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The Panama Hotel
The Oscar Holden record physically symbolizes the role of music as a unifying force in the novel. Over the course of their friendship, and Keiko’s imprisonment in internment camps, Henry and Keiko share two different recorded copies of the same song that the jazz musician Oscar Holden dedicates to them. As the novel unfolds, both these copies are lost to Henry, and ultimately both return to him, one broken in half and one whole and intact. Henry himself sums up this magical quality of music: music is “a place where people […] [don’t] care what you [look] like, where you were born, or where your family [is] from.” Because it is a recording of Henry and Keiko’s song, the record also symbolizes their love. Many people, including Henry’s son Marty, don’t believe that the recording exists; the record is a kind of myth within Seattle’s music community. But Henry knows the record exists because he saw and held it. However unlikely it might have been, Henry and Keiko’s love existed, too. Finding the Oscar Holden record in the Panama Hotel reminds Henry that he has held that love his whole life, and if he wants to, he can fight for it once again. Indeed, the record itself is what reunites Henry and Keiko; Keiko sends her unbroken copy to an ailing Sheldon Thomas, along with a letter addressed to Henry.
The Oscar Holden Record Quotes in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Oscar Holden Record. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Camp Anyway (1942)
Quotes
Through the slosh of the rain, Henry heard music from the camp. The song grew louder and louder, straining the limits of the speakers it came from. It was the record. Their record. Oscar Holden’s “Alley Cat Strut.” Henry could almost pick out Sheldon’s part. It shouted at the night. Louder than the storm.
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The Oscar Holden Record Symbol Timeline in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Oscar Holden Record appears in Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Bud’s Jazz Records (1986)
...late wife, Ethel, Henry decides to go to Bud’s Jazz Records to look for a recording by Oscar Holden. Allegedly, Holden recorded a master session on vinyl but none of the...
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Dim Sum (1986)
...to look around. Marty asks whether Henry is planning to look for “some long-lost jazz record,” but Henry says only that he’s “looking for something.” He assures his son that if...
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Tea (1986)
...for something.” Marty guesses that his father is looking for “an old forgotten Oscar Holden record, one that supposedly doesn’t exist anymore”; to Samantha he explains that this record is his...
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Records (1942)
...home that day, she takes him to a department store and shows him a vinyl record titled “Oscar Holden & the Midnight Blue, The Alley Cat Strut.” Henry is delighted. “This...
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Keiko reveals that she saved her money to buy the record for Henry, and she invites him to her house to listen to it (since the...
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Henry and Keiko take the record to the checkout counter, but the woman working there refuses to acknowledge them. When Keiko...
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Reluctantly, the woman sells Henry the record. Henry pockets his button, and leads Keiko out of the store; he thinks that “the...
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On their walk home, Henry and Keiko decide that Keiko should keep the record. Henry says, “My mother is always around, and I’m not sure she’d approve—because my father...
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...Club has been temporarily closed after the FBI raid. Henry shows Sheldon the Oscar Holden record he and Keiko have just bought, and Sheldon says he has a copy as well....
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Sketchbook (1986)
Just then, Samantha shouts that she has found a record. Henry knows before he even looks at it that the record is Oscar Holden’s “Alley...
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Uwajimaya (1986)
...Chinese dinner. Waiting in the parking lot, Marty apologizes that Henry had to find the record he’s been searching for in such poor condition. “I’d rather have found something broken,” Henry...
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Henry admits that he wanted to find the Oscar Holden record as “a dying wish for a long-lost brother.” Marty is baffled. “One,” he says, “you’re...
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Visiting Hours (1942)
Keiko says that the soldiers are going to allow the prisoners to hold a record concert the following Saturday; Keiko has decided to celebrate her birthday that same day. Henry...
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Home Again (1942)
The next day, Henry feels rejuvenated. He resolves to find another Oscar Holden record to bring Keiko as a birthday present. At breakfast, Henry’s father announces that Chinese nationalist...
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...Keiko’s birthday. He also decides to talk to Sheldon about getting a new Oscar Holden record to replace the one Keiko left in the Panama Hotel before going to Camp Harmony.
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...now boarded up. He realizes he might be able to sneak in and retrieve Keiko’s record from the basement, but when he crosses behind the hotel, Henry finds Chaz Preston, Will...
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Steps (1986)
...Marty that he should keep Keiko’s sketchbook; he’s satisfied with keeping just the Oscar Holden record. Still, he can’t help thinking that the record is now just “two halves that will...
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Sheldon’s Record (1942)
...past couple weekends. Henry says he’ll explain later, and asks Sheldon to give him his record. Sheldon resists, saying: “[It’s] the only record I own—of my own playing.” Henry explains that...
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...sketchbook and art supplies for Keiko. He hurries home and stashes the supplies with the record in the back alley behind his house. When he enters his apartment, he finds his...
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Camp Anyway (1942)
...the same people. But he doesn’t see it.” Henry then gives Keiko the Oscar Holden record he got from Sheldon. Keiko is astonished. “This is almost like having you here with...
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...As Henry leaves the camp with Mrs. Beatty, he hears Oscar Holden’s “Alley Cat Strut” record playing over the storm.
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Sheldon Thomas (1986)
...visiting Sheldon every Sunday, but today he has come to give Sheldon the Oscar Holden record he found with Marty and Samantha in the Panama Hotel basement. Henry warns Sheldon that...
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Broken Records (1986)
...her go.” Henry feels himself “retiring from a lifetime of wanting.” “[It’s] like that broken record we found,” Henry tells Marty. “Some things just can’t be fixed.”
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Hearthstone (1986)
...only semi-coherent, he tells Henry: “Fix it.” “You want me to fix the Oscar Holden record, don’t you?” Henry asks. Sheldon drifts off to sleep without explaining, but when he awakens...
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Tickets (1986)
Henry visits Bud’s Jazz Records, and asks if the broken Oscar Holden record can be restored. Bud says that if the record weren’t completely in two, the music...
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Sheldon’s Song (1986)
...“the music” is Henry’s doing. Henry is confused, but soon hears the old Oscar Holden record—his and Keiko’s song—playing from Sheldon’s room. Henry finds Samantha sitting by Sheldon’s bed; she explains...
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In awe, Henry reads the letter Keiko included with the record. It is addressed to Henry, and in it Keiko writes that she hopes the record...
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New York (1986)
...Kay Hatsune, and she is a widow of three years. Henry clutches the pristine, intact record Keiko sent to Sheldon. He nervously knocks on the door. Keiko opens it, with “the...
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Henry spots a record player, and puts on the Oscar Holden record. When Henry turns around, Keiko is in...
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