Siew Siang Tay

Handpicked is a story about a Sarawakian girl, Laila, who travels to Australia to seek a new life. She desperately wants to leave her life in the Iban kampung and the longhouse in which her family lived in together with 30 other families, enough to give her the courage to pack her bags and fly off to be the wife of a man whom she has only known for a year, and only through letters.

When she arrives in Australia, she is at first awed by the man who is to be her husband, Jim. But not too long after, as they arrive to the caravan where she is to call home, she realises that all her dreams of red brick houses, beautiful lawns and white picket fences were only that - dreams. The Australia that she had imagined is not what she gets.

The story was pretty predictable. Laila meets another man, Sean, at a party and is immediately drawn to his good looks, good taste, and good wealth. Not too long after, she leaves Jim for Sean, only to find that Sean is abusive. But she sticks in that relationship for longer than she stayed with Jim (or at least, that's how the timeline felt like for me), until one fine day, with advice from a very good friend, she ups and leaves Sean. The both of them (Laila and Jim) then start mending their own lives. Jim finds himself a new job, and starts saving money. Laila leaves the women's shelter after a while, finds a job and rents her own place.

Overall, I was just not impressed.… (mehr)