Were you similarly dumbstruck? What does this say about how much our culture has changed in the last century? Ironically, at Seattle's second world's fair (in 1962), a vendor gave away poodles-which was criticized for being inhumane. Even now, after reading the novel, it's hard for me to believe that such a raffle happened in the U.S. The program was narrated by the actor Tom Skerritt, who casually mentioned that a boy was raffled off and that his name was Ernest, and a newspaper clipping flashed onscreen that read "SOMEBODY WILL DRAW BABY AS PRIZE." And just like that, I fell down the rabbit-hole. How and when did you become aware of this event? I remember watching a DVD in 2009 that was commemorating the 100-year anniversary of the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition, Seattle's forgotten world's fair. Your novel was inspired by an incident in which a baby was raffled off at the 1909 Seattle world's fair.
The fair's opening day triggers painful memories for one attendee-a man named Ernest Young, who recalls a time when he fell in love with two girls and muses, "The present is merely the past reassembled." We asked Ford, author of the 2009 bestseller Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, about fate, family secrets and the rewards of writing redemptive fiction. He imagines what might have happened to that child in Love and Other Consolation Prizes, a riveting story that moves from heartbreak and poverty in turn- of-the-century Southern China to Seattle's glittering 1962 world's fair, the Century 21 Expo. At the first fair in 1909, a real-life raffle was held to give away an orphaned baby, an event that both haunted Ford and piqued his curiosity. Inspired by a true story, Jamie Ford's poignant new novel is framed by two world's fairs held in Seattle-what the author calls the "metaphorical rocks" of his powerful tale.
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