hiltzmoore's review against another edition
3.0
The premise of this book was really great. I just felt like the interesting plot points were not fleshed out enough, and good Lord, was Shoko's broken English distracting! Her relatives back in Japan spoke better English than she did and she was in America for over 50 years with a very high level of intelligence. I felt like her English problems were used as a plot device to show that she felt different than everyone around her, but that could have been accomplished with better writing. All in all, I still appreciated this book as it portrayed an interesting immigrant experience that I hadn't read about before.
ncostell's review against another edition
emotional
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
lindzieh's review against another edition
5.0
I really liked this book. Great story. Great insight to what it might have been like to be a foreigner in the USA.
rakg7's review against another edition
3.0
I really liked the premise of this book and overall thought the book was good. It didn't grab me as much as it could have though partly because I think the writing leaves a bit to be desired.
teriboop's review against another edition
4.0
This is a very poignant story of a Japanese woman, Shoko, who comes of age during WWII. Her family expect her to marry well, even an American, if necessary, much to her brother's chagrin. But she loved an Eta, an untouchable. Decisions are made, the family is torn apart, and a secret follows her to America. Told through the eyes of Shoko and her daughter Sue, How to Be an American Housewife is about family and forgiveness.
This story is very loosely based on author Margaret Dilloway's mother. I enjoyed the writing and was sucked into the story quickly and throughout. It is thought-provoking, yet cheerful, leaving the reader on a hopeful note at the end.
This story is very loosely based on author Margaret Dilloway's mother. I enjoyed the writing and was sucked into the story quickly and throughout. It is thought-provoking, yet cheerful, leaving the reader on a hopeful note at the end.
kblincoln's review against another edition
4.0
I went into reading this book with very mixed feelings. On one hand, I really wanted to read about what it would have been like for a Japanese wife one generation earlier than my generation in the United States written by somebody, like Margaret Dilloway, who had first hand knowledge (through her mother.)
On the other hand, I cringe alot at books that address certain stereotypes without providing the detailed depth of knowledge about a situation.
And in some ways, I think this book is both successful and not-so-successful at addressing certain stereotypes about Japan and the Japanese filtered through American-colored glasses.
Each chapter of the book starts out with a chapter from a fictional book with advice about "how to be an American housewife" written supposedly by Japanese women married to Americans. The advice I think rightly reflects the mores of those times, with advice about making sure your children speak only English and to not question the husband to closely about where he goes after work.
And one of the main characters, Shoko (a Japanese girl who left her own country post-WWII and married an American GI) is a living version of this advice. She labors an entire day to make spaghetti sauce, she pampers her son (as it says to do in the book, going with the Japanese way over the American) and tries to make sure her daughter is never embarassed over her potluck casseroles.
And this is one place where the book suceeds. We get the stereotypical "be a demure housewife" advice one would expect from a Japanese-written book of that time, but we get Shoko trying her hardest to fulfill that advice while silently rebelling at the same time, and failing to make friends with the Americans around her.
The book does a great job of showing both Shoko's constant nagging to her daughter, Sue, from both sides of the equation: Sue's feelings of failure and Shoko's loving concern for her daughter.
It is the other parts of the book that don't suceed as well for me. Both Shoko's memories of her life before marrying her husband and then afterwards when her daughter, Sue, travels to Japan to make peace with Shoko's estranged brother.
Sue and her daughter travel to Japan for the first time. And while many of their observations about southern Japan resonated with the ways I experienced Japan for the first time, what it didn't get into were the juicy layers of emotional difficulty, of being an outsider in a culture where that is a very different thing than in the US.
Sue meets up with her gay cousin, another missed opportunity of exploring outsiderness, stays at his house with him (whoa there, hard for me to believe a gay japanese man would just blithely invite his never-before-seen cousin over to his house where it would be impossible to ignore his husband!) and then travels to see her uncle who has for all of Sue's life repudiated and ignored Shoko because of her marriage choices.
And the uncle, Taro, caves, just like that. Again, another missed opportunity for juciy emotional conflict and for Sue to experience what it means to be half-Japanese and not know Japanese culture or language well enough. Missed. Everything works out like a fairy tale.
I felt that the story missed out on many opportunities to give detailed layers to the Japanese-American experience that would help explore the difficulties faced by people of mixed heritage in making a place for themselves in either culture.
However, I realize this is an dissatisfaction based on rather personal reasons, including my own situation as a parent of Japanese-American children. For many Americans without "first-hand" knowledge, I believe the parts about how Shoko struggled to fit in US society would be an eye opener about some less desirable aspects of US culture.
This Book's Food Designation Rating: Niku jagga (Japanese meat and potato stew cooked with miso but based on Western stews) for the different viewpoints of Japanese in America, but that doesn't quite go all the way into the juicy, spicy bits of outsiderness that a full blown Japanese curry would.
On the other hand, I cringe alot at books that address certain stereotypes without providing the detailed depth of knowledge about a situation.
And in some ways, I think this book is both successful and not-so-successful at addressing certain stereotypes about Japan and the Japanese filtered through American-colored glasses.
Each chapter of the book starts out with a chapter from a fictional book with advice about "how to be an American housewife" written supposedly by Japanese women married to Americans. The advice I think rightly reflects the mores of those times, with advice about making sure your children speak only English and to not question the husband to closely about where he goes after work.
And one of the main characters, Shoko (a Japanese girl who left her own country post-WWII and married an American GI) is a living version of this advice. She labors an entire day to make spaghetti sauce, she pampers her son (as it says to do in the book, going with the Japanese way over the American) and tries to make sure her daughter is never embarassed over her potluck casseroles.
And this is one place where the book suceeds. We get the stereotypical "be a demure housewife" advice one would expect from a Japanese-written book of that time, but we get Shoko trying her hardest to fulfill that advice while silently rebelling at the same time, and failing to make friends with the Americans around her.
The book does a great job of showing both Shoko's constant nagging to her daughter, Sue, from both sides of the equation: Sue's feelings of failure and Shoko's loving concern for her daughter.
It is the other parts of the book that don't suceed as well for me. Both Shoko's memories of her life before marrying her husband and then afterwards when her daughter, Sue, travels to Japan to make peace with Shoko's estranged brother.
Sue and her daughter travel to Japan for the first time. And while many of their observations about southern Japan resonated with the ways I experienced Japan for the first time, what it didn't get into were the juicy layers of emotional difficulty, of being an outsider in a culture where that is a very different thing than in the US.
Sue meets up with her gay cousin, another missed opportunity of exploring outsiderness, stays at his house with him (whoa there, hard for me to believe a gay japanese man would just blithely invite his never-before-seen cousin over to his house where it would be impossible to ignore his husband!) and then travels to see her uncle who has for all of Sue's life repudiated and ignored Shoko because of her marriage choices.
And the uncle, Taro, caves, just like that. Again, another missed opportunity for juciy emotional conflict and for Sue to experience what it means to be half-Japanese and not know Japanese culture or language well enough. Missed. Everything works out like a fairy tale.
I felt that the story missed out on many opportunities to give detailed layers to the Japanese-American experience that would help explore the difficulties faced by people of mixed heritage in making a place for themselves in either culture.
However, I realize this is an dissatisfaction based on rather personal reasons, including my own situation as a parent of Japanese-American children. For many Americans without "first-hand" knowledge, I believe the parts about how Shoko struggled to fit in US society would be an eye opener about some less desirable aspects of US culture.
This Book's Food Designation Rating: Niku jagga (Japanese meat and potato stew cooked with miso but based on Western stews) for the different viewpoints of Japanese in America, but that doesn't quite go all the way into the juicy, spicy bits of outsiderness that a full blown Japanese curry would.
books_melissa's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
jsh626's review against another edition
4.0
I was very pleasantly surprised by this random library pick of mine, because my random picks usually turn out poorly. How to Be an American Housewife is an engaging and poignant story about a Japanese woman who marries an American soldier at the end of WWII and her silent struggle to be accepted by the cultures of both their families. Based loosely on the author's own mother and her experiences, I was drawn into this story right from the start. I love how each chapter starts with snippets from a fictional book (but again, based on an actual book) that gives Japanese wives step by step instructions on how to assimilate. Wonderful details about Japan and the relationship between an American raised daughter and her very traditional Japanese mother. The story gets a little bogged down toward the end, but still a great read.
plaidpladd's review against another edition
3.0
I liked the way the narrative jumped around in time, especially the parts centered on World War II-era Japan. It's a perspective I haven't read much from, which is a shame