Review: How to Be an American Housewife, by Margaret Dilloway

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This novel is the story of two very different women who have trouble understanding each other. One is a Japanese woman who had married an American and had come to America shortly after World War II, the other is an American single mother and divorcee who had lived in America her entire life. The reason why they have so much trouble understanding each other is in some ways, because they are mother and daughter.

We begin the story with Shoko, who had never been given the opportunity to do the things she had wanted to do when she was younger--both because she was "only" a girl, and because of the war. After a disastrous relationship and personal tragedy, Shoko marries an American and leaves Japan. Her father is accepting of her marriage, but her brother Taro disowns her, and her only communication with her family is through her younger sister.

Shoko has difficulties assimilating, and her only guide for how to be an American housewife is a housekeeping guide that her husband gives her. This book is not much help in teaching her how to navigate the sometimes hostile waters of 1950s Suburbia. She has a son and then a daughter whom she inadvertently alienates due to impatience and a partial language barrier. The daughter Suiko or "Sue," ends up in a disastrous relationship that leaves her a single mother working in an office.

How to be an American Housewife