My Mother-In-Law's Son

by Josephine Chia

My Mother-In-Law’s Son centers round a Peranakan woman, Swee Gek, who is in an abusive marriage but is constrained by the limitations of women in her time to take positive action.

Her marriage is further strained by Choy Yan, the eponymous Mother-In-Law of the title whose values are archaic and patriarchal. Taking place in a 1949 -1950 Singapore that is just recovering from the onslaught of the Japanese War, Swee Gek’s Chinese husband, Wong Kum Chong, is inadvertently drawn into participating in Communist activity against the Colonial Government by a communist agitator, Teng Xin Nan.

Narrated from the perspectives of different characters, My Mother-In-Law’s Son is a revealing story of a Singapore and her people struggling to find their feet in the aftermath of a war. It also shows how people going through difficult circumstances can be susceptible to revolutionary ideas. Through Swee Gek’s personal fight against her oppressors, this novel also explores the meaning of love: of whether love can be unconditional or that it is always accompanied by possessiveness.

468 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Ms Josephine Chia is a Peranakan and is proud of her heritage. She writes both fiction and non-fiction. She has eight published books, including Frog Under A Coconut Shell, which has a second edition in 2010 and is currently being translated into Bahasa Indonesia. Josephine was one of the winners of UK's Ian St. James Awards in 1992 and has won other literary prizes.
Josephine runs Creative Writing Courses and is Mentor to aspiring young writers.

Reviews

[Lalala · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Singaporean, I am not very familiar with many local written novels. I was attracted to the first few pages and decided to buy this book.

Reading on, I was drawn into the depictions of how Singapore was like in the 1950s. As a 1990s kid, there are manyrefreshingly new scene to me

What I really love even more is the expressions made by Josephine Chia. The powerful local language she adds inside this book makes the story and climax exceptionally powerful.

She does not hesitate to use really crude language to bring out the emotions of each character.

Also, she has the power to make you have a slight momentarily sympathy for someone you will never expect in the story.

There are many plot twist and what you thought the ending may be at first is different from what you will expect.

However, one flaw I have noticed is the tendency to repeat some information which is redundant.

Besides a tiny flaw, this book really brings me on a great emotional rollar coaster.

[Golda Mowe · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I finally found time to sit down and read the book, I was pleasantly surprised that it also touched on the politicization of education during the period. A lot of the scenes and ideas are familiar to me. Locals will find that there is too much mundane information, but someone who is not familiar with Singapore will appreciate it.

[Monica Li · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful tale of a Peranakan woman's journey of self-discovery while balancing the role of being a mother, wife, daughter, and daughter in law. I was transported to Singapore in the 1940s through the beautiful writing.

[Sivagami · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel explores the meaning of love : whether love can be unconditional or always accompanied by possessiveness