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

""Once you leave Japan, it is extremely unlikely that you will return, unless your husband is stationed there again or becomes wealthy.

Take a few reminders of Japan with you. If you have room. Or make arrangements to write to a caring relative who is willing to send you letters or items from your homeland. This can ease homesickness.

And be sure to tell your family, "Sayonara." (from the chapter, "Turning American" )

(The book later tells you that "Sayonara" doesn't mean just "goodbye," but "goodbye forever.")

Comments: This novel tells the story of a young Japanese woman who marries an American soldier after WWII and comes to live in America, becoming estranged from her brother Taro who remains bitter over the results of the war and the American bombing of Nagasaki.  In America, the young wife Shoko struggles to live among strangers in a different culture, and is given a book of advice by her American husband Charlie - How to Be an American Housewife. The story and the book are from the 1950s and the advice reflects the times.

Shoko's story is sad because of the estrangement from her brother, the hard time she has with English and raising her son and daughter in an environment unfamiliar to her, and also sad because of a secret she carried from Japan with her that she has told no one about. Redemption comes in the second part of the novel, when Shoko's adult daughter Suiko or Sue agrees to return to Japan for her mother, who has suffered a stroke and is unable to travel. Sue meets Shoko's cousins and reunites with Shoko's brother Taro, seeing Japan for the first time.

The novel is well-written and the characters, especially Shoko, realistic and sympathetic. The author based her book on her Japanese mother's experiences and the book that her father had given her mother to help her adjust to American society - How to Be an American Housewife.

Title: How To Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Berkley Trade; Reprint edition (August 2, 2011)
Genre: fiction, historical fiction
Objective rating: 4.5/5

This book was sent to me by the publisher through Shelf Awareness. My review and rating were in no way influenced by my receiving a complimentary copy.

Submitted to Japanese Literature Challenge V and  Immigrant Stories 2011 Challenge.

Book Review: I'm Going Where I Belong by Hans Lindor

I Am Going Where I Belongby Hans Lindor
Paperback: 150 pages. Enaz Publications; 1st edition (February 25, 2011)
Source: Pump Up Your Book Promotions
Genre: fiction, immigrant fiction. Objective rating: 4 out of 5

"I don't like it when you hang out with these people. It's scary to me. I had a bad dream last night. You know what it means 'le-wreve ou pedi dan' ('When you dream about losing teeth')."
"It means death or someone close to you is about to die. Ma, you don't have to worry about anything. Death is scared of me," I joked, just to brush away my mother's fear. (ch. 8)

Comments: A heartbreaking story of a wealthy family forced to leave Haiti after a military coup and the death of the father. Their life in America becomes a struggle for survival and acceptance, and a longing on the part of the mother to return home to Haiti. The novel chronicles the life of the family, a desperate search to find stability and a final place to belong.

Product Description: "I am Going Where I Belong is a gripping journey through the plight of a once wealthy immigrant family. Chriscile Leger, mother of two, is forced to flee her native country with her children after her husband is brutally assassinated during a coup d'etat. "I am Going Where I Belong" is filled with heartrending turns of fate that, through their believability, make each character vibrantly engaging for the reader."

About the author, from Amazon: "Hans Lindor, novelist, screenwriter and playwright, has a unique perspective on life and has earned many accolades for his fiction and poetry. He has used his extraordinary life experiences to inspire, and has given motivational speeches and workshops to students, advocating against guns, drugs and violence and giving students hope for rising above hardship and social struggles."

This book tour is sponsored by Pump Up Your Book Promotions, which provided a review copy of the novel.

For an excellent interview with the author, see Freda's Voice.

Book Review: Dragon Chica by May-lee Chai

Dragon Chica, a novel by May-lee Chai
Publisher: GemmaMedia; Original edition (October 27, 2010).
Genre: immigrant fiction, YA.
Source: Library.

Comments: Poetic descriptions, excellent characterization, this moving novel incorporates the history of the Cambodian war and atrocities into the story of an immigrant family - a mother and five children- struggling in the U.S. to start a new life, deal with the horrible past of death and loss, and to fit into the American society and way of life. I would give this a very high rating for literary fiction.

 Goodreads book description: "Nea, a Chinese-Cambodian teenager, flees to Texas as a refugee from the Khmer Rouge regime when a miracle occurs. Although her family has been struggling to support itself, they discover that a wealthy aunt and uncle have managed to make it to America as well. Nea and her family rush to join their relatives and help run a Chinese restaurant in Nebraska. But soon Nea discovers their miracle is not what she had expected. Family fights erupt. Then the past – and a forbidden love– threaten to tear them all apart.

Dragon Chica follows Nea, an indomitable character in the tradition of Holden Caulfield, Scout Finch and Jo March, as she fights to save her family and herself."

Read excerpts from the novel at May-Lee Chai's blog. Other reviews: Marjolein Book Blog and  Largehearted Boy.
Challenges: Immigrant Stories Challenge 2011, Chinese Literature Challenge 2011

Book Review: Dead Light District by Jill Edmondson

Title: Dead Light District: A Sasha Jackson Mystery
 by Jill Edmondson

Paperback, 224 pages
Published December 20th 2010 by Dundurn
Genre: mystery
Source: review copy provided by author

Comments: This mystery doesn't hesitate to show the underside of the great city of Toronto - the seedy side of this hugely cosmopolitan city. Private investigator Sasha Jackson is asked to find a missing woman, an illegal immigrant who works for a local madam. Sasha solves the mystery but not before encountering two murders and a good look at the convoluted workings of the underground.

More than a few times, I wanted to give Sasha and many of the characters in the book a good mouth washing with harsh soap. The language they use makes the book more realistic and fitting for the environment and circumstances, but the f--- words do fly! For this reason, I'd suggest the novel for adults only.

Goodreads book description: "As open-minded as she is, private investigator Sasha Jackson feels out of place when her latest case plunges her into the world of commercial sex. A classy madam has hired Sasha to find a missing Mexican hooker, which seems easy enough at first. However, everything becomes complicated when a nasty pimp turns up dead in the wrong hotel. Things get even worse when a spaced-out call girl, an arthritic old lady, and a Rastafarian pawnbroker enter the scene.

Sasha figures out why the hooker ran away but not where to. How fast can anyone run in stiletto heels? When the next body turns up, Sasha has her moral compass tested as she tries to understand the sex trade and how those enmeshed in it will do anything to survive - even if it means murder." (Goodreads)

I would recommend the book for mystery lovers who like an interesting plot but who don't mind stark language.

Objective rating: 3.75/5

Challenges: Immigrant Stories Challenge 2011, Mystery and Suspense Reading Challenge 2011

Book Review: Red Jade: a Detective Jack Yu Investigation

Red Jade: A Detective Jack Yu Investigation
Author: Henry Chang
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: Soho Crime; 1 edition (November 1, 2010)
Genre: crime fiction, PI, mystery
Setting: NYC, Seattle
Source: Library
Rating: 4/5

Comments: Interesting mystery that gets the reader into the world of Chinatown tongs and the criminal underworld they run. In Red Jade, The bodies of a man and his wife are discovered in a case that looks like a murder-suicide. Detective Jack Yu had been transferred from working in Chinatown, but the family of the victims asked for him to be recalled to do the investigation.

Pretty soon, Jack is also searching for a Hong Kong woman who disappears from Chinatown, escaping from the Chinese underworld with a stash of gold coins and a "fistful" of diamonds. She is one of the more intriguing characters in the novel. She is resourceful about hiding from the criminal elements hunting her down as she escapes from New York to Seattle, trying not to stand out or be discovered by the tongs.

"She had a lot of different jewelry. I remembered, but she always wore a jade charm. Hanging off her wrist. It was white and gray, with pa kua, Taoist, designs on it. Round, like a coin, a nickel." (p. 55)

Detective Yu takes us through Chinatowns in New York and Seattle - pawn shops, jewelers, restaurants, temples, while introducing the Cantonese and Toisanese dialects.

Publisher's description: Two bodies are discovered at an address on the Bloody Angle, Chinatown's historic Tong battleground. NYPD Detective Jack Yu's investigation takes him across the country to another Chinatown, this one in Seattle, in pursuit of a cold-blooded Chinese American gangster and a mysterious Hong Kong femme fatale

The Chinese cop, Tsai remembered, the American-born Chinese, the jook sing, empty piece of bamboo. They (the defense lawyers) would dredge up his tainted career, his Chinatown misadventures, and destroy his credibility. (p. 56)

About the author: Henry Chang was born and raised in New York's Chinatown, where he still lives. He is a graduate of Pratt Institute and CCNY. He is the author of Chinatown Beat and Year of the Dog, also in the Detective Jack Yu series.

Challenges: Immigrant Stories Challenge 2011, Mysery and Suspense Reading Challenge 2011, Chinese Literature Challenge 2011