The title of Janelle Brown’s All We Ever Wanted Was Everything encompasses all that is right and wrong with the novel mimicking all that is right and wrong with America. If only it provided better satire.

The story follows three women – Janice Miller and her two daughters, Margaret and Lizzie – as their lives crumble disastrously around them, like the sinking Titanic. Living in wealthy Silicon Valley with more money then they know what to do with, not to mention the other trappings of upper middle class life – education, access to just about anything, zero accountability – the family still manages to wallow in their own self-loathing.

While the ennui of the wealthy can be funny (Sex and the City), it often feels self-indulgent and silly to the rest of us living in the real world – like rearranging the deck chairs while the house goes up in flames.

As the Miller family struggles to pull their lives back together, instead of earning it the hard way through insight and clarity, the three females get bailed out one by one through sheer luck, making the journey feel much too easy, just like their coddled lives.

Grade: C+

All We Ever Wanted Was Everything is currently available.