Helpful Score: 2
This is a very engaging debut novel that incorporates passages from a booklet entitled "How To Be An American Housewife" written for Japanese war brides. Shoko's life in Japan until she married Charlie, an American serviceman, was impoverished when her father renounced the law as his lucrative profession and moved his family to a small village where he became a church leader. This well-written novel takes us back and forth between Shoko and Charlie's life in America and her youth in Japan. Their daughter, Sue, is enlisted to return to Japan to try to heal the rift between Shoko and her only remaining sibling, Taro.
Margaret Dilloway deftly portrays the difficulties of assimilation into another culture and examines the mother/daughter relationship between Shoko and Sue. There is a poignancy in these interactions that increases our knowledge of all that transpired.
I recommend this book, and look forward to the next book by this talented writer. ( )
Margaret Dilloway deftly portrays the difficulties of assimilation into another culture and examines the mother/daughter relationship between Shoko and Sue. There is a poignancy in these interactions that increases our knowledge of all that transpired.
I recommend this book, and look forward to the next book by this talented writer. ( )
Helpful Score: 1
I had a friend who married a Japanese man in Hawaii and found his 85 yr. old mom and her friends very interesting. They kept much of the old Japanese ways and were some of the kindest people I have ever met. With that said, I also enjoyed the insights of this daughter. Her theme is universal, though, mothering daughters is such a special relationship, that I don't know if any of us ever believes we are doing it right. It was wonderful that the daughter always seemed to realize her mother's love, even though their ways were different. Isn't that what all of us hope?
Much of this book is sad, but there's enough happiness and hope strewn throughout to make it an enjoyable read. The "excerpts" from the fictional manual for housewives (which shares the same title) at the start of each chapter alternated between humorous and horrifying.
This book wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either. I enjoy a book that enables me to see the world through someone else's eyes and the author definitely accomplished that. The female characters were more fully formed than the male characters. The ending was too much "happily ever after" for my taste.
Although this book appears to be about Shoko's adaptation as a Japanese immigrant in an interracial marriage to the United States, in fact it is much more about inter-cultural and inter-generational conflicts. Taking place in the present with flashbacks to Shoko's youth and youthful decisions, we gradually come to understand the family dynamic, at times just like other families, but at times complicated by its essential inter-cultural and interracial issues. It is an enjoyable read, but it does fall short of the heart-moving promise innate in such a storyline. Worth reading, but don't expect to be blown away.
Check out my full review.
Check out my full review.
Really enjoyed this book: the culture, history and story of family and forgiveness. Beautiful.
