Book review: All I Ever Wanted falls short of the in-law reconciliation fantasy it wants to be

All I Ever Wanted

By Jane Lo
Fiction/Earnshaw Books/Paperback/250 pages/$31.42/Amazon.sg (

amzn.asia/d/jazct7K

)
3 out of 5 stars

Hong Kong-Canadian writer Jane Lo’s debut novel derives its plot from a situation familiar to many Asian newlyweds: the tension between a mother and daughter-in-law.

Set in Hong Kong, the story follows new parents Norah and Ben struggling to raise their newborn Joey on a tight budget, while dealing with Ben’s icy mother, Ma – who lives with them – and Norah’s disapproving, erudite parents from Vancouver.

The strained dynamic is set from the beginning when a vicious Ma blames Joey’s eczema on Norah’s “contaminated” breast milk in a paediatrician’s office.

More confrontations arise between the two women, who clash over traditional and modern child-rearing practices. Ben, sandwiched between them, realises he cannot appease both and must choose where his loyalties lie.

The most frustrating thing about the story is that its key figures, Norah and Ma, are underdeveloped.

Norah comes across as a helpless, weepy damsel in distress, but it is difficult to empathise with her.

Despite the couple’s straitened finances, for example, she spends more than they can afford on vacations and mother-and-baby gym packages.

Her attempts at building a relationship with Ma are also constantly rebuffed, but Lo never quite explains Ma’s antagonism.

There are some quiet gems. In one poignant scene, Ben takes a photo of Ma with his mobile phone, and realises that his wife and son have eclipsed his mother both in his phone storage and heart.

Ultimately, these tender moments are not enough to save the novel from its rushed ending.

If you like this, read: Fistful Of Colours by Suchen Christine Lim (Straits Times Press, 1992, $17.50,

str.sg/iUcs

). This 1992 Singapore Literature Prize winner follows a young female teacher, Suwen, in search of her identity as a woman and artist. Her search intertwines familial history with the early immigrant past of Singapore.