How To Be An American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway

Publisher: Penguin USA
On Sale Date: July 23rd 2010
Pages:277

The story of How To Be An American Housewife is about Shoko. She is living with her former G.I. husband in the United States, but originally she is from Japan. She is of age now and suffering from a heart issues and she wants nothing more then to return to Japan for one last time to get back in touch with her younger brother Taro, who she lost contact with after he didn't approved that she married her American husband. This all traces back to world war two, where Japan was bombed by the USA and Taro did see them as the enemy.

But her heart illness grows worse, so it is impossible for her to return to Japan. Instead of her, her daughter Sue does it for her, together with her own young daughter. They find Taro, who is not that happy with their visit. but slowly on, the ice melts and he is becoming friendlier to his nieces and it results that Sue returns to the USA with just what her mother had asked for..

I had this book on my bookshelf for years now and it was the time to finally read it. Was this book worth the waiting? Meh. I expected a lot of it, but it didn't met my expectations. First of all, I found the main character Shoko sounding very down and melodramatic during the story, which made it a heavy read. It didn't have any lighter points at all. The journey of her daughter Sue to Japan was okay, but it wasn't written in a way that was very impressive, a week later you already forget what happened. And the end was just very open, and you wonder if Sue made the trip to Japan just for that all. 

Overall a book that I expected more from..