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quicksilvermoon's review against another edition
3.0
May 2016. The Kuala Lumpur skyline a glittering backdrop to car rides with Abak’s friend Yem, an esteemed journalist with a keen insight into The socioeconomic dynamos that keep the ASEAN countries thriving. Over steaming cups of tea at an open air stall wayy past our bedtime, he peels back the facade of the tourist traps and regales us with anecdotes and factoids about the Sino-Malay relations in his home country.
August 2019, Shanghai. After reams of research, years of FOMO and an exhaustive movie marathon, we’ve made it to this incredible city - mind blowing in its scale, where you can feel the history beneath your feet even when your eyes behold the future being written by those tall towers in front of you.
September 2021. I’ve been stuck home for over two years now, and all those memories are starting to feel so far away. And this impulse buy from The Bookworm Bangladesh, inspired by my baby Usraat Fahmidah pulled me right back into it. The story of five individuals trying to outrun their pasts as they rise to the dizzying heights only possible in the PCR, their lives are tangentially, let inextricably linked, and success and happiness are forever just out of reach. When I started reading it, I got Noble House vibes (if you’ve seen the show, let me know what you thought), and I confess I found it a little gimmicky. But Tash Aw has managed to craft an engaging narrative, tantalizing us with the gradual discoveries. It’s like the other side of Crazy Rich Asians - the grit, the grime and the elbow grease behind the glamour. Best enjoyed with an icy teh tarik and a grain of salt
sujata's review against another edition
3.0
Lost steam towards the end but mostly I liked it and look forward to reading their other books
mayarelmahdy's review against another edition
3.0
3.5/5
This book was so dry. It's really interesting, rough, and somehow able to pull at your heartstrings, but it is dry.
The last 33% were so hard to get through. Pure suffering and pain, but also they were the parts where the stories connected. I wish they didn't. I liked the characters better when they were floating in an out of each others' lives.
This book was so dry. It's really interesting, rough, and somehow able to pull at your heartstrings, but it is dry.
The last 33% were so hard to get through. Pure suffering and pain, but also they were the parts where the stories connected. I wish they didn't. I liked the characters better when they were floating in an out of each others' lives.
thesinginglights's review against another edition
3.0
That's two books now that I've come out empty. Flourishes of quality but I have a sort of yawning gap where satisfaction should lie. I don't know if I'm to blame or I've just been unlucky in my picks twice in a row.
The set-up should have been a great one: five immigrants from Malaysia go to Shanghai to make their fortune. Big city dream! Disappointment and dissatisfaction abundant. You could argue that this is the life that Aw wanted to present but it was kind of frustrated and laborious. By no means a bad book, though.
The set-up should have been a great one: five immigrants from Malaysia go to Shanghai to make their fortune. Big city dream! Disappointment and dissatisfaction abundant. You could argue that this is the life that Aw wanted to present but it was kind of frustrated and laborious. By no means a bad book, though.
jessrock's review against another edition
4.0
I don't normally rave to people about books I'm still in the middle of reading, but while I was making my way through Five Star Billionaire, I couldn't stop bringing it up in conversations to tell people how much I was enjoying it. It felt like a five-stars-with-exclamation-point book for me; in spite of being a book that rotates through the points of view of multiple main characters, I felt invested in each and was equally eager to learn more about what would happen to each one. It's a shame that the book ends so abruptly, because the disappointment of getting to the last page and thinking "That's it? That can't possibly be it, there must be another chapter yet" shut me up about this book in a hurry.
The main characters in Five Star Billionaire are all Malaysian by birth but are living in Shanghai. One grew up in poverty and has moved there to try to improve her job prospects and find a rich boyfriend; one grew up in a wealthy family and has been sent there to manage a job for the family business; one grew up middle-class in a family with political ties and has moved there to start a new life as a businesswoman after things turn sour for her family in Malaysia; and the last grew up in an impoverished, abusive home, became a rock star after being discovered on an "Idol" type reality singing show, and finds himself trapped in Shanghai after his drunken antics cause his tour to be cancelled prematurely. In the background is also the shadowy five-star billionaire of the title, whose story is told in brief interludes between the main chapters.
For much of the book, the main characters' stories do not intersect at all, and what we really feel is how isolating and exhausting it can be to live in a huge, wealth- and appearance-obsessed city, especially as an outsider who hasn't lived there long. For quite a while, I thought the characters might actually have nothing to do with each other or would cross paths only incidentally, and that actually felt right for this book; it didn't bother me to think that Five Star Billionaire wouldn't follow the typical pattern of gradually interweaving the different characters' lives. However, the characters do begin to meet each other, and their intersecting backstories are also revealed, and immediately the book stops being about the impersonal city and draws us into human relationships. We begin to cheer on the various romances and business partnerships; Shanghai is no longer impersonal and overwhelming; we can see how everyone could end up happy after all. I think this is the reason that the abrupt ending, which leaves not a single personal or professional relationship satisfied, feels so inadequate and frustrating. It's as if [a:Tash Aw|140377|Tash Aw|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1243908136p2/140377.jpg] really did want this book to be, all along, about isolation, but he teased us with a different novel halfway through and never provided a satisfactory conclusion to that book.
The main characters in Five Star Billionaire are all Malaysian by birth but are living in Shanghai. One grew up in poverty and has moved there to try to improve her job prospects and find a rich boyfriend; one grew up in a wealthy family and has been sent there to manage a job for the family business; one grew up middle-class in a family with political ties and has moved there to start a new life as a businesswoman after things turn sour for her family in Malaysia; and the last grew up in an impoverished, abusive home, became a rock star after being discovered on an "Idol" type reality singing show, and finds himself trapped in Shanghai after his drunken antics cause his tour to be cancelled prematurely. In the background is also the shadowy five-star billionaire of the title, whose story is told in brief interludes between the main chapters.
For much of the book, the main characters' stories do not intersect at all, and what we really feel is how isolating and exhausting it can be to live in a huge, wealth- and appearance-obsessed city, especially as an outsider who hasn't lived there long. For quite a while, I thought the characters might actually have nothing to do with each other or would cross paths only incidentally, and that actually felt right for this book; it didn't bother me to think that Five Star Billionaire wouldn't follow the typical pattern of gradually interweaving the different characters' lives. However, the characters do begin to meet each other, and their intersecting backstories are also revealed, and immediately the book stops being about the impersonal city and draws us into human relationships. We begin to cheer on the various romances and business partnerships; Shanghai is no longer impersonal and overwhelming; we can see how everyone could end up happy after all. I think this is the reason that the abrupt ending, which leaves not a single personal or professional relationship satisfied, feels so inadequate and frustrating. It's as if [a:Tash Aw|140377|Tash Aw|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1243908136p2/140377.jpg] really did want this book to be, all along, about isolation, but he teased us with a different novel halfway through and never provided a satisfactory conclusion to that book.
fushmush's review against another edition
2.0
Meh. I'm feeling a bit meh about this book.
Firstly, it was a really long and slow. We are introduced to the characters and I feel like I was almost halfway through the book before we begin to see a connection between them.
Secondly, I couldn't get a lock on the character of Walter. He appears in several of the timelines and seems like a different person in each one. He seems confident and secure in Yinghui, needy and unsure in Phoebe's timeline and practical and pragmatic in the story of his father. I didn't understand why he was with Phoebe and why he was pursuing her.
The thing I really struggled with was the revenge story line. It's sign posted quite early on that he is going to shaft Yinghui. I didn't understand why Walter would care so much about destroying her. The Walter in his father's timeline was baffled by his father's harebrained schemes. His father buys the hotel and it is not a good investment. The father then continues with some ridiculous ideas (renovating it all himself, birds nest collecting) before the hotel is acquired in a buy back scheme. The whole revenge plot being based on that one meeting with Sixth Uncle and teenager Justin (who is ignoring the meeting... because he is a teenager!) and the phone call with Linghui's Dad seems a bit thin. I would have been convinced if there was more development with Walter's emotions about this but we just get this one chapter.
I didn't hate it but I didn't really like it either.
lisagray68's review against another edition
3.0
I guess I didn't really get this book. It was an easy and enjoyable enough read, and maybe it is just that I don't get the culture of Shanghai, which is possible. But it all seemed like a bunch of loose ends for me at the end. First, the book seemed like it was way longer than it needed to be - and then when it finally DID end, it didn't tie up any of the loose ends for me. I did love the place setting of Shanghai and learning about life in that city, but I wanted more from the characters.
perednia's review against another edition
4.0
The tale of the up-and-down fortunes of five people trying their luck in Shanghai may not make the Booker Prize shortlist, but Tash Aw’s Five Star Billionaire is an entertaining tale that sheds light on the universal human desire to be countedl.
Phoebe is a young woman who has recently arrived in bustling Shanghai to try her luck. Things appear to be going her way when a rich woman drops her ID card at a coffee shop. Between that and the self-help advice she reads, such as the adages in a book called Five Star Billionaire, Phoebe just knows she’ll make it.
Justin is already near the top. His family has been rich for generations, owning and developing property. He’s the one picked in his generation to be the fixer, the one who makes sure things get done. His whole life is work -- meetings, society appearances, travel, paperwork. Not like his brother the hipster and his girlfriend, who owns a cafe but doesn’t even know how to read a ledger.
Yinhui has worked hard as well, and is now a successful businesswoman with several ongoing ventures. Her life revolves around work as well, and she is poised to become even more successful.
Gary has come from nothing and nowhere to be a huge pop music sensation. Winning a talent show and then going on to make hit after chart-topping hit, his life is controlled every minute in service to his career and those screaming girls who adore him.
Walter is the Five Star Billionaire author and a character who lives in the shadows. He is the cog in this story that sets things going and, as his story is eventually revealed, his reasons are made clear.
Written much in the style of a Kate Atkinson multiple narrative, the connections among the characters draw them into each other’s stories. Propelling them all is the other main character in the novel -- Shanghai. It is sprawling, it is tightly packed, it rewards the ruthless and robs the trusting. Stopping to smell the roses is not recommended in a cutthroat, fast-paced world.
Shanghai is as mysterious and unforgiving in Aw’s novel as it is in Bo Caldwell’s Distant Land of My Father, a brilliant story of sophistication and survival that encompasses WWII, and Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans, a flawed but fascinating novel with settings that include the International Settlement in Old Shanghai and a fantastical city that could not exist in reality, but which seems to be mirrored in Five Star Billionaire.
In Aw’s novel, Shanghai is not just the exotic locale it often is to Westerners. This ultra-competitive world is recognizable to anyone who sees the way that financial success is deemed the ultimate goal for so many in today’s world. The goal of making money for its own sake, for respect and to get even with anyone who tried to hold you down is as much a part of American society as it is in Shanghai.
The grace of Five Star Billionaire is that the human motives behind the drive to succeed, and the wanting to connect with other human beings even if it takes time away from a business meeting, underlies the story arc of each character.
Phoebe is a young woman who has recently arrived in bustling Shanghai to try her luck. Things appear to be going her way when a rich woman drops her ID card at a coffee shop. Between that and the self-help advice she reads, such as the adages in a book called Five Star Billionaire, Phoebe just knows she’ll make it.
Justin is already near the top. His family has been rich for generations, owning and developing property. He’s the one picked in his generation to be the fixer, the one who makes sure things get done. His whole life is work -- meetings, society appearances, travel, paperwork. Not like his brother the hipster and his girlfriend, who owns a cafe but doesn’t even know how to read a ledger.
Yinhui has worked hard as well, and is now a successful businesswoman with several ongoing ventures. Her life revolves around work as well, and she is poised to become even more successful.
Gary has come from nothing and nowhere to be a huge pop music sensation. Winning a talent show and then going on to make hit after chart-topping hit, his life is controlled every minute in service to his career and those screaming girls who adore him.
Walter is the Five Star Billionaire author and a character who lives in the shadows. He is the cog in this story that sets things going and, as his story is eventually revealed, his reasons are made clear.
Written much in the style of a Kate Atkinson multiple narrative, the connections among the characters draw them into each other’s stories. Propelling them all is the other main character in the novel -- Shanghai. It is sprawling, it is tightly packed, it rewards the ruthless and robs the trusting. Stopping to smell the roses is not recommended in a cutthroat, fast-paced world.
Shanghai is as mysterious and unforgiving in Aw’s novel as it is in Bo Caldwell’s Distant Land of My Father, a brilliant story of sophistication and survival that encompasses WWII, and Kazuo Ishiguro’s When We Were Orphans, a flawed but fascinating novel with settings that include the International Settlement in Old Shanghai and a fantastical city that could not exist in reality, but which seems to be mirrored in Five Star Billionaire.
In Aw’s novel, Shanghai is not just the exotic locale it often is to Westerners. This ultra-competitive world is recognizable to anyone who sees the way that financial success is deemed the ultimate goal for so many in today’s world. The goal of making money for its own sake, for respect and to get even with anyone who tried to hold you down is as much a part of American society as it is in Shanghai.
The grace of Five Star Billionaire is that the human motives behind the drive to succeed, and the wanting to connect with other human beings even if it takes time away from a business meeting, underlies the story arc of each character.
krismarley's review against another edition
4.0
I was relieved Aw connects the characters' lives sooner rather than later in 5 Star Billionaire. At first I worried that I had signed myself up for 400 pages of sad, lonely short stories. I think the limited ability to preview ahead is an unfortunate hazard of eReading.
Thoroughly enjoyed but one complaint... Phoebe several times references a book called Why Men Love Bitches, which provides her advice not at all similar to the advice as found in real life required reading, [b:Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl - A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship|46191|Why Men Love Bitches From Doormat to Dreamgirl - A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship|Sherry Argov|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388180512s/46191.jpg|2572759] by [a:Sherry Argov|25840|Sherry Argov|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1210822398p2/25840.jpg].
Love all the alternate covers! Can't decide on one favorite!
Thoroughly enjoyed but one complaint... Phoebe several times references a book called Why Men Love Bitches, which provides her advice not at all similar to the advice as found in real life required reading, [b:Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl - A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship|46191|Why Men Love Bitches From Doormat to Dreamgirl - A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship|Sherry Argov|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388180512s/46191.jpg|2572759] by [a:Sherry Argov|25840|Sherry Argov|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1210822398p2/25840.jpg].
Love all the alternate covers! Can't decide on one favorite!