Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Nicholas Young takes Rachel Chu, his Chinese-American girlfriend, back to Singapore for his best friend's wedding. What Rachel doesn't know is that Nicholas' family is one of the most wealthy in the region, and that he's considered one of the most eligible bachelors. She's thrown into a world of materialism and crazy wealth, and doesn't know if she likes it.

I found this novel (it's Kwan's first!) to be highly original, funny, and very insightful. It's a fun and ridiculous look into the Asian jet set crowd, but there is a plot, and there is heart to this story. His descriptions of Asian aunts and how Asians evaluate each other is spot-on (albeit truly awful): "The only acceptable majors were medicine or law (unless you were truly dumb, in which case you settled for accounting)" (p. 55).

A fun, fast, original read. Looking forward to what Kwan writes next.

1 comment:

Notorious MLE said...

I heard about this book on my favorite gossip blog. It got raves there too.