“Songs of Willow Frost” by Jamie Ford – In Search of Hope

Hope is perhaps one of the most powerful emotions we humans are capable of feeling, for it has helped countless carry on through conditions which they couldn't logically survive.

Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford touches on that subject quite heavily, as it tells the story of a twelve-year old Chinese American orphan boy living in Seattle during the depression, who one day sees a woman by the name of Willow Frost on the silver screen.

Becoming mesmerized by her abilities, the boy comes to believe that Willow is indeed his real mother, alive and well. In hopes of proving his suspicions to be reality, he escapes the orphanage with his friend Charlotte and embarks on a journey through the streets of Seattle where he not only makes many strange acquaintances, but discovers many mysterious connections from his past to the exotic movie star.

Willow Frost, however, is far from what the boy expected, with her life mirroring nearly nothing from the Hollywood fantasy created around her.

The story created here by Jamie Ford is a two-pronged one in my opinion. On one hand, it aims to truthfully depict the colorful and hopeful lives of countless people, adults and children alike, who waded through the depression in search of meaning and connection.

On the other hand, it is also a heartwarming adventure and meditation on the power of hope, and how it can give people the drive they need to endure anything.

Perhaps it would be suitable to call it a coming of age novel, but it felt to me as if the boy and his friend were mere vehicles for the exploration of more interesting characters, with Willow Frost obviously being one of them.

Through the many adventures lived by the boy and his friend we get to witness the whole spectrum of how people are affected by their circumstances, from the effects of desperation and abandonment to the courage love breeds in all of us.

On that subject, the character development and the way in which they complement and interact with each other is perhaps the strongest suit of Songs of Willow Frost.

Each and every one of them has a story to tell, one that probably mirrors a reality lived by far too many people of that time, and surely even today.

None of them are depicted as heroes or as being above human; they are fallible, mostly grey in the moral area, but they are more relatable than most characters in other books.

All in all, Songs of Willow Frost is certainly a unique book that will grab and pull you right into a time that has now vanished, making you experience every emotion known to man.

I definitely recommend it to those who like their novels with a healthy dose of realism and introspection.

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Jamie Ford Personal site Jamie Ford is an American writer who has gained much of his fame from his bestselling debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, earning the #1 Book Club Pick for Fall 2009/Winter 2010 by the American Booksellers Association. According to the man himself, he is also working on a series for young adults, something his agent doesn’t even know yet (provided he did not read his website).