This is the third book in Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians trilogy. On one level, it is the story of the oldest members of an established Singaporean Chinese family navigating a changing culture, new mores about old versus new money, and the extended Chinese diaspora. On another level, this is a chronicle of brand names and bad behavior. Rachel Chu and Nicholas Young are here, along with plenty of scheming relatives, assorted hangers-on, and parvenu interlopers.
But Kwan reminds us of the very real and difficult history of Singapore during World War II. For some of these old families, preserving wealth and a way of life isn’t about setting apart different groups of people, it was about the very survival of the nation as an independent entity. Kwan wants us to know about the ridiculousness of people with more money than sense, but he also wants us to know that his characters represent people he loves and respects.
So there’s drama and dresses, but also some good twists, some history, and then, ultimately, a happy ending for the good guys. Not the deepest book ever written about Singapore, but possibly one of the three most readable.
