“Crazy Rich Asians” gives you the opportunity to be a voyeur into another world, the world of the super rich Chinese. It is a place “filled with jaw-dropping opulence”, a world where you wouldn’t think twice about using your private jet to travel half-way across the world in an instant.
It starts with a family tree to give you an idea of what you are getting yourself into. Here your background matters. And this is the “uppermost echelon of Asian wealth – a secretive, rarefied circle of families virtually unknown to outsiders who possessed immeasurably vast fortunes.” Outsiders, even the newly rich Chinese, are not welcome.
The book has a dual storyline, both of which have the common theme of an outsider being in a relationship with these people. The first strand follows double heiress Astrid Leong and her crumbling marriage to husband Michael, who “everyone in Singapore thinks married you for your money.”
But the main storyline follows Nick Young who lives in New York as a professor and is dating fellow professor Rachel Chu. He is taking Rachel back home for the summer. But news travels ahead of them as “this exotic strain of gossip spread rapidly through the Levantine networks of the Asian jet set, and within a few hours, almost everyone in this exclusive circle knew that Nicholas Young was bringing a girl home to Singapore. And, alamak! This was big news.” And inevitably the gossip leads to claims that she is nothing more than gold digger, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
Nick doesn’t prepare Rachel for this despite the warnings that “the minute she walks into that house an innocence will be lost,” and “you can’t just throw Rachel into the deep end like this.”
Meanwhile Nick’s mother is doing her own preparations as she prepares a dossier on Nick's girlfriend. “The investigator thinks that they were most likely working class. In other words, they are PEASANTS!”
So there are clashes along the way but the ride is great, giving you a glimpse into the high-life, and there is a happy ending. What more can you ask for?
Publication date: 5 Dec 2013
Amazon UK link: Crazy Rich Asians
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