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The Love Ceiling by Jean Davies Okimoto Endicott and Hugh Books
book review by Nancy Livingstone
"'There is a glass ceiling for women,' she tells her husband Jack... 'And it's made out of the people we love.'"
This is an intriguing novel that explores the question: Can women achieve self expression and artistic fulfillment? Told in alternating voices between the 64-year-old mother Anne Koroda Duppstadt whose quest is art and her thirty-something daughter Cass who has infidelity problems, this book is rich with life experiences.
During her autumn years, Anne embarks on an artistic journey as a painter on a lush island. The scenes at the artist studio are rendered with compassion and insight. Those close to her belittle her artistic venture as "her little part-time job." Her husband wrestles with his retirement and resentment for her passion to become an artist. The story reads like the movie A Star Is Born—one spouse begins to bloom just as the other withers. As the women strive to "have it all," the men are often depicted as bitter.
Aside from the male-female dynamics, the novel explores the issue of ethnic identity. Annie's mother was held in a Japanese-American prison camps during World War II. Cross-cultural marriage is explored.
At the heart of this novel is the self-sacrificing nature of a certain generation of women. When Annie finally accepts the fact that she can paint and others recognize her budding abilities, it is a treasured moment of self-reliance and liberation. Okimoto's past writings have won the Smithsonian Notable Book, the American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, and the Washington Governor's Award.