Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

After running out of books on my must read list, I put up a Facebook status asking for suggestions.  Of course, I was inundated with them, and promply requested them from my library.  From that list, I found what I am currently reading: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet.  It is a novel that I would classify as historical fiction (without actually knowing if that statement is accurate).  It tells about the life of a young Chinese-American boy who lived in the international district of Seattle in the 1940s, and also his life now as an older man still living in the same area.  It is told from his perspective with alternating chapters from each part of his life, entitled with the year.  It is a very interesting and heart-wrenching story.
As a child, Henry is a second generation Chinese immigrant living with his parents in Chinatown.  His parents don't speak any English, but they send him to an American school, and tell him to "only speak his American", even to them who only speak Cantonese! 
Henry is "scholarshipping" at Rainier elementary, as one of only two nonwhite students.  The other is a Japanese-American girl named Keiko.  As part of Henry and Keiko's "scholarshipping", they work in the cafeteria serving and cleaning up after the white students.  Despite his father's racism toward the Japanese, and belief that the Japanese are responsible for all of the terrible events occuring in China, Henry develops a friendship with Keiko.  All of the white students at the school, and many adults Henry encounter in the street are racist toward him.  They think he is Japanese, and treat him as such.  Or if they know he's Chinese, they still treat him badly because he isn't white. 
Keiko's perspective is quite different than Henry's.  Her parents are English speaking Americans of Japanese descent.  Keiko doesn't know any Japanese.  Although, none of the white characters in the story bother to find that out before throwing racial slurs her way.  Henry and Keiko find refuge from all of the racism and closed-mindedness they encounter every day, in each other. 
As an adult, Henry has a strained relationship with his son.  He realizes, maybe too late, that his relationship with his son has a lot of the same problems as his relationship with his own father had.  As the story unfolds, Henry and his son connect and grow in their relationship through discussing Henry's childhood relationship with Keiko.  Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a great story (so far), and I would recommend it to all.