Book 6 of 52: How to be an American Housewife

How To Be An American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway is an uplifting story of love, family and traditions of four generations of women. The title of this book is what drew me to it. Since starting back at work the last few weeks, I've been anything but a good "housewife". Even though I knew this was fiction, I wondered if it might contain some secret that might help me cope better.

The story is about a young Japanese woman, Shoko, who marries an American soldier after WWII and moves to America with him. At the same time she is estranged from her brother who believes American's are the "enemy". In America, her husband, Charlie, gives her a book called  How To Be An American Housewife to help her learn more about American culture and advice about how to keep a home in the "American style". The story and the book are based in the 1950's and reflects that time in history.

Dilloway cleverly crafts Shoko's narrative so that everything Shoko thinks is written in perfect English, while everything she communicates to everyone around her comes out as broken English, showing how hard it is to deal with learning a second language. The second half of the book focusses on Shoko's daughter, Suiko (or Sue), and is written in her narrative. Suiko, a sinlge mother, travels back to Japan to learn more about her roots and meet long lost relatives. It is through this trip she learns to accept and embrace her strict upbringing and heritage.

This book gardnered mixed reviews on various websites, but I loved this short and uplifting story. It was well-written with some terrific character development. The end, without giving it away, made me realize that I'm still not too old to make some big changes in my life and leave the world of suburbia and cubicles behind one day.