Love and Other Consolation Prizes Summary
Ford, Jamie

Love and Other Consolation Prizes Overview

Jamie Ford’s historical novel, Love and Other Consolation Prizes, shifts between 1909 and 1969 as Ernest Young attempts to make sense of his life and help his wife recover her memory. Despite the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Ernest is smuggled into America as a child and raffled off at the Seattle World’s Fair of 1909, where ethnographic displays of Siberians, Indigenous peoples, and Arabian women highlight America’s racist exploitation of its "others.” Ernest finds friendship and shelter in the red-light district even as he experiences prejudice and racism. This novel explores themes of love, community, and the degradation of human beings.