How to Be an American Housewife – Margaret Dilloway
When Shoko decided to marry an American GI and leave Japan, she had her parents’ blessings, her brother’s scorn, and a gift from her betrothed – a book titled How to Be an American Housewife.
As she crossed the ocean to America, Shoko also carried a secret she wanted 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. Instead, she sends her grown American daughter, Sue, a divorced single mother with a teenage daughter of her own. As Sue and Helena take in Japan, with all its beauty and contradictions, they also discover another side to Shoko, and return to America irrevocably touched, irrevocably changed.
At heart, a mother-daughter story, How to Be an American Housewife explores the intricacies of assimilation, the price of secrets, and the enduring, healing power of familial love.
