Crazy Rich Asians

Did not finish at about 75%. I don't even know why I kept going that long. It's pretty vile wealth porn--all the wealth obsession and luxury references reminded me of American Psycho, only without the ultraviolence and ambiguous social commentary, so basically just a giant luxury list. Which is truly, fantastically dull. Almost as dull, in fact, as our 2 "main characters" (who I'm pretty sure get less page time than one MC's mom and cousin do), who manage to be even more dull than all of the status-obsessed, disgustingly rich supporting characters who are all awful but at least that makes them one-note characters which is more than can be said for the MCs who could have been replaced by cardboard and literally nothing about this book would change.

Without a plot or characters I can love, hate, or love to hate, all that's left is a description of (tribute to? satire of? I honestly can't tell how I'm supposed to feel about this) ostentatious displays of obscene uber-wealth. I feel like I need a shower.

It was quite a surprise, finding this paperback in the backseat of my mom's car. When I asked her about it, she said that she hadn't been able to get into it, and invited me to take it with me. Out of curiosity, I did. I haven't seen the movie or even the trailer (I barely watch TV and don't get many channels, anyway), but had heard this was a funny read. I needed a funny read.


These days, my mother and I no longer gravitate to the same books as often, but I found that I agreed with her this time--Crazy Rich Asians did not pull me in right away. Since I hate putting books down, I did persist and finish, with mixed feelings. The author does mention some interesting history, in passing, and the culture of the Singaporean ultra rich is indeed a new reading experience for me. However, 500 pages of opulence and food descriptions gets old, and the rest is drama.

For me, this was a great commercial for Singapore: it sounds like a lovely island with beautiful beaches and great food. And I will make a point of seeing the movie!

3.5 stars

What a weird book. Maybe this kind of book is common in its genre, but since I don't read chick lit or contemporary books, especially about rich people, it felt like something new to me. I'm not exactly sure how to categorize it--I've seen it described as a farce, but I don't feel that the tone is right for that (though there are definitely farcical moments). It is compulsively readable, and I definitely understand why it's sold a zillion copies and inspired a movie.

It's not that it's a good example of a novel. There are just so many characters that I don't feel like I got to know any of them. The only one I actually had feelings about was Astrid (well, and Eddie, whom I hated to the depths of my soul). Everyone else was just there, even Rachel. She's not a character, she's an audience stand-in who has no real personality. She's an economics professor, but that has no bearing on who she is--she could just have easily been a professor of literally any other subject, or a lawyer, or a doctor. The only part of her that felt real was her relationship with her mother, which I liked though it was very sidelined. Nick is just as bland; he's more of a stock "handsome leading man who's also a good guy" than anything else. I actually feel that this will be something improved upon by turning this into a movie: I think the actors will add some nuance to the characters that the book lacks. Because just about every single character in this book is a cardboard cutout of a person.

But. This book isn't about the characters. It's about the world. And Kwan does a hell of a job evoking that world. The intricate family relationships, the subtleties of class distinctions, the unbelievable ways people spend money. I am an eat-the-rich type, but I couldn't even really hate (most of) these characters because they just didn't feel real. I know intellectually that there are people this obscenely wealthy, but I just can't believe it. Maybe the reason I enjoyed this book despite not liking contemporary-set books is that it depicts such a different world that that world almost feels like something out of speculative fiction. It doesn't feel like a world inhabited by human beings.

If I really tried to internalize the idea that there are really people in the world who have this lifestyle, I would probably have a meltdown and turn into a being not of flesh but of pure rage. But because the book feels so...fantastical, it felt like a jaunt to the galaxy far, far away or something. I enjoyed it. I'll read the other books and watch the movies. But I still can't believe any of it.

Interesting but not nearly as funny as the blurb and the hype make it out to be. The most interesting part for me was the amount of money these people have. Mere millionaires are slumming it to them and the luxury designer names that were dropped were things I had mostly never even heard of. And there's a lot of name dropping. At least 3-4 instances per page. It got to the point when I just skipped over the name-dropping because the only designers that I actually knew were, again, slumming it to these people. The Chinese/Cantonese slang words that were peppered through out the text were also annoying because they were defined in endnotes, when really, a better writer would have just let us use context clues to figure it out. Also, it just kind of ended. After all the plot leading up to the Big Reveal, what came after was just, meh. I didn't dislike this but I'm not sure I'd read another book by this author.