Book Cover

I don't understand. How can a credit card ever be rejected? It's not like it's a kidney!

Previous Crazy Rich Asians novel review:

• Crazy Rich Asians

# Review

I’m reading through the Crazy Rich Asians books with my girlfriend and this is book two from the trilogy. In this book, Kwan explores the extravagant wealth of people in Hong Kong and mainland China.

While Rachel and Nick are still central components of the story, they aren’t the sole focus. Rachel discovers that her biological father is a billionaire from China; she ends up traveling to China in order to meet her biological family. Much of the story is about her experiences with her Chinese family, but there are also side stories involving Astrid’s marriage with Michael, and Kitty Pong’s attempts to fit into Hong Kong upper society.

Much like his last book, Kwan explores the opulence of Asian wealth through in depth descriptions of the designer clothing and furnitures, as well as the opulence of their lifestyle, such as casually hiring celebrities and having a Boeing 747 as a private plane. There are interesting themes being explored, such as the generational differences in spending habits. While older generations tend to be more frugal on certain expenditures such as travel, younger generations tend to be more exorbitant with their parents’ money. Other themes include sexism in families, such as Jacqueline Ling’s observations about her role in her family, and traditional Chinese views on having a daughter in the family.

Kwan uses many of his same literary techniques from the last book, such as name dropping designer brands and mixing different idioms from Asian languages into the text. Kwan tries out a new narrative format where the story is told through different mediums, such as text messages and emails between the characters. I thought the new format is refreshing and adds a nice break in between the main narrative. The characters still largely feel one- or two-dimensional. Some characters, such as Michael, had character development removed, as he’s portrayed solely as a villain as opposed to the more nuanced characterization from the last book.

# Conclusion

While still feeling like a soap opera, I do appreciate the new narrative techniques.

# Overall rating: 7.3

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