I Hotel by Asian American Karen Tei Yamashita is a novel with a collection of stories told through different forms such as poems, recipes, scripts, scores, myths, dossiers, and illustrations. Through these diverse forms of storytelling, Karen records different experiences from Asian Americans and other people in San Francisco during the 60s as they protested the eviction of tenants living in the International Hotel situated in Chinatown. Despite their failed attempts to stop demolitions of the hotel, it showed just how much people from different nationalities and cultures can come together and fight for their rights in a foreign land and still portray such admirable unity and pride in their cause.
Throughout the book, Karen explores activism in all cultures and shows the similarities in which they all share. As an author, she has mastered the art of expressing the true emotions of these factual characters. Despite not being present in these events, she captures them in greater detail to give the reader a first-hand experience into what these acts of selflessness and struggle felt like. As much as she does her best as an author to bring these real-life moments to light, some get lost because of some unreliable sources. This leaves a lot of blanks in some stories which come off as incomplete. Other stories leave the reader in the middle of an emotional roller-coaster.
There are massive inconsistencies in the narratives as Karen tries to fit in the experiences of almost everyone present on those fateful events. Despite the inconsistencies, there is a beauty in the chaos because the protests were all over the place and a lot was going on to give a vivid picture. In that respect, the novel comes off as the very definition of the events that unfolded. As people came and went, they met new people that briefly interacted with them before they disappeared into the crowds never knowing what their fates might have been.
The beauty in fighting against a common enemy is that you don’t have to come from the same background or even know each other personally. The one common thing you share can break all the barriers that previously kept people from coming together and solve a common problem. The hotel symbolized the common idea that everyone from diverse backgrounds chose to forget where they came from or who they loved or hated and focused on that one building that had become a part of their lives and meant more to them than anything. By the end of the novel, there is a unification that has happened as people no longer refer to themselves as one individual but as a unit.
I Hotel portrays the power of banding together against a common threat despite where you come from. The novel is not just about Asian-Americans but all people around the world who might feel like their voice isn’t heard when they are alone. It inspires people to come together and face a challenge as one. Even though the building was demolished, this novel lives as a Memoriam to those that stood together to fight for the vulnerable in society.
