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    How to Be an American Housewife: A Novel
    How to Be an American Housewife: A Novel
    How to Be an American Housewife: A Novel
    Audiobook7 hours

    How to Be an American Housewife: A Novel

    Written by Margaret Dilloway

    Narrated by Laural Merlington and Emily Durante

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    How to Be an American Housewife is a novel about mothers and daughters and the pull of tradition. It tells the story of Shoko, a Japanese woman who married an American GI, and her grown daughter, Sue, a divorced mother whose life as an American housewife hasn't been what she'd expected. When illness prevents Shoko from traveling to Japan, she asks Sue to go in her place. The trip reveals family secrets that change their lives in dramatic and unforeseen ways.

    Offering an entertaining glimpse into American and Japanese family lives and their potent aspirations, this is a warm and engaging novel full of unexpected insight.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateAug 5, 2010
    ISBN9781400187737
    How to Be an American Housewife: A Novel
    Author

    Margaret Dilloway

    Margaret Dilloway is the author of Summer of a Thousand Pies and six other books for children and adults. She lives with her family in San Diego, where she performs long-form improv on three teams and writes and produces sketch shows. Margaret can be found online at www.margaretdilloway.com.

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    Reviews for How to Be an American Housewife

    4/5

    274 ratings54 reviews

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    • 4/5
      really enjoyed this book!
    • 3/5
      This is another one I really wish I had the 3.5 for. I enjoyed the story of Shoko's early life more. I found it odd that her articulation was still so stilted after so many tears in America, and that she still seemed so isolated, but I certainly can't claim to know what it would be like. The Japanese cousin's orientation was a little hard to place in the story in that I don't know much about how it plays out in Japanese culture. Good story of a family healed.
    • 4/5
      From My Blog...How To Be An American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway is a beautiful story of love, family and traditions encompassing four generations of women. The novel is told through the beautiful voice of Shoko who takes the reader through her life in Japan, her culture, heritage and how she came to be an American wife of a naval officer. The novel tells of her daughter Suiko and her daughter Helena, who at Shoko’s request, travel to Japan, a culture Suiko “Sue” never identified with before her visit. It is a story of the struggles she faced, her joys and sorrows and her dreams for a mother-daughter bond with her daughter Sue and her desire to be reunited with her brother Taro with whom she has not had contact for fifty years. Dilloway beautifully captures not only the Japanese culture before, during and after WWII, but also the American culture after Pearl Harbor and what it was like to enter the country as a foreign bride. Interspersed through the book are excerpts from the fictional handbook, How To Be An American Housewife, which was to help Japanese women assimilate into the western culture. While Dilloway’s novel is primarily a work of fiction, she does indeed base several of Shoko’s experiences and mannerisms on her mother’s life and captures the cultural thinking of the time. How To Be An American Housewife is a beautiful, tender novel rich in character and depth. I would recommend this novel to anyone looking for a beautiful, heart-warming, uplifting novel.
    • 5/5
      This book, Dilloway’s first, tells the story of both Shoko, a Japanese war bride, and her daughter Suiko, called Sue. The novel moves back and forth in time and between Shoko and Sue’s points of view. It’s a story of love, guilt, shame, prejudice and family. We are introduced to Shoko as she waits for heart surgery in San Diego, with her American husband and half-Japanese daughter. Because of her ill health, she has a task for her daughter and grand-daughter, a task made more difficult because of a secret far in her past. Shoko is in her late teens during WW 2. Her parents are not wealthy; her father is a priest. She wants to go to college, but the money must be spent to send her brother- the important child- to college. So she takes a job at a hotel that caters to the occupying Americans. She finds herself in relationship that cannot be and ultimately her fate is decided by her father, who looks at pictures of her various American GI suitors and picking one based on how their children will look. The rest of her life will now be spent trying to fit in, to be an American housewife. At the beginning of every chapter there is a quote from a fictional advice book: How to Be an American Housewife. It has chapters on how to clean house, how to make an American husband happy, how to behave around Americans, how to raise children the American way. How to forget about Japan, and relatives, and the past. These are the things Shoko has tried to live up to. Now her daughter must try and mend a family torn apart by prejudice and misunderstanding. In the process, she mends herself. This is a spell binding book that illustrates culture clash vividly. Based loosely on the experiences of Dilloway’s own Japanese mother, the novel brings to life what the war brides lived through. The fictional book is even based on a real one- a book written for the Japanese maids that the American wives of US military men hired while stationed in Japan. That book was the only thing that the uprooted women had to help prepare them for life in the US. Sad thought.
    • 4/5
      Told in 2 parts - first 1/2 narrated by Shoko, a Japanese woman who marries an American GI at the end of WWII and emigrates to America, part II is narrated by her daughter, Sue, who gives in to Shoko's please to travel to Japan to reconcile with the family. You learn about Shoko's family and America assimilation in the first part, then Sue with her daughter Heather assisting with breaking the ice in Japan, does manage to track down family and finally reconile Shoko with her brother Taro.
    • 3/5
      Could have been better, I really only liked the last part.
    • 2/5
      a quick read, too easily wrapped up at the end. Shoko has been in this country what, 50 years and she still talks like a bad Japanese dubbed movie? not sure if I buy it.
    • 3/5
      An interesting, but not amazing novel about a Japanese woman who marries an American soldier after World War II and resettles in the United States. I found this novel a little difficult to get into - and it took me a while to finish it (which is saying something, since the edition I read was less than 300 pages). I was intrigued by the author's note at the end and the comments about how the novel was partly based on the author's mother and her experiences.
    • 3/5
      Read on the heals of The Buddha in the Attic and a re-read of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, I seem to be on an Asian-theme in my reading. This was a great character study and exploration of familial relationships and culture clash. I liked the difference voices of the characters and their moving from Japan to America, through generations. It was a very easy and quick book to read and is recommended.
    • 3/5
      Japanese housewife. After ww 1. Read another book w same theme and Idaho potatoe connection. This is a thoughtful book.
    • 1/5
      Hooray, someone possibly connected to my family has writing talent!
    • 4/5
      I loved the quotes from the American housewife "book" throughout. It says a lot about the culture here in the 40s and 50s along with noting interesting cultural differences between America and Japan.
    • 5/5
      How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway is a wonderful look into what it is like to be a Japanese war bride and her daughter's view of her mother and herself. The first half of the book is told through the eyes of Shoko the mother and most of the second half is through her daughter, Sue. Their experiences and personalities are vastly different.Initially, I became interested in this book because of the different cultures. I married a person from Taiwan and had a few of the same experiences that Shoko, the mother had. I was called in Mandarin a "Waigou ren" or outsider even our group was in United States. But Shoko's experiences are much more profound and involved secrets that she hid from her family.At the beginning of each chapter are short excerpts from a book that the author’s mother had. It had the same title. Some suggestions were helpful and some were not. Here is an example:“It is difficult to keep one’s figure with all the rich foods being eaten in the States. Americans like fried foods and rich sweets. The Japanese woman, who stays naturally thin with regular Japanese diet, may be constantly challenged. But she must keep her figure to keep her dignity. “There are many cultural differences explained in this book and I found that very helpful. The author incorporated some of her mother’s experiences as a war bride into this book. There characters were richly developed and I was very sorry to see this book end. The ending could not have been better. I found nothing negative about this book. This is quite an emotional book and it covers everything from the Japanese caste system to the differences between forgiveness in the U.S. to shame in Japanese culture. I think this is a treasure of a book. I hope that Margaret Dilloway writes much more. I highly recommend this book to all who are interested in different cultures and historical fiction.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. The tale as told by the mother was particularly interesting and heartwarming. I think there were parts of the story with regards to the daughter (Sue) that just aren't believable. ***Spoiler alert*** For instance, when she decided to jet off to japan with her daughter, Helena, to take up a teaching post, her ex-husband and his parents are okay with this? In reality, I'd imagine a huge custody battle being waged over something like that.Overall, though, I found this story to be quite moving. It was told in a style that was unique and that allowed you to get perspectives from both of the main characters. I liked how the author was able to mold the story from being just about a Japanese-American WWII war bride's immigration story, to a story about a complex and dynamic mother-daughter relationship. While the portions of the book about Japan and WWII might intrigue some readers, I think the mother-daughter relationship will interest more readers, and so if you're into mother-daughter relationship/family dynamic stories, give this book a go. It won't disappoint.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed the story told by the Mother's perspective. I did not enjoy the book told by the daughter's perspective. It became unrealistic.
    • 3/5
      This is a mother daughter story and about assimilation. it also talks about the culture of japan and the differences between japan and the U. S.
    • 4/5
      This was a very kind gift from Jen at Crazy for Books after I tried to enter her giveaway a year late(!)It’s the story of Shoko, a Japanese woman who married an American serviceman in the 1950s, and her efforts to become accepted in the American society in which she found herself. Since Shoko was trying so hard to be assimilated, she didn’t share much of her history and culture with her daughter, Sue, who has to take on a reconciliatory mission to Japan for her ailing mother. Although I wasn’t as enthralled by the book as Jen was, and found the redemption issues overly simplified and too easily solved, I did enjoy exploring the mother-daughter relationship, and considering how attempts to ‘fit in’ affect immigrants.
    • 5/5
      How to Be an American Housewife was one of the final books that I read in 2011 and also one of my favorites. It is the story of Shoko, a Japanese woman who marries an American soldier after World War II, and her daughter, Sue, who is raising her daughter as a single mom. The book explores their memories, their relationship, and the bonds of family as Shoko's heart condition prevents her from traveling to Japan to reconcile with her brother.Books involving memories, traveling between the present and the past, are delicate things to write. If not done well, they can be very confusing or jarring for the reader as the transition takes place. Dilloway handled this potential pitfall wonderfully in How to Be an American Housewife, capturing just how something from the present can catapult one into memories of the past or another instance can bring one out of those memories. Shoko's memories of Japan are powerful as she experienced so much during World War II and in the aftermath. Her experiences are those of an individual but also of a proud nation trying to find its way in a new world order. The traditional roles that define men and women and the rigid structure of society are examined in the way that they provide a solid framework for expectation and action but also prevent individuals and society from moving forward and transitioning into a more global society. Shoko brings these expectations with her to America, although she attempts to convert them from the Japanese expectations to the American ones. Her life remains ordered and structured even though she has entered a new society with different rules.Sue grows up learning little about her Japanese heritage but fully understanding that her mother is very different than American mothers. The house runs on routines and rules even if they are American rules in her mother's eyes. With parents who have high expectations and strict rules, Sue naturally rebels and relationships are strained further as she marries young, has a daughter, and gets a divorce. Without a solid family foundation to ground her, Sue floats through life barely making ends meet and giving up on the dreams she once had.Shoko's illness brings together her memories of Japan with her desire to reconnect with her brother. She is not strong enough to travel to Japan herself so she asks Sue to go in her place. While she fears her brother's reaction to the unexpected visit by relatives he has never met, she desires that Sue see where she comes from and learn about her family heritage. Sue and her daughter undertake the journey and come home with a larger sense of self and family. Shoko's brother, Taro, does not tell the story that Shoko fears he will but instead leaves that for her to share if she wishes. While the reunion is rocky, Taro does eventually come to terms with his rejection of Shoko when she married an American and develops a relationship with his American family.How to Be an American Housewife captured me from the very first sentence and I just wanted to keep reading. The language used by Dilloway in Shoko's memories and to describe Japan is beautiful. She has a keen understanding of the culture through her mother and this shines through in the essential elements of the story. All of the characters have depth and each memory is constructed for a specific purpose in the story. There is no extra padding here but only words to fill the soul with an understanding of the importance of family.It is very rare that I give a book a 5 star rating but How to Be an American Housewife definitely deserves one.
    • 4/5
      Margaret Dilloway’s debut novel is a mother-daughter story, an immigrant story, and an inspired-by-a-true-story story. The true story is her own mother’s. Suiko O’Brien left Japan after World War II as the bride of an American soldier, gave birth to a daughter relatively late in life, and suffered from an enlarged heart; Dilloway makes all of these facts part of Shoko Morgan’s biography as well. Suiko brought a book with her from Japan--titled The American Way of Housekeeping, written in both English and Japanese by the “Women of the Occupation” in Japan--it was meant to help eliminate the communication barrier between American housewives and their Japanese maids; not realizing this and thinking it was meant for housewives themselves, Suiko’s new husband gave the book to her. Fictionalizing and reshaping the book according to her father’s misunderstanding--turning it into an instruction book called How to Be an American Housewife--Dilloway gives this to Shoko as well, using it as a framing device for the novel.“Excerpts” from this “manual” open each chapter of the novel, and they were my favorite parts of the book. Some foreshadow the portion of the story that’s about to follow and others are less clearly related to the action, but they were all fascinating little bits of cultural insight. While they often made comparisons between Japanese and American ways in an effort to be instructive, the overall feel of those pieces portrays idealized mid-century, middle-class American domesticity. “How to be an AMERICAN housewife,” indeed--no matter where you’re from. Even America.Shoko tells her own story for the first two-thirds of the book, sometimes-shaky English and all, and I was immediately drawn into it. When her declining health imperils her long-held secret plan to return to Japan and make peace with her brother after decades of not contacting each other, Shoko is forced to enlist her daughter Sue (Suiko) to go in her place. Sue has never been to Japan and knows little of her extended family, but is swayed to accept the errand by her own daughter Helena’s enthusiasm for the idea. Sue takes over the telling once she and Helena begin preparing for their trip. Dilloway makes the transition between her two first-person narrators smoothly, while establishing each with a distinctive voice.The fact that I was caught up in the story so quickly is a compliment to Dilloway’s writing, because it took me a while to warm up to Shoko on her own, and I didn’t really feel that I liked the book until past the halfway point. I found myself more interested in the mother-daughter story between Sue and Helena than that of Shoko and Sue, so I might have preferred a different balance. Having said that, I think this is a strong first novel and a solid piece of women’s fiction; the male characters aren’t developed as well as the female ones, but even if they were, the subject’s not likely to attract male readers anyway. I’m interested in seeing what Dilloway might do with a less autobiographical story, though...and I think there’s some real potential for social commentary in this whole “how to be an American housewife” thing.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of Shoko, a Japanese woman who married an American soldier, Charlie, after World War II. Shoko tells about her childhood in Japan and about living through the war. She tells of her forbidden romance with a Japanese man, which ended in tragedy, and her subsequent marriage to Charlie, with whom she raises two children in California. One of those children is Sue, who is now a divorced mother working in a dead-end job. Shoko’s weak heart prevents her from traveling back to Japan to find her brother, who she hasn’t spoken to since she came to America. Shoko asks Sue to go in her place, so Sue and her daughter Helena travel to the land of their roots to try and reunite their family. This is a wonderful story about mothers and daughters, and also a fascinating look into what it was like to be a Japanese war bride.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this book. It was easy to read and the language of the book made me feel as if I was there. I adored the relationship between Sue and her mother Shoko. Except for the accent, Shoko sounded just like my own mother. I swear I've heard the same type of comments or advice from my mom and I bet a lot of women would recognize a bit of their relationship to their mother in Shoko and Sue. I loved that as Sue and her daughter go to Japan and start understanding more of their Japanese roots that they seem to understand and find a bit of themselves there as well. It's a beautiful story and I totally recommend it.
    • 3/5
      Raised in a small village in Japan during WWII, Shoko was encouraged by her parents to travel to the nearby city and work for the Americans. She needed to pay for her brother’s education they said, and of course, find an American husband for herself. Young and beautiful, Shoko had no lack of suitors, and with her father’s input, she settled on Charlie, a military medic, and set off in pursuit of becoming the perfect American housewife.Years later, Shoko and Charlie are living a quite life in a San Diego suburb with two grown children. Life hasn’t turned out quite as Shoko imagined, but she has made do. Unfortunately, their daughter Sue, a divorced single mother, has had to make do with her less than perfect lot in life as well.As Shoko’s health declines, she fears that she will never have the chance to travel back to Japan and reunite with her brother Taro. Marrying Charlie meant dishonoring Taro, who hated Americans, and Shoko has not spoken to her brother since leaving Japan. She entreats Sue to go in her place before it’s too late. Once reluctant, Sue finds the trip unexpectedly meaningful; the revelations that come about and the people she meets surprise Sue in more ways than one.How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway is about learning to survive in a foreign culture, about striving for a better life for your children, and about hoping that it is not too late to address the choices you’ve made in the past.The book is split into alternating viewpoints, the first half told by Shoko and the remainder continued by Sue. It was very interesting to see the same situation through two pairs of eyes, and to note that Sue’s attitude towards her mother was at times completely different than the way Shoko perceived it.While I felt that the book overall was too quiet and was missing some oomph factor that would really make me want to keep reading, it was heartfelt and gave me some insight into the lives of Japanese wives of American GIs post WWII. At times, How to Be an American Housewife was even humorous; the tidbits added from the fictional How to be an American Housewife handbook prior to each chapter definitely gave me a lot to laugh at.
    • 5/5
      This novel recounts events in the lives of several generations of women in one family. It begins with the grandmother, Shoko, who marries an American soldier after World War II. She moves to the United States with him and begins the process of trying to learn to be a proper American housewife, including all the new habits she most adopt and some that she must leave behind for being too Japanese. She and her husband, Charlie, have a daughter, Sue, who in turn has a child of her own, Helena. Two complimentary stories are contained in this novel, one describing Shoko's life as a young woman, before and immediately following her marriage to Charlie, and the second revolving around the decision of Shoko that Sue and Helena should travel to Japan in order to reconnect with their heritage and her brother, and bond that was destroyed when Shoko decided to marry an American.Quote: "Adjusting to the U.S. was difficult in other ways for me, especially in the beginning. If I borrowed an egg from a neighbor, I returned two, the Japanese way. They didn't understand; why did I give them two? It made them angry, like I was insulting them. When you "borrowed" an egg or a cup of sugar in America, you never actually returned it."Although the stories recounted in both time periods depicted in this book are good, the first, that of Shoko as a girl and young woman, was particularly engaging. The author describes a life that was shaped by World War II and Americans, first in the dangers Shoko encountered in simple acts - walking to school or going to sleep at night included as examples of activities that could at any moment be thrown into chaos by the arrival of American planes. One the war is over, its affects continue to define Shoko, including by opening doors for young, educated women to leave their rural homes and take jobs in the city, many catering to the GIs stationed there. Once her father has decided that her marriage to an American GI is the best decision for Shoko's family, she and Charlie have a rapid courtship, culminating in marriage and eventually the move to the U.S. This portion of the story is both gripping and entertaining, especially since it is interspersed with quotations from a fictitious self-help book (which shares this book's title) that gives Japanese women advice on how to deal with the strange habits of their American husbands, neighbors, and children, including on topics such as "turning American," "American housekeeping," and "cooking Western-style." The second half, focusing on Shoko's daughter and granddaughter, is not as engaging, but still a fine read.
    • 4/5
      This is the story of a Japanese woman who married an American GI. It is partly told from her point of view and partly told from the point of view of her daughter. About halfway through reading this book I read the back flap about the author and discovered that she was inspired to write this book by a book her American father gave her Japanese mother entitled The American Way of Housekeeping. Just that knowledge made this book so much more enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      really enjoyed this book!
    • 4/5
      Not what I was expecting, however it remains a good story about familial relationships, especially when caught within generational changes as well as cultueral ones.The detractions are minor and my own. It is a good read, but one not one that I was unable to put down from time to time. I still recommend it to anyone who loves to read about the dynamics of relationships, especially within a family.
    • 5/5
      Shoko was a young Japanese girl when the atomic bomb was dropped on nearby Nagasaki. She grew into her teen years and young adulthood in a Japan occupied by the United States military. Her father encouraged her to marry an American, knowing that a future in America would hold more promise and opportunity for her. She followed her head rather than her heart, and married Charlie Morgan, emigrating to the United States. In her new country, she is an outsider, never fitting in with the other military wives or the PTA. She tries to pass on her values to her daughter, Suiko, but the cultural divide between them is vast. When Shoko’s heart condition – a condition acquired because of her proximity to the atomic bomb – becomes worse, she is determined to reconcile with her brother, Taro, before she dies. Unable to travel to Japan, she convinces Suiko to take her daughter Helena to the land of her forefathers and make amends on her behalf.This is the second book I’ve read this year dealing with Asian emigration to the United States; Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok was the first. While Ms. Kwok’s wonderful novel deals with the experience from that of a young girl from Hong Kong, How to Be an American Housewife vividly illustrates the challenges facing the Japanese women who accompanied American G.I.s home from Japan in the years following World War II. Ms. Dilloway accompanies each chapter of Shoko’s story with a quote from the fictional guide How to Be an American Housewife, a book which encourages the Japanese women to give up the traditions, customs, and habits of their homeland and adapt to their new home.The book has shifts in perspective and in time, as Shoko’s story of growing up and meeting Charlie – and leaving her true love behind in Japan – is slowly revealed, along with her efforts to be a good wife to Charlie and a good mother to Mike and Suiko. The mother-daughter dynamic is a complicated one in the best of circumstances, and Shoko and Suiko’s relationship difficulties are compounded by the cultural divide between Japan and America. As Suiko travels to her mother’s homeland, she begins to understand Shoko – and herself – in a new way.The two women’s perspectives are drawn extremely well, with Shoko’s halting voice and stilted grammar demonstrating not only her lack of English skills, but the practical, stoic nature which allowed her to make a new life for herself. Suiko is unable to see herself accurately amid the constant struggle between wanting her mother’s approval and yet resisting her traditional ways. I enjoyed exploring the contrast between Japan and the US, between mother and daughter, with these characters, and look forward to Ms. Dilloway’s next book.
    • 4/5
      Well it isn't a secret that I love books that give a glimpse into another culture and since this book had a way of blending the Japanese and American culture together, I think I loved it that much more. We are introduced to Shoko in the beginning of the book, who is a Japanese woman that lived her adult life in the United States. Now Shoko is elderly and has a bad heart but we learn about her life journey from Japan to America through her memories and her daughter Sue's adventure.One of Shoko's first childhood memories that she recalls is being shot at by an American fighter plane while walking home from school with her brother and sister. I can't imagine what it would have been like to run for the woods for protection from the fighter planes. As Shoko grows up and finishes high school, the war comes to an end but there are Americans everywhere because of the military bases that are spread all over Japan. Knowing that Japan would not offer much for Shoko as a woman, her father suggests that she becomes friendly with these American G.I.'s so she can marry one and head over to the United States for a life full of abundance and happiness. How was Shoko to know that marrying a GI would cause a rift between her and her brother Taro for her entire adult life?As an old woman, after Shoko realizes that her sister has just passed away she decides that it is time to confront her brother Taro by making ammends. With her heart failing it is obvious she cannot make a trip to Japan to confront Taro, so she enlists her daughter Sue to take the journey for her. When Sue travels to Japan and meets her Japanese family members for the first time, she finds herself revelling in everything about the country. She not only finds a deeper appreciation for her heritage, but also for the life that her mother has led. Although this trip was a favor for her mother to mend her family relationships, Sue stumbles upon a new path for her life.I really enjoyed this novel as it plunged into the mother/daughter relationships that are not comprised of the average people. It also contained historical elements that were new to me, such as the bombing of Nakasaki, which is one of the final acts of WWII in Japan. With themes of ancestry, family bonds, love, and forgiveness this book would make a great book club selection and I am definitely planning on suggesting this one to the ladies in my group.
    • 5/5
      This is a wonderful debut novel from Margaret Dilloway. The first half of the book is told through Shoko's eyes as she grows up in Japan and eventually becomes a war bride. Shoko moves to America with her husband where they raise a family. There is much conflict in the lives of Shoko and her children due to the differences in cultures. Eventually as she grows older she wants to go home to make amends with her brother. Due to an illness she can no longer travel, so in her place she sends her daughter, Sue and granddaughter, Helena. The second part of the book is told through Sue's eyes as she travels to Japan with her daughter, Helena in search of Taro, Shoko's estranged brother. The descriptions of Japan are beautiful. The characters in the book are well developed and intriguing. This is a great story of family and the secrets they can sometimes hold, of the bonds between mother and daughter, and also a story of forgiveness. In the beginning of each chapter is a little blurb from a fictional book called How To Be An American Housewife. Dilloway based this on a book she found that her father had given to her mother entitled The American Way of Housekeeping. I found these little blurbs quite amusing and a great introduction to each chapter. Margaret Dilloway is great story teller and I hope she will be writing more stories like this. This is a beautiful story and I highly recommend it!
    • 5/5
      Wow-- as a Japanese American I was blown away by this book! Dilloway tells the tale of a young Japanese woman, Shoko, who ends up marrying an American soldier during the American Occupation of Japan and her life as an american housewife. Told towards the end of Shoko's life, she has loose ends to tie up with her family in Japan, and asks her daughter Sue. a single mom, to take the trip in her behalf. This books is about the mother/daughter relationship, secrets kept, and the way of life of this Japanese-American family. Many pages of the book, resonated with me as memories of my own childhood. I would love to have my own book discussion with Dilloway and my sisters. I think we would laugh and cry relating stories to and fro.