Inspired by a true story, Ernest, who is half-Chinese and orphaned at a very young age, is brought to America from China in hopes that he will have a better life here. Set in Seattle in dual time periods, 1909 and 1962, Ernest is raffled off at the age of twelve at the 1909 Seattle World's Fair and goes to live and work in a high class brothel. He is treated well there and becomes friends with Maisie, the daughter of the brothel's Madame Flora, and Fahn, a scullery maid at the brothel. In 1962, Ernest, through the coaxing of his journalist daughter, tells her his story of how he arrived in America, his time living in the brothel, and meeting Gracie there, his wife who is suffering from dementia. This is a heartbreaking but beautiful story that is masterfully written by Jamie Ford. I highly recommend it.

I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

Another beautifully written story by Jamie Ford. I was drawn into Ernest Young’s world immediately. After Ernest’s mother abandons him, the 12-year old is raffled off at the World’s Fair. His life takes quite a turn when the woman who ‘wins’ him, a renowned madam of a high class brothel in the redlight district, puts him to work as her brothel’s houseboy. Oh, what that boy sees, hears and learns along the way - such a great ride!

As time goes by, Ernest’s affections grow for not one, but two girls in the house; Maisie, the madam’s daughter and Fahn, a scullery maid. The three unforgettable characters become fast friends, their interrelationships complex and fascinating. I was completely consumed and felt like I was breathing the same air.

As the story cuts back and forth between the past and present when Ernest is a man in his later years, I could only speculate who the woman was that he had chosen to spend the rest of his life with but who is sadly moving into senility. Is it Maisie? Is it Fahn?

I was sad to see the book end, my time with Ford’s characters flew by too fast.

Sometimes it's good to be completely surprised by a book. Sometimes it's great to find, within a books pages, exactly what you expected to find.

Love and Other Consolation Prizes falls into that second category for me. I've read both of Ford's previous books (Hotel On The Corner of Bitter and Sweet and Songs of Willow Frost) and expect to learn a lot about the history of the Pacific Northwest and the Chinese and Japanese immigrants who came there when I open one of Ford's books. I expect that there will be children involved in the story and I expect that there will be tears (mine) at some point in the reading. Love and Other Consolation Prizes more than met my expectations in all regards.
"This is a love story, but so was the tale of Romeo and Juliet. That was the greatest love story of all time. And we all know how that turned out."
We don't know how Ernest Young's love story will turn out but this book is more than just a love story. It is also a story about families, even unconventional ones. It's a story about accepting people for who they are and about the kinds of sacrifices people are willing to make, both to get what they want and for others.

Ford also raises moral questions that don't necessarily have black or white answers. The character of Mrs. Irvine is a woman who pays for Ernest to attend a private school but only because it makes her feel better about herself. She doesn't care that Ernest if treated as a servant by the richer, white boys; she doesn't want to know that he is left out of all extracurricular activities. She is only too quick to punish him when he expresses the slightest self-interest by raffling him off to a good home. How he might be treated in that home interests her not at all, as long as the home belongs to good, white Christians. For the coming decades, she will make tirelessly work to destroy the home that Ernest does find himself in. Given that the home is, in fact, a brothel, is she wrong to do so? At Madame Flora's, Ernest is given his own room, clothing, responsibilities, and a fair wage. More importantly, he is surrounded by people who care about him, even love him. Which is the better woman?

The love triangle at the heart of the story is lovely - Fahn and Maisie are friends, both are in love with Ernest and he with them. Both Fahn and Maisie are fighting to make their way in the world and Ernest will do what ever it takes to try to keep them from becoming "upstairs girls." I wanted to wrap all three of them up in my arms and make life better, more fair. Later in life, my heart broke for Ernest again but Ford, as you will know if you've read his previous books, will not let this be an entirely sad story. There will be reunions, there will be hope.

Like his previous books, Love and Other Consolation Prizes would make a terrific book club selection. From the history of the two Seattle World's Fairs, the importing of Chinese and Japanese children to sell in the United States, the ethics of governments and police forces, the treatment of immigrants there is a lot of here to talk about. And that doesn't even touch on the themes of family, love, abuse, morality, and friendship. Ford packs a lot into this book, making it a lovely book with a lot of depth.

Great read! This book highlights the inequality garnered by birthright or the lack thereof. A victorious tale of overcoming what life deals out to each of us.

I really liked this one. It's about a Chinese boy who was sold by his mother and brought to the United States. This is another book that switches between the present and the past. In the present time, Ernest's daughter has discovered that there was once a child who was raffled off at the World's Fair, 50 years ago. After some investigating, she thinks that this child may have been her father. She approaches him and asks him if she has permission to tell his story in an article. The story in the past talks about his journey and experiences from China to the US, his time before the fair and the high class brothel he ends up at after the raffle.

I really enjoyed reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, so I was looking forward to reading Jamie Ford’s second novel, Love and other Consolation Prizes. I was not disappointed. This is a story about a young boy named Ernest, who was raffled off as a prize at the 1909 Seattle Worlds Fair. His life as a child growing up and being employed in a brothel alternates with his life as an elderly man in 1962. Ernest’s life story and his reflections back in time as a senior held my interest as a reader.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC. This is my unbiased review.

I had high hopes for this book but it just didn't resonate with me. The characters were well defined and the plot was good I just personally couldn't get into this story line like other of Ford's books.

This book was a good read but very slow in places. But I would still recommend it, the story is written beautifully and was a nice change of pace for a change.

I lov d most of this book, with the exception of the first and last few pages. It was a beautiful and fascinating story of love and friendship set in a time and place I knew little about. I found the historical aspects so interesting, and the anchors of the two world fairs was wonderful. The story itself was both heart breaking and heart warming. Really my only complaint was that the first several pages were difficult for me to digest. It felt like it was trying way too hard to be an important piece of literature. And the last few pages I felt tried too hard to be women's fiction and tie everything up with a big red bow. Overall however I will definitely recommend this book.

Just finished reading" Love and other Consolation Prizes". Loved every minute of it. It is the story for a love affair that spans some 60 years of a foreign born orphan boy, Earnest Young and his experiences in a brothel. It's about his life and his two great loves, Maisie and Fahn. I hate to tell too much in my reviews because I prefer to learn about a book on my own so I usually tell very little. If you liked "On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet", I'm sure that you will enjoy this one as well.

What an unusual premise for a story: an orphan boy is raffled off as the prize in a lottery at a world's fair! Good grief! And believe it or not, that actually happened at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle, WA in 1909.

In real life, the child was a one-month-old baby boy named Ernest. The winning ticket was drawn but no one ever claimed the prize and it is not known what happened to the infant.

Jamie Ford uses this amazing true occurrence as the idea for his new book. His protagonist is Yung Kun-ai, a 5-year-old boy, part Chinese boy/part Caucasian, who is given away by his starving mother to a man who promises to bring him to America in the hopes of finding a better life. He is just one of several abandoned or orphaned children aboard ship. After arriving at a holding center in Seattle, he is made a ward of the state and goes on to live in a series of boarding schools and reformatories.

Now the boy is about to turn twelve and is known as Ernest Young. His sponsor, Mrs Ida Irvine, a wealthy do-gooder social reformer, is disappointed to learn that he wishes to leave his current school, the Holy Word Academy, and she is the one who comes up with the brilliant idea to make him the prize in a raffle at the upcoming world's fair, to aid a civic organization to which she belongs.

And so the big day arrives and Ernest doesn't know what to expect. When the winning number is drawn, it seems at first that no one will claim their prize, but then a beautiful woman comes forward. She is the infamous Madame Florence who runs the Tenderloin, a high-end Seattle brothel, and she is pleased to meet her new houseboy. Mrs Irvine, of course, is appalled--the rules say that he is to go 'to a good home' after all--but Florence Nettleton wins the argument and takes her 'raffle prize' home with her. There Ernest will meet the two young girls who will be the loves of his life: Maisie and Fahn.

But the story is bookended by another World's Fair in Seattle, The Century 21 Exposition that takes place in 1962. Ernest has made a life for himself with one of those two girls who stole his heart as a young boy and they have two grown daughters. But the woman he calls Gracie is now losing her memory, a consequence of the life they led as children in the Tenderloin. And now the past must be revealed to their daughters as Ernest tries to help Gracie remember their life together.

Jamie Ford has such an engaging writing style! It's so delightful to return to Seattle to see it in another era and experience a little known lifestyle. If you've enjoyed Jamie Ford's other books, I'm sure you'll enjoy this one just as much.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read an arc of this new book.

I love the characters Jamie Ford creates, I love the way he tells his stories, very sweetly and straightforwardly, without a lot of overwriting or embellishment. I love learning about Chinese-American culture, and how his historical novels feel well-researched and authentic (this is based on a true story) without focusing on the history to the exclusion of the story. I wish he could produce new books more often, because I always really enjoy reading his books. So I'm thrilled to have read this one and sad that there won't be another for a while.

I received this book for free from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I loved "Hotel On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" so I was excited to see a new novel by Jamie Ford and couldn't wait to read it. I certainly wasn't disappointed. Ford writes in a style that draws the reader into the world of the book so the sights and smells and feelings envelop you and seem almost real.

I loved that who Ernest chose from his two loves was kept a mystery until well towards the end of the book. The writing is excellent and it's interesting that the story is told from two time periods - both with the World's Fair as a backdrop.

The raw and shocking history shown in Ernest's early years was both sad and yet inspiring that people were able to overcome such horrible beginnings.

I didn't want this book to end.

I would love to say I enjoyed the story or found it interesting but I can't. I had a difficult time keeping the characters straight. Also many of the characters had some kind of background that was never fully explained. I really wanted to like this story but I gave up. I thought the synopsis of the story sounded interesting which is why I requested it. However the story was a disappointment.

Such a gorgeous story. This is the first book I've read by Jamie Ford and it likely won't be my last. Inspired by the infant boy named Ernest who was raffled off as a prize at the 1909 Seattle World's Fair (and never claimed), Love and Other Consolation Prizes pictures one possible outcome for Ernest, had he been about 11 years old instead of a baby.

We see some of the defining moments in Ernest's life, many of which are based around the two Seattle World's Fairs, with "present day" Ernest in 1962 reflecting on his life back to 1902 and 1909-1910. His eldest daughter, now a journalist, wants to write about his experiences with the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition as the Century 21 fair is approaching. His wife Gracie, is suffering from sort of dementia, and hardly knows her husband. They are living apart and this story that his daughter wants to explore is forcing him to confront his past and present.

We follow Ernest as he begins to find his place within a peculiar family. We meet the colorful characters that surround him and watch as Ernest begins to turn into a young man. You see some of the struggles that Asian immigrants faced during the early 20th century. If you've been to the Pacific Northwest, or specifically Seattle, it many be especially interesting to be able to wonder how things looked then compared to now. There are mentions of the Space Needle and other places in the shadow of Mount Rainier, such as Puget Sound and the Queen Anne neighborhood. This is the book to pick up if you're looking for something a little sad but hopeful. Something to transport you into another time period, to see the struggles some of our grandparents or great-grandparents may have experience.

"'We all have things we don't talk about, Ernest thought. 'Even though, more often than not, these are the things that make us who we are.'"

Ford is the author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which is one of my favorite novels, and so I was thrilled when I saw he had written another historical novel set in Seattle. Thanks go to Net Galley and Ballantine Books for the DRC, which I received free in exchange for this honest review.

Ernest is a small child when his mother, who is dying, wrenches herself away from him and puts him on a boat to the USA. He attends a charity boarding school and then is raffled off, a free orphan to a good home, by the Children’s Home Society at the Alaskan Pacific World’s Expo. It is Flora, the madam of a Seattle brothel, that claims him and brings him to the city. There he is essentially a house boy, and he forms a warm friendship with two young women employed there, Fahn and Maisie.

The narrative is divided between two time periods, the first following Ernest as he leaves China and arrives in the USA at the dawn of the twentieth century, and the second in the early 1960s when he is elderly and his wife, Gracie, is suffering from dementia. There’s an element of suspense that is artfully played as we follow both narratives, trying to untangle whether the woman that becomes “Gracie” is Maisie, Fahn, or some third person.

But Ford’s greatest strength is in bringing historical Seattle home to us. The characters are competently turned, but it’s setting that drives this book, just as it did his last one. Ernest lands in the city’s most notorious area at the time, a place just south of downtown known as the Tenderloin:

“He had never once been near the mysterious part of Seattle that lay south of Yesler Way, a street better known as the Deadline. His teachers had talked for years about sewer rats that plagued the area, and rattlesnakes, and about the wolves that prowled the White Chapel District, waiting to sink their teeth into the good people of Seattle, which a local song had dubbed the Peerless City. Ernest had imagined lanky, sinuous creatures with sharp claws and tangles of mangy fur, but as he looked out at the avenue, all he saw were signs for dance halls and saloons.”

Ernest’s years at the brothel prove to be the best of his young life, primarily because the rest of it was so much worse. Every time a rosy glow starts to form around the brothel and the condition of the women that work there, Ford injects an incident that is stark and horrible to remind us that trafficking in human beings and their most intimate acts is criminal and should never be condoned. Miss Flora is a relatively benign madam because it is better for business, not because of any sentimentality toward the women she employs. This comes to us all the more starkly when her own daughter’s virginity is raffled off to the highest bidder.

All told, this is good fiction, poignant, warm, and moving. Two things give me pause: the ending seems a little far-fetched, and the depiction of the suffragists, who are some of my greatest heroes, is so hostile that it borders on the misogynistic. However, the latter is peripheral to the main story, winking in and out briefly, and overall this novel is an appealing read. It will particularly appeal to Seattleites and to Asian-Americans.

I recommend this book to you, with the above caveats, and it for sale to the public today.

Wow! I have massive book hangover. Wow!!

What an amazing book!
Told from Ernest Young's POV, it tells the story of a young boy, 1/2 Chinese and 1/2 white [and therefore not considered "human" in China], who is sold by his dying mother to a man going to America. His mother is told he will have a better life - I am sure that in the beginning, her young son would have disagreed greatly.
The story really takes off from there - the boat trip from China to California [which is beyond perilous and where he first meets Fahn], to be "raffled" off at the AYP to Madam Flora and his life growing up in a Brothel [The Tenderloin], the story just flows along beautifully.

Told in "present time" and in flashbacks,, you see what life was like for many of the immigrants who came here and for the girls who had no rights and no where to go <i>except</i> for places like The Tenderloin [which did not discriminate in regards to class, color or ethnicity].

While so much of this book is very sad, it is still very much a beautiful love story; but to say too much more about that would give it away and that would be a great disservice to the people who have not yet read this book; it is the very heart of this book and is what keeps you going when you are drenched in the sadness that surrounds that love story.

I highly recommend both this book AND this author. What a wonderful book.

Genuinely engaging characters and a look into a part of American history that is not told in the school books. If we think human trafficking ended with the civil war, we are deluding ourselves. My heart broke for these characters - I so wanted them to have human dignity and happiness.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Jamie Ford, and Random House Publishing - Ballantine Books in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

Jamie Ford is an exceptional author. He writes with such clarity you are not just a bystander - you are there, at the World's Fair in Seattle in 1909, and again in 1962. You become a part of the family as Ernest and Gracie survive by hook or by crook, grow up, raise their girls, grow old. And you see the indignities suffered and privations borne in a country with whole generations lost to famine and war.

This is a book I can easily recommend to anyone who enjoys reading at all - it is a reminder that we are among the best fed, healthiest people the world has ever known - we are the lucky ones.