JULY 2013 - AudioFile
In this romp of a novel, narrator Lynn Chen goes to great lengths to convey the Asian-centric nature of the story in heavy Asian-accented English. The saving grace may be that the pretentious Europeans are also rendered with laughable characterizations. The satire of the novel is at the heart of the story and part of the fun. Chen’s reading has the diverse qualities of a one-woman show. She varies her pitch for male and female characters and presents the modal tones of Cantonese perfectly. The plot includes a broad cast of characters, which Chen makes distinctive and, thereby, easier to remember. M.R. © AudioFile 2013, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
Kwan’s debut novel is a fun, over-the-top romp through the unbelievable world of the Asian jet set, where anything from this season is already passé and one’s pedigree is everything. When Rachel Chu’s boyfriend, Nick Young, invites her home to Singapore for the summer, she doesn’t realize how much gossip she’s generated among Asian socialites around the world. To Rachel, Nick is a sweet, intelligent history professor—and the first man she’s imagined marrying. To the Asian billionaire set, he’s the gorgeous heir apparent to one of China’s most “staggeringly rich” and well-established families who virtually control the country’s commerce with their ancient fortunes. As soon as she steps off the plane, Rachel is ushered into the opulent world of castle-like estates and mind-boggling luxury. As if the shock of realizing the scale of Nick’s wealth is not enough, she must also contend with a troupe of cruel socialites who would absolutely die before they let Singapore’s most eligible bachelor get snapped up by a no-name “ABC” (American-born Chinese). There is also Nick’s family—his imposing mother, Eleanor, who has exact ideas about who Nick should be dating; his beautiful cousin Astrid, who the younger girls dub “the Goddess” for her stunning fashion sense (she was “the first to pair a vintage Saint Laurent Le Smoking jacket with three-dollar batik shorts”); and Nick’s cousin, the flamboyant Oliver, who helps Rachel navigate this strange new world. A witty tongue-in-cheek frolic about what it means to be from really old money and what it’s like to be crazy rich. (June)
From the Publisher
A dizzily shopaholic comedy.... Wickedly delectable.... Offers refreshing nouveau voyeurism to readers who long ago burned out on American and English aspirational fantasies.... Hilarious.”
—Janet Maslin, The New York Times
“It’s impossible not to get sucked into this satirical novel about the jet-setting lives of an enormous busybody family and its infinite Louboutin collection.”
—Glamour
“There’s rich, there’s filthy rich, and then there’s crazy rich.... A Pride and Prejudice-like send-up.”
—People
“If this isn’t the funniest book so far this year, it’s up there.... Kwan, who grew up in Singapore, skewers his subjects deftly, stylishly, and completely—but with heart.”
—The Denver Post
“Deliciously decadent.... This 48-karat beach read is crazy fun.... [Read] Crazy Rich Asians, on an exotic beach in super-expensive sunglasses.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“An unputdownably funny, original, modern novel.... I actually couldn't put this book down to eat or to watch Downton Abbey.”
—Plum Sykes, author of Bergdorf Blondes
“Rachel’s squeaky-clean naiveté is a clever foil to the intricate workings of the high-glamour Asian set around her. Chinese on the outside but all-American on the inside, she allows us to see the myriad nuances of intra-Asian culture that the novel goes to great lengths to show.”
—Tash Aw, NPR
“Rollicking.... A lively, generous story of shallow extravagance and human devotion.”
—The Boston Globe
“Original and fun, Crazy Rich Asians is quite a roller coaster trip. I loved it!”
—Jackie Collins, author of The Power Trip
“Delightfully soapy.... [Crazy Rich Asians] eats its chiffon cake and has it too, simultaneously tut-tutting many of its characters for their vapid materialism while reveling in the milieu’s sybaritic excess.”
—The Wall Street Journal
“As spicily adventurous and lusciously satisfying as the renowned Singaporean street food Kevin Kwan’s characters argue over; hot and sizzling, like the best satay, and dreamily transporting, like everyone's favorite dessert—goreng pisang. Feast on this outrageously funny and insightful novel of modern manners, and enjoy!”
—Lisa See, author of Dreams of Joy and Shanghai Girls
“[An] instant favorite.... Opulence and zaniness reign.”
—O, The Oprah Magazine
“Like Dynasty on steroids with more private jets, bigger houses, and a lot more money.”
—VanityFair.com
Library Journal
When Nicholas Young asks American-born Rachel Chu to summer with him at his home in Singapore, she doesn't realize that he is in fact heir to one of Asia's wealthiest families. Juicy stuffy that's culturally interesting for clarifying the difference between mainland and overseas Chinese; billed as Jackie Collins meets Amy Tan.
Kirkus Reviews
Jane Austen, or maybe Edith Wharton, goes to Singapore, turning in this lively, entertaining novel of manners. You've got to like any novel set in Asia that includes, among many splendid one-liners, this amah's admonition: "Don't you know there are children starving in America?" Of varying ethnicities but resolutely members of the 1 percent or aspiring, one way or another, to be so, Kwan's characters are urban sophisticates par excellence, many of them familiar with the poshest districts of London, Paris, New York and Hong Kong. Many of them are also adrift, with soulless consumerism replacing society: It's Less Than Zero without all the coke. When socialite Astrid, for instance, is in a mood, as she so often is, she goes shopping in boutiques haunted by "the wives of Persian Gulf sheikhs, Malay sultans, and the Indonesian Chinese oligarchs." Not half-bad company, but then Astrid moves in a rarefied circle around the richest of the rich. At its center is 32-year-old Nicholas Young, whose ABC girlfriend--American-born Chinese, that is--Rachel Chu, has come to Singapore to meet the family. To Nick's credit, she is taken aback by just how phenomenally wealthy they are. "It's like any big family," Nick assures her. "I have loudmouth uncles, eccentric aunts, obnoxious cousins, the whole nine yards." Well, and then some. Rachel discovers that the position of being Nick's intended isn't an easy one--not only are there other would-be plutocrats gunning for the spot, but the family also doesn't make things easy, either. A diverse set of characters and a light, unstrained touch move Kwan's story along. Yet, even though one feels for Rachel, there's a point--right about at the spot where one of her new girlfriends is showing off the yoga studio inside daddy's new jet--that one gets the feeling that Ho Chi Minh might have had a point after all. An elegant comedy and an auspicious debut.
