Crazy Rich Asians

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Despite the fact that I like to read current fiction, I avoid books that are trendy. The Twilight phenomenon just seems too easy to repeat. But this book just kept being talked about...and then they made a movie of it, and I have to read a book before I see the movie version, so here we are...

I am blown away by the level of detail in this book. The tangible specifics about what the characters are wearing, driving, and buying must have taken an incredible amount of research. What's more impressive is the amount of characters Kwan deftly wove together. Sometimes books lose their grip on reality because the characters all seem to be only children with four people who come to holiday gatherings. This book showed the aunties, the cousins, the neighbors that become family, etc in all their messy glory.

My main issue with this book lies with the cruelty of some of the characters. The unfortunate existence of the Real Housewives shows is proof that people scheme their way to the top, but in book form, it made for entirely unsympathetic or hateful characters. I inwardly cringed over and over again at the lengths that some of the characters would go to in order to reach their own selfish goals. Still the story is well told.

This book gets a mixed recommendation from me. On some levels, it is great, but the language is rough and some will find it hard to keep the families in order. That said, if this doesn't make you want to go to Singapore and Paris (especially if it's Astrid's couture version), you're missing the luscious imagery of the book.

Happy reading and happy street food eating--