In some ways, I was wrong about Kevin Kwan's first book. The first few pages in, Kwan diagrammed the Young-T'sien-Shang family tree, and I found myself going back to it throughout the book, as characters are rapidly introduced, and chapters are named for where the scene takes place or from whose perspective events are being told. The frenetic Prologue drew me in so effectively that I did not need to read more before buying the $26 hardcover from Barnes & Noble. Kwan's characters are so vibrant and their excesses so extravagant that I felt suspended between embracing the fantasy and doubting that such attitudes and careless spending can possibly exist at a time when the entire world has been made self-aware of the dangers of indulgences.
The title of the book refers to Asians who are either crazily rich or rich and crazy. Part of the attraction to a book like this is the hope that the author will somehow pull back a curtain on a class of people whom most of us will never join in our lifetimes. We are attracted to celebrities and the mega wealthy and we put them on pedestals in idolotry, but there's always a veil between us and them. Are they reallly how they are portrayed in the tabloids? Can we really know them through E! Channel biographies and can we really be sure or are we all being played by publicists? The recent HBO production, Beyonce: Life is But a Dream, was hyped as the long-awaited unveiling of the singer's most personal moments, but fans were disappointed to find that most of the material was recycled, and the interviews staged. (To make matters worse, we were remidned of the distance between her and the us when she banned all tour photographers). I think we feel entitled to be best friends with our favorite celebrities, so when they abruptly shut us out, we think less of them. Of course the characters in Crazy Rich Asians are not specifically about any true-life individuals, but you know in the back of your mind that it is based on the idea of Asians who are rich and crazy and crazily rich.
The allure of Crazy Rich Asians has two specific things working for it before anyone opens to the book to read it. The first is that we are living through a global power shift from the West to the East. There is no need to go into specifics because we've all heard about double digit economic growth in Asia as the West flounders in bankrupcy and rising national debt. Even if you aren't specifically interested in Asia, we're all aware that it's there, poised to strike. And we've all heard about how insanely rich the Chinese (in particular) have become. Most of us probably haven't been to China, but we all saw the Beinjing Olympics, and have heard about their expanding metropolitan areas. Capitalism has fixed it's gaze on China and, as we learn more about their prosperity, it is inevitable that we're going to want to hear about what it's like to go through such rapid change. So, that's one reason anyone might want to read this book, Secondly, I think we're bored with hearing about the mega wealthy in America. Bill Gates, the Walton family and Warren Buffett have been billionaires for an era, but at this point, they're old money compared to the rise of the millionaires and billionaires in Asia. Singapore, where the book takes place, has the world's largest concentration of millionaires and billionaires, most of whom have acquired that wealth almost overnight. We wonder how they act with the sudden influx of cash, how they deal with newfound attention and what implications it has for the rest of the society they live in. Asia has been notorioulsy private and closed off, but it has become increasinly impossible and futile to avoid scrutiny. This book is our inside look, and even if it isn't based on anyone specifically, we all know that it's based on a real class of people.
Overall, the plot was predictable. There are no cliffhangers or surprisng moments that become indelible in the mind of a reader, nor are there particularly memorable quotes. The book is an easy read--I cranked it out in less than two days, although there was definitely more momentum in the beginning than in the end. The synopsis of the book is somewhat deceiving because you're led to think that it's the story of an ABC (American Born Chinese) who suffers from culture shock when she accompanies her boyfriend to meet his super rich family in SIngapore. In actuality, Rachel and NIck are only the facilitators of the plot--she is the antagonist to his family and he brings a sense of redemption in the picture-perfect ending--but there are so many more elements I felt that stood out more. For example, I felt that the undercurrent of "old money versus new money" was much more significant among character relationships, yet the author spent most of the time exploring differences on a gradient of wealthy, really wealthy and super-duper wealthy. After awhile those comparisons become tedious and it made the plot feel empty and superficial. Maybe I was hoping for a revelation, but I was disappointed that there wasn't more substance to the plot. Even when Kwan had the opportunity to create meaningul moments, he skimmed over them in the way Disney Channel tv shows gloss over family tension. (I can no longer stomach Disney movies/TV shows because they never portray family life accurately). I walked away learning very little about those crazy rich Asians other than the fact that they look down on Chanel and drool over next season's couture.
Tonally, the characters sounded a lot like American valleygirls and prep school boys. It's hard for me to believe that a culture so steeped in tradition and codes of conduct thousands of years old would casually discard their consciousness and identiy in the presence of wealth. The young people run around rampantly flaunting their cash without any sign of self-deprecation? Does having money mean you have to become a character from Clueless? Does not having money mean you're always the voice of reason and that the rich must adopt a sense of groundedness in your presence? Do all young Asians clash with their old fashioned parents? Character-wise, litle went into creating unique personalities: there's the overbearing mother; the silent but powerful grandmother matriarch; the jealous, ugly female rival; the beauty with a failing marriage; yuppy mainland Chinese with horrific English accents; the handsome, fit playboys; the educated feminist who can't possibly simultaneously know a lick about fashion; and the rebellious son who shuns his family's wealth but lives out his individualism in, of all places, New York City. It is too easy to create fictional characters by borrowing from classic, culture-defining movies like The Great Gatsby, Mean Girls, Mulan and the aforementioned movie starring Alicia Silverstone but it takes way more talent and (for lack of a better word) balls to create characters from scratch. Of course, not knowing but knowing the characters helps to move the story along, and it did just that for me. I ended up being able to categorize each character and focus on the action rather than their internal hopes, dreams and conflicts, There are no subsurface meanings or messages in this book. Just as the cover art indicates, the spectacle is paper-thin and one-dimension, it's a saccharine-sweet candyshop of visuals that has one flavor through and through. In that way, maybe Kwan is poised to become the author of the summer not for the substance of his work but the escapism it provides.
Rating: B+
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