How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway
HOW TO BE AN AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE by Margaret Dilloway
Publisher: Berkley Trade Paperback, 352 pages
Publication Date: August 2, 2011
Summary: A mother-daughter story about the strong pull of tradition, and the lure and cost of breaking free of it.
When Shoko decided to marry an American GI and leave Japan, she had her parents’ blessing, her brother’s scorn, and a gift from her husband-a book on how to be a proper American housewife.
As she crossed the ocean to America, Shoko also brought with her a secret she would need to keep her entire life…
Half a century later, Shoko’s plans to finally return to Japan and reconcile with her brother are derailed by illness. In her place, she sends her grown American daughter, Sue, a divorced single mother whose own life isn’t what she hoped for. As Sue takes in Japan, with all its beauty and contradictions, she discovers another side to her mother and returns to America unexpectedly changed and irrevocably touched.
Review: Shoko is a Japanese woman who marries an American soldier at the end of WWII. She travels with him to America and strives to become the perfect American housewife. Dilloway was inspired by her Japenese mother’s experiences when she wrote HOW TO BE AN AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE. She was especially inspired by a book that her father gave to her mother when they were first married titled The American Way of Housekeeping. Shoko’s father supports the marriage but her younger brother does not, something that haunts her years later. What I loved most about this book was watching Shoko try to adjust to a new life in a foreign place. Part of the book is also told from the point of view of Sue, Shoko’s daughter, and this adds a wonderful layer to an already rich story. I loved being immersed in the different cultures explored by Dilloway. At times, my heart went out to Shoko and the struggles she faced in trying to acclimate herself to an unfamiliar world but what I loved most about her was that she never assumed the role of victim. HOW TO BE AN AMERICAN HOUSEWIFE is a beautifully written story about a fascinating time in our history and the intriguing characters create a wonderfully complex and vivid portrait of Japanese-American life.
Having grown up in a military area, I knew the children of quite a few war brides. As a kid, I always accepted it as normal, never giving a thought to how difficult it was for that woman to make a new life in a new country. I’m really anxious to read this book!