NOVEL: Songs of Willow Frost

Songs of Willow Frost, a novel by Jamie Ford.   The story takes place in Seattle.  It is 1934 when the story commences.   A twelve year old Chinese-American boy is living in a Catholic orphanage. He has been living in the orphanage for the past five years.  As with his prior novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, this novel addresses the issue of discrimination by sharing a story about the life of a young oriental male and his family.  Hotel focused on a Japanese male living in Seattle and carried the story through the WW II internment camps.  Willow ends in 1935 and backtracks in time to 1921 to tell the story of the boy’s mother and how the son ended up in an orphanage.  The chapters are labeled by the year in which the events occur.  Ford is an excellent storyteller and the 319 page novel will keep you interested to the end.  First you become interested in the orphaned child, William Eng.  You are then told about Liu Song, the boy’s mother, who takes the stage name, Willow Frost.  Willow returns to Seattle in 1934 as an actress and singer.  Her touring cast includes Stepin Fetchit, who, in real life, appeared on stage as well as in cinema.  William’s father is Liu Song’s stepfather.  The rape occurs shortly after Liu Song’s mother dies.  As with Ford’s first novel, this is a story of bitterness and sweetness.  William, who has believed for years that his mother is dead, sees a trailer in a movie theatre and recognizes his mother’s voice.  While the nominal storyline is William’s hunt for his mother, the novel tells a far more complex tale with two very interesting lead characters.  I enjoyed Ford’s first novel and Songs of Willow Frost is an excellent second novel.