consolation Prizes are intriguing. Ernest Young’s story begins in China where he is sold onto a boat of indentured servants and, along with other children, held in caged compartments below deck for the arduous journey to Seattle. Once in port, Ernest finds himself a ward of the state under the guidance of Mrs. Irvine, doing odd jobs at various schools but always excluded from school outings. Fate--and Mrs. Irvine--intervene when Ernest is raffled off “to a good home” but paradoxically ends up in a house of prostitution. Paradox on paradox--the house of prostitution does, indeed, turn out to be a good home.The opulent brothel peopled with kind-hearted characters provides a bittersweet upbringing for young Ernest. I saw some parallels to Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book in the array of colorful characters who each contribute to Ernest’s coming of age--the piano playing elder who dispenses words of wisdom, the brothel owner who invites her “guests” into her sumptuous mansion, and the sanctimonious temperance worker whose attempted adoption raffle at the Seattle World’s Fair takes a turn she never could have imagined.

The author’s love of Seattle history shines through in both this book and in his earlier work Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. In these two novels I learned so much about a beautiful, complex city I often visit. The author mines Seattle’s history for everyday details as an archaeologist would collect pottery shards and arrowheads and drapery appointments. In Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, these historical details merge with plot and character into a seamless narrative quilt. Unfortunately, too often in Love and Other Consolation Prizes, the stitches seem to be lying on top of the story fabric rather than binding the layers together. I think much of this has to do with voice in the young Ernest sections. What twelve-year-old, let alone an orphan systematically barred from cultural activities, would think in words such as beguiling or ingénue, or accurately identify a hobble skirt or spiral puttee? (I confess I had to look the latter up.) All of this led me to focus on the words and thus feel distanced from the story. In the passages featuring Ernest as a child, I would have preferred a simpler style, one that Francine Prose says in her book Reading Like a Writer is meant “to make you not pay attention.”

While I did not lose myself completely in the tale of young Ernest as he comes of age in pre-war Seattle, I did enjoy the plot, characters, history--history that includes bawdy revelers, impassioned suffragettes, temperance crusaders, and corrupt politicians. I recommend this novel to readers interested in the diverse, and sometimes gritty, history of Seattle (though, as you can probably tell, not as heartily as I recommend Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet).

I received an advance reading copy of Love and Other Consolation Prizes from Net Galley.

Poignant, subtle, philosophical story by an author who knows how to immerse the reader in a time and place.

The storyline follows the life of Ernest Young. Born in China, he is sent to America as a child by his starving mother to save his life. He survives the brutal trip when others do not and is taken into a children’s home as a ward of the state. His education is sponsored by a wealthy Seattle matron. When he expresses a desire to expand his horizons beyond the school, where he has been subjected to racism and second-class treatment, his sponsor arranges for him to be raffled off as the prize. When the Madame of a high-end brothel wins the raffle, Ernest’s life improves dramatically through developing the familial bonds with the colorful cast of residents.

The story is told in dual timelines: the early 1900s and 1962, related to two significant fairs that took place in Seattle, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909 and the Century 21 Expo in 1962. This beautifully written book provides a vivid picture of each event, and provides a striking contrast between the two.

Explores substantial topics such as human trafficking, racism, prostitution, and hypocrisy. Also delves into the timeless themes of the human condition, such as yearning for a sense of belonging, feeling less than adequate, the psychological impacts of suffering, and the desire to be loved. The main characters express philosophical views of life, such as the interconnectedness of memorable moments, the often-unintended consequences of decisions, and the vast capabilities of the human heart.

Highly recommended, especially to book clubs, readers of historical fiction, and those who enjoy somewhat sentimental stories about the complexities of people. My thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing an advance copy in return for candid feedback.

LOVE AND OTHER CONSOLATION PRIZES: A NOVEL (September 2017)
By Jamie Ford
Ballantine, 330 pages.
★★★★

A novel about forced emigration, a harrowing escape from death, youngsters being sold in raffles, growing up in a whorehouse, the effects neurosyphilis, and spending one's adult years trying to mask the past doesn't generally lend itself to adjectives such as "sweet" and "charming," but this one does. Those familiar with Jamie Ford's debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, know that he can tackle bleak subjects with a light hand—too light for those who see his work as analogous to an overly sunny Ken Burns film—but with enough aplomb for me to make his books engaging reads.

Ford opens his novel in China in 1902, a decidedly non-propitious year. It is one year after the collapse of the Boxer rebellion, millions are addicted to drugs, foreigners are picking the corpse of the decaying Qing Dynasty, and rural Chinese face hunger and starvation. Such horrors would have been the fate of Yung Kun-ai, had not his mother sold him to a shipping company bound for North America. Yung, who is about five-years-old and has been told the ship is owned by his "uncle," is crowded into the fetid hold of a rusty ship with dozens of others—the girls earmarked for brothels and the boys for picking cane in Hawaii, mainland servitude, or being dumped in the ocean if approached by inspectors. As if Yung doesn't have enough problems, he is a "half-breed" pariah because his father was Caucasian. He too would have drowned, had he not used his mother's hairpin—his only link to his birthplace—to cut his way from the bundle to which he was hastily tied and tossed overboard.

Yung is plucked from the waters of Seattle harbor and, after a few more misadventures, is taken in by Mrs. Irvine, a moral crusader and patron of both a children's home and a Christian academy. As Ernest Young*, he spends seven years with Irvine, before parting company with her. As her final "gift" to Ernest, she takes him the world's fair, the 1909 Alaska Yukon Pacific (AYP) Exposition, where he is raffled off to the highest bidder. Yes—you read that right; children were raffled at the AYP. Ernest, though, is luckier than most; his new patron is Florence Nettleton, known professionally as Madame Flora, and her profession is the world's oldest one. Hijinks, heartbreak, an eye-opening education, love, and other consolations are about to come Ernest's way in Seattle's Tenderloin district, where Flora runs a high-class house of ill repute.

The novel jumps back and forth in time bound by the AYP at one end, and the 1962 Century 21 Exposition that gave Seattle its iconic Space Needle and monorail system at the other. We meet Ernest as a boy and teen in the early 20th century, surrounded by the painted ladies of the Tenderloin, the colorful household staff, and his special friends Maisie (Flora's daughter) and Fahn—on both of whom he holds serious crushes. These parts of the book are essentially a coming of age story, albeit a very unorthodox one. In 1962 we encounter an aging Ernest, a married man whose wife has dementia-like symptoms. He passes his days caring for his wife, hanging out with Pascual, his Filipino best friend, and visiting with his daughters: Juju, a journalist, and Hanny, a flirty showgirl. Juju is slugging it out in the old boy's pressroom and the 1962 world's fair provides her with a good excuse to write the story of turn-of-the-century Chinese immigration to Seattle. Her parents would make excellent subjects, except her mother's memory is unreliable and Ernest's tongue isn't flapping.

Ford plots his story well and this novel moves at such a crisp pace that it seems much shorter than it is. It is fair comment to say that overall Love and Other Consolations is closer to pulp fiction than to that elusive (and often over exalted) category called "literature." The action, details, and relationships of Ernest's AYP years are far more interesting than the parts of the book set in 1962—and not just because coming of age tales tend to be more satisfying than leaving the stage narratives. Although we can only piece together what happened in the intervening fifty years of Ernest's life, Ford's book could benefit from a sprinkling of red herrings as it's too easy to predict the book's overall dramatic arc. This makes certain resolutions feel more convenient than convincing. In addition, Ford captures the "feel" of the early 1900s better than he does mid-century. Juju, in particular, sems too modern for 1962. All of this aside, young Ernest, his circle, and his world are so winning that one can take, if I might, consolation in them when future thrills wear thin.

Rob Weir

* Ford, whose father and grandfather were of Chinese descent, interjects a biographical parallel in the Anglicization of Yung Kun-ai. By all rights, the author should bear a Chinese surname, but his paternal grandfather changed his family's last name to Ford for mysterious reasons.

The story opens with a heart-rending scene of a Chinese mother burying her newborn daughter - alive - while her older brother looks on. Then she leaves him in the cemetery, telling him to wait for a man who will take him to America. His life becomes no less dramatic and only slightly more cheerful as he gets older. He is taken to Seattle and the story begins to alternate between the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in 1909 and the World's Fair in 1962.
As a Seattle resident, I was fascinated by this history of my city. At one point I had to look up the snowfall records for a certain year because this kind of snow doesn't typically happen here. Let's just say, the author did his homework. Historical facts are well researched and accurate. The story itself is emotionally charged and riveting.
Because a large part of it takes place in a brothel, it is better suited to high school and adult audiences.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and would highly recommend it.

I received a copy of "Love and Other Consolation Prizes" from NetGalley for an honest review. I wish to thank NetGalley, Ballantine Books, and Jamie Ford for the opportunity to read this book.

There is just something about Jamie Ford's that move me and speak to me in deep and meaningful ways. I do not give 5 stars on Goodreads often, but this is the second book by this author that deserved this! Unbelievable!!

The story line of the book is really simple - a boy is auctioned off at the first Seattle World's Fair. It is told from his point of view during the first Seattle World's Fair and the second Seattle World's Fair. The juxtaposition of the time periods is beautiful and amazing.

The use of language, the time period, and the story were just spectacular! Please read this book if you like historical fiction, good writing, Asian-American history, Seattle, or just want to read a book - make it THIS one!!

This is a STRONG recommend!! I read this book within 24 hours and stayed up until 2:00am to finish it - it was THAT good!!

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is one of my all time favorites, so I was very excited to get an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley of Jamie Ford's latest novel.

Love and Other Consolation Prizes follows the story of a young man and his two closest girl friends, as they grow up in the Tenderloin district of Seattle. Half of the story is anchored in the early 1900's at the time of the Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition World's Fair. The other half is set in the early '60s at the time of the Seattle World's Fair. Although there are some passages that are hard to read, they all read as very realistic and believable. The characters in the 'home' where the three grow-up are colorful and memorable.

This is another great read by Jamie Ford.

It is so special that Jamie Ford writes about Seattle and the immigrant population. In each of his books I not only find a well told and endearing story but I learn something new about the area and its history. Having visited Pioneer Square often I can envision the layout of the area while reading about the activities and trade of the day. I loved the characters of Maisie and Fahn and Ernest and that at least parts of their stories are based upon fact.

This story of friendships with bitter-sweet endings illustrates the ebb of life's flow.

I really love bed this book. The characters were so engaging that I had a hard time putting the book down. I liked HOTEL AT THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET a little. I liked this even more.

Immerse yourself in the world of the red light district of Seattle in the early 20th Century. A young man, sold by his mother in China because she could not afford to keep him, finds himself the prize in a raffle at the Seattle World's Fair in 1909. The winning ticket belongs to Madam Florence Nettleton, whose brothel is filled with beautiful young women whom she is educating in the arts and sciences and elocution and proper manners. Ernest Young becomes the house boy, confidante, friend and student in this setting.

Tugging at his heart are Fahn, a maid in the house, and Maise, who turns out to be Madam Flora's daughter. Tangled relationships indeed.

Told in alternating chapters of present day and 1909, we're told that Ernest's wife is "Gracie", but we're deep into the storyline before we are told Gracie's real identity.

Beautifully, but powerfully, written, this is yet another example of Jamie Ford entertaining readers with stories of Chinese nationals.

I read this EARC courtesy of Net Galley and Random House pub date 09/12/17

On one level, Jamie Ford's novels can be characterized as sweet, sad, tender love stories, where the main character is Chinese or half Chinese . If you've read anything at all about Ford, you know that his grandfather was Chinese. I love that he honors his heritage with his stories. But his stories are more than sweet love stories and tributes to his background; they are stories of substance. They reflect the history and society of the times of which he writes. Prejudice, the importance of identity, fitting in, what family means, no matter how unconventional it may be at times. I wanted to read his latest book because I was so taken with his storytelling in his first two novels. I also remember reading or hearing an interview with Ford who talked about the seed for this story - the image of an orphan up for raffle at the 1909 world's fair in Seattle , the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition . If you check it out, you'll find that an infant named Ernest was indeed on raffle and Ford has imagined what the life of this child would be like after he, the prize is redeemed. Ernest in the novel is not an infant, but a young boy.

The novel begins in 1962 as Ernest is dealing with his wife's memory loss. The story moves seamlessly back and forth from the present to his past telling the story of how he and Gracie met. Ford has a way of taking you directly to where his characters are both in the time and place as well as easily connecting the reader with where there are emotionally. I felt as if I stepped inside the bowels of that ship with Yung in 1902 before he became Ernest, tasted the candy apple at the fair, and walked with him inside the parlor of The Temderloin brothel, feeling his grief as his mother gives him away not out of selfishness but out of love, and understanding his dilemma over the two girls he loves.

After arriving in the US , Ernest goes from being an orphan, sponsored in a private school to a house boy at a brothel, taken in by the Madame who won him in the raffle. You might not think a brothel is the best place for a young boy to be raised in, but for Ernest it's the best thing that could have happened to him after his harrowing young life when he was Yung and starving in China, before he became Ernest. It's here that he gets the safety and comfort that he hadn't known and here where he meets people who will change your definition of family and where his life changes . A benevolent Madam, the "Gibson Girls" of the house , a scullery maid who was the Japanese girl that Ernest met on the ship , Maisie , the secret daughter of Madame Flora and a cast of likable characters are part of Ernest's early story. Definitely recommended for fans of Jamie Ford's previous novels and to anyone who wants a glimpse of past times depicted by some wonderful characters I came to care about.


I received an advanced copy of this book from Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine through NetGalley.

Love and Other Consolation Prizes looks back to the turn of the 20th Century and how minorities are immigrates were treated in stark detail.
Ernest is raffled off at the World's Fair after being sent abroad by his poor mother. A long way from China, alone and looking for his place in this world, Ernest is eager to fit in at The Tenderloin one of the elite brothers in Seattle. Here Ernest finds purpose, love and friendship as he get to know the women who work upstairs as well as servants in the household.
Ernest's story is moving and both happy and sad. The book follows the original events as well as Ernest of the future in the 1960s. This technique keeps readers guessing and excited to find out how the past directly relates to the future.
An engaging read, Jamie Ford weaves a tale of heart, redemption, and determination. Love and Other Consolation Prizes is s a book I would definitely reread.

I began this story with great expectations, and certainly the plot summary promised much. Why then is my review not more enthusiastic? Intellectually, I found this story of a period in American history when racism was rampant and corruption and hypocrisy manifested in equal measures to be fascinating. Students of U.S. history are well-schooled in discrimination against Blacks, but it was a revelation to me to see what Asians endured. The setting of the district in Seattle housing brothels and cribs was equally unfamiliar to me, and to read about the education of these young women and the cruel response to their situation by the high-minded ladies of society created an interesting conflict in the reader.
My one complaint, and it is a major one, is my inability to relate to the three main characters of the story. Ernest, the narrator, lives a life of unbelievable deprivation but hardly seems touched by it. He seems to float through the experiences with a sense of wonderment more likely in curious bystander.
The story is set in two time periods, each marked by a World's Fair. It is a clever technique and makes for some interesting comparisons. However the events of 1962 are not as well constructed as Ernest's youth, and what should have been a satisfying wrap-up of his story just sort of peters out. I wasn't quite clear what caused his wife's mental confusion or the much-too-neatly added cure. In fact I really didn't understand his relationship with his wife.
Undoubtedly it was the emotional deprivations of Ernest's childhood and youth that made him the stunted adult he became, but it kept me from fully engaging in his story.

I absolutely loved "The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter ans Sweet" and once again Jamie Ford has done it again. He made me fall in love with his new novel "Love and other Consolation Prizes". It is based on a real situation about an immigrant boy who is raffled off at the 1909 Seattle's World Fair.. This is a brilliantly written story about what love and devotion means.

In the early 1900's, people in China were starving and selling off their children not only to feed themselves, but in hope that their children would have a better life. One such child, who came to be known as 'Henry' is sold and put on a ship with several other children. He eventually lands in Washington state and after being shuttled around for a few years, he becomes a raffle prize at the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific fair in Seattle. The winning ticket goes to the madam of an upscale brothel known as the Tenderloin. There Henry begins his real life education and forms lifelong bonds that are both heartbreaking and rewarding.

The story is told in a flashback format. In 1962, Henry is retired and his wife is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's. Their daughter Juju is a journalist and has only recently discovered the story about a Chinese boy being raffled off at the AYP fair and has suspicions it could be her father. When she questions her father about the story, he evades her at first, but then he starts to reminisce and so unfolds this tale of love, hardship, questionable morals, hypocrisy, and the will to triumph.

Jamie Ford knows how to pull the reader in and care about the characters he writes about. This one is a winner.

I loved this book! A heartbreakingly beautiful story of love, loyalty, and survival told against the backdrop of two World’s Fairs in Seattle: the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific exposition of 1909 and the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. Ernest, Fahn, and Maisie are three children who find their way to the Tenderloin - a high class brothel in Seattle’s red light district - in the early 1900s. Each has their own haunting back story but they are united by a strong drive to survive and a deep caring for each other. This is a coming of age story, told in alternating segments with Ernest’s story in 1962. The mood painted is wistful, a little sad, and replete with innocence slowly seeping away and being replaced by kindness, defiance, and determination.

Fans of historical fiction will enjoy the attention to detail Ford gives to the mood and surroundings of the two time periods. Events such as Halley’s Comet, the Panama Canal, the rights of women to vote, and the details of Seattle mayoral races and their impact on the moral structure of the city are sprinkled throughout the tale. Fans of literary fiction will enjoy the delicious writing which infuses mood and sentiment throughout a plot that describes historically accurate events and the impact on a diverse set of characters. Each character - from the primaries to the secondaries - are interesting, well drawn, and bring a unique perspective to the story. All and all a great read.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for my review. I have previously read Jamie Ford's novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, so I was eager to read his latest story. Ford's novels are not the type of stories that you plunge into and read quickly. His stories are full of details and plot twists, and the story unfolds intentionally and slowly builds to a terrific ending. This story is bookended by the World's Fair which took place in Seattle. The first time the fair takes place we meet Ernest Young, who is about to be auctioned off to the owner of a locally famous brothel. At this brothel, Ernest meets the owner's daughter Maisey, and the kitchen help, Fahn. This story tells the relationship of these three lives as they grow together and apart over the next fifty years, finally reaching the powerful climax during the second time the World's Fair came to Seattle. This is a powerful story, with many diverse themes, which makes it a perfect book club selection.

Once again, Jamie Ford, has written an epic journey that stays with me, long after I finished the book. I loved Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Thinking that book would be hard to beat, I was thrilled to find I was wrong. The 1906 Seattle World's Fair, and the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle, bookend this story about a boy who was raffled off at the first fair. As one character stated, life is about the good and the bad. Ford has brought to life all aspects of life, and the wonder of unconditional love. I would highly recommend this book for anyone looking to grasp hope in life.

As a huge Ford fan I was over the moon when I was approved for this ARC! Like all of his stories it tells the story of hidden historys of Seattle, this one in the 1909 and 1962 worlds fairs. Ford does a wonderful job balancing love, friendship, and even the horrors of our own history. Did we really raffle unwanted children off as basically slaves? I loved how this story jumped back and forth between Ernest's teenage years and his late 60s. You get to feel his emotions in the moment as well as how it still dwells in his soul so many years later. All in all another outstanding book from Jamie Ford!

This was a very interesting book, inspired by a true event at the Seattle World Fair . This story, goes between Yung's childhood in 1902, when Yung a five year old half breed, Part Chinese part white European, which would make him an outcast in both worlds, lived in dire poverty with his mother who could not make ends meet, and she tells him “Only two kinds of people in China, The rich and the too poor.” Then tells him to wait for his “Uncle” who is going to take him to America.
He leaves on a ship for Seattle, Washington, and after seven years there, and given the name Ernest Young, where he has gone through reformatories and boarding schools, always looking for a sense of family, but never finding it. Then in 1909 at the Seattle world fair, he is led to believe he is finally going to be adopted into a good family, but is instead given to the winning number of a raffle ticket. The winning ticket owner is a Madame Flora, who runs a high-class brothel, called the Tenderloin, and actually here he does find a family. He becomes good friends with Madame Flora's daughter Maisie and a maid Fahn who he actually had met on the boat to Seattle.
The other part of the story, which goes back and forth throughout the book takes place in 1962, with Ernest now and older man, Gracie and Margaret and Ernest's two grown daughters, Hanny and Juju, who want to find out more about their father and mothers past.
This story has a great story line and a lot of fun characters.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Ballantine Books for the ARC copy of this book.