Shizuko's Daughter

Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori is a book about perseverance. The main character, Yuki, comes home to her mother that has committed suicide in the kitchen. What follows is Yuki's life trying to deal with a very mean stepmother, and a father who is stricken with grief and doesn't know how to raise a daughter. Yuki rebels against both traditional Japanese culture, and her father's strict rules. The novel spans a very long time (from 1969-1976). I would teach this novel because it shows that difficulties of adolescence isn't something that is only in the US, and it shows that with drive you can over come what ever life throws your direction. I found this book interesting because Yuki doesn't fit into our traditional thought of subservient Japanese woman role. This novel is very interesting because, although it is fiction it closely follows the actual life of Kyoko Mori and how she lost her mother at a fairly young age to suicide and what life was like for her afterwards.