SINGAPORE: “The Original Daughter” is the debut novel from Jemimah Wei, perhaps best known for her years as a presenter and host. The book, which was published last month, has earned rave reviews for Ms Wei, getting featured in no less than The New York Times and being chosen as a book club pick by Good Morning, America.
It certainly portrays Singapore as substantially less glitzy and glamorous than the one popularized by Crazy Rich Asians and its sequels. It is quieter, more desperate, and far more affecting.
To sum it up, it’s the story of a family, and the bonds and demands that familial love places upon us. More specifically, it’s a story of a fractured sisterhood, perhaps how our sisters break our hearts over and over again.
Genevieve Yang is the only daughter of a taxi driver father and a librarian mother living in an HDB unit in Bedok. The novel’s timeline spans from the 1990s to 2015.
Genevieve’s life changes forever with the discovery of a cousin she never knew about. Her grandfather, whom she long believed was dead, had actually left Singapore decades before the story began, and had moved to Malaysia to start another life, another family.
With his passing when Genevieve was eight, the family ended up acquiring another daughter, seven-year-old Arin, the daughter of her father’s half-brother in Malaysia.
Torn from the only life she’s ever known and rejected by Genevieve’s grandmother and, to a lesser degree, by her father. And while Su, Genevieve’s mother, is loving, as Genevieve morphs into “Jie Jie” (older sister), she becomes Arin’s entire world.
The two grow up together side by side, but as they get older, Genevieve experiences one failure after another, while Arin comes into her own and excels, first at school, later as a YouTube personality, and then finds a successful career as a bona fide Hollywood star.
A painful betrayal splits the sisters asunder, and this affects the whole family. While the tone of the book is often the opposite of lighthearted, though there are bits of humour scattered here and there, it ends on the suggestion of a grace note.
The appeal of “The Original Daughter” lies within its main character. Some who’ve read the book have pointed out how unlikeable Genevieve is, and yet Ms Wei’s skill as a writer is shown in how relatable her protagonist is, and how understandable her motivations are—the pressures, rivalries, jealousies, pettiness, and above all, her desire to be needed and loved.
It’s a modern trope that the eldest daughter has a big burden to bear, and perhaps this is especially true in Asian families, where they are relegated to the role of the responsible one whom everyone else gets to lean on from a very young age.
A particularly poignant exchange occurs between Genevieve and her mother at the point when the protagonist strives to free herself from ties that bind, and she can sense that Su is less than thrilled.
“So what if you’re not extraordinary to everybody else?” her mother asks Genevieve, adding, “Is it not enough to be special to me?”
“The Original Daughter: A Novel” by Jemimah Wei is available at Kinokuniya, Epigram, BookBar, Amazon, and other retailers. /TISG
Read also: Two Singapore writers share 2021 Epigram Books Fiction Prize