This was a fast read, and faster still once I decided to plow through it and get it over with. This is not how you write a realistic, moving or compelling book. This novel is life affirming, poignant, and proves that no matter the distance we live from someone, or the number of years that have passed without speaking, there is always room for forgiveness and redemption.No. Sue and her twelve-year-old daughter, Helena flew to Japan and began their two week search for her Uncle Taro. Now in her sixties, Shoko had planned to go to Japan to find her younger brother, Taro but she became too ill with heart problems to go, so she asked her daughter Sue to go in her place. The story is rich with historical information and we visit places such as: Nagasaki, Kumamoto (to see the famous Kumamoto Castle), Peace Park, Uwajiima, Suizenji Jojuen Park, and Kyushu to name a few. Shoko married an American Navy man in Japan and then moved to America with her husband, Craig after the falling out. For forty-years Taro, and his older sister, Shoko did not speak to each other or communicate in any way.
How to Be An American Housewife is a beautiful Japanese/American story of a family who fell out of favour with some relatives in Japan. A profound and suspenseful debut." - Margot Livesey, author of The House on Fortune Street It also took me on two intricate journeys, from postwar Japan and the shadow of Nagasaki to contemporary California, and from motherhood to daughterhood and back again. I wanted to shake her, even as I was cheering her on, and this cunningly structured novel allowed me to do both. Shoko is stubborn, contrary, proud, a wonderful housewife, and full of deeply conflicted feelings. "In How to Be an American Housewife, Margaret Dilloway creates an irresistible heroine. Jamie Ford, author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet "A tender and captivating novel of family secrets and redemption, and a compelling look at the complex love languages spoken within three generations of a family." She has created wonderful characters who never, in spite of hardships, stop finding ways to love each other." - Luanne Rice " How to Be an American Housewife is filled with dreams and lovethe kinds that come true and those that don't. The only minor drawback is the rather rushed ending." - Library Journal "Dilloway's writing is fluid, and she clearly knows how to draw the reader into her story. "nchanting first novel.Dilloway splits her narrative gracefully between mother and daughter, making a beautifully realized whole." - Publishers Weekly
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