Are You an "American Housewife"? - A Book Review

Contrary to what you might imagine, How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway is not an instruction manual.  I’ll wait for husbands around the country to grumble and back out of this review. 

The title references a fictional how-to book within the novel, excerpts of which are found at the beginning of each chapter, giving a little insight into the process by which Shoko attempts to assimilate herself into American culture after marrying Charlie Morgan, an American soldier stationed in Japan.

Shoko’s struggles as a girl, and then a young woman, in Japan are beautifully written and show the narrow path available to females in Japan, both before and immediately following World War II.  Her conscious realization that she will need to use her physical gifts and not her mental or athletic ones to better her position and that of her family is painful to read as a mother of a young daughter. 

She does her best to adhere to tradition and her fathers’ wishes, though it means closing her heart to someone she truly loves.  Despite her intentions, her actions enrage her brother; when she leaves for America, they remain estranged until a very sick Shoko sends her daughter and granddaughter to Japan to make peace with Taro.

I thoroughly enjoyed How to Be an American Housewife, in part because the themes of misunderstood intentions and mother-daughter relationships both speak to me in a more profound way since having children. 

Reading this, I was ultra-conscious of the mother-daughter relationships in my life, both as a daughter and as a mother.  As Shoko, Sue, and Helena demonstrate, even the best intentions can be misunderstood, and though love may be obvious, things like pride, joy, and appreciation sometimes need to be explicitly stated to be realized.

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This is a paid review for the BlogHer Book Club.  I was provided with a copy of How to Be an American Housewife to review, as well as compensation for this post.  All opinions about the book and how to navigate a mother-daughter relationship are my own.

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