interesting read...

I enjoyed reading How To Be an American Housewife, the latest slection I have read for the BlogHer Book Club.  The book’s author Margaret Dilloway writes well, imbuing her characters with an interesting voice. The characters are the center of this story and rightly so. Although the surprises and plot twists are revealed in the first section of the novel, the author creates such vivid, flawed, and human characters, especially the character of Shoko, that the reader is compelled to forge ahead.

The story is told in two voices, that of Shoko and of her daughter Suiko. It deftly explores the cultural divisions, and surprising similarities, between a mother and daughter who have grown up in two different worlds, WWII Japan and modern-day America. Shoko has worked hard to become as American a housewife as she can be, even referring to a handbook of the same title as the novel, while Suiko is disenchanted with her life as an American single mother. Excerpts from the handbook are presented as an organizing tool at the beginning of each chapter. Well worth reading, providing an interesting look into the intersection of Japanese and American cultures.

This was a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.