Book Review - How To Be An American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway

There are some books that after you read it, it stays with you for a very long time and this is one of them.  A beautifully written story about a Japanese woman name Shoko. She is very ill and she tells of her past, how she came to marry an American GI and her new life in America.  She also has a daughter Sue. Sue tells her story of growing up with a Japanese mother. In the end, they both do something that changes their lives forever.

 I will never forget this book, it will always be one of my favorites. I guess because it reminded me of me and my beautiful mother!  

About the book (from Amazon):

In this enchanting first novel, Dilloway mines her own family's history to produce the story of Japanese war bride Shoko, her American daughter, Sue, and their challenging relationship. Following the end of WWII, Japanese shop girl Shoko realizes that her best chance for a future is with an American husband, a decision that causes a decades-long rift with her only brother, Taro. While Shoko blossoms in America with her Mormon husband, GI Charlie Morgan, and their two children, she's constantly reminded that she's an outsider--reinforced by passages from the fictional handbook How to Be an American Housewife. Shoko's attempts to become the perfect American wife hide a secret regarding her son, Mike, and lead her to impossible expectations for Sue. The strained mother-daughter bond begins to shift, however, when a now-grown Sue and her teenage daughter agree to go to Japan in place of Shoko, recently fallen ill, to reunite with Taro. Dilloway splits her narrative gracefully between mother and daughter (giving Shoko the first half, Sue the second), making a beautifully realized whole.
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Author - Margaret Dilloway :

Margaret Dilloway was inspired by her Japanese mother's experiences when she wrote this novel, and especially by a book her father had given to her mother called The American Way of Housekeeping. She lives in Hawaii with her husband and three young children. Her blog, "American Housewife," can be found on her website, www.margaretdilloway.com. This is her first novel.