Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie FordMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Jamie Ford can take a snippet from a true event from over a hundred years ago and make it come to life and read like a true story.
Little Ernest was born in China. We are not sure about his earliest life other than he was the illegitimate son of a Chinese woman and a white missionary. His mother, living in the poorest conditions made a decision to send Ernest to America, hoping that he could find a better life.
He kept a hatpin that belonged to his mother and always had it with him. This hatpin saved his life as many of the children were sewn into sacks and thrown overboard by the sailors in order to avoid capture, Ernest was able to use the large pin to cut himself out and was seen by a man on the shore and rescued.
The true event in the early 1900's was that a little boy was auctioned off at the Seattle World's Fair and this is the issue that the story may have been built around.
As usual Jamie Ford is one of my very favourite authors. His stories have a "feel" that is hard to describe. It could be that as I am elderly now myself I can recognize the atmospheres that he presents in his writing.
An excellent read.
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