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3.21 AVERAGE
3.21 AVERAGE
"Stanley Huang sat, naked but for the thin cotton dressing gown crumpled against the sterile white paper in the hospital room, and listened to the young doctor describe how he would die."
~Kathy Wang,
Family Trust
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First of all this cover is stunning! I'm always a sucker for a pretty cover. And in this case its just as good inside as out!
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This was an enthralling and poignant book!
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A carefully drawn out family drama about a well off Chinese/American family, the father of which has just been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and we get to see how this will affect everyone.
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Thoes opening lines really grabbed me! And because of that I read this rather quickly. It was a very engrossing and juicy family drama. Well written and told from multiple POV which can sometimes be not great but I found Wang did an excellent job. I also found the characters not very likeable but pretty interesting , great character development. Proving this authors talent.
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For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
~Kathy Wang,
Family Trust
•
First of all this cover is stunning! I'm always a sucker for a pretty cover. And in this case its just as good inside as out!
•
This was an enthralling and poignant book!
•
A carefully drawn out family drama about a well off Chinese/American family, the father of which has just been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and we get to see how this will affect everyone.
•
Thoes opening lines really grabbed me! And because of that I read this rather quickly. It was a very engrossing and juicy family drama. Well written and told from multiple POV which can sometimes be not great but I found Wang did an excellent job. I also found the characters not very likeable but pretty interesting , great character development. Proving this authors talent.
•
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
I feel like something was missing. I couldn’t quite connect to the characters as well as I’d like, especially one that revolves around a family dynamic.
It felt like too much time was taken to flush out Fred and Kate’s life and careers, versus sticking to the main story line of their father dying and everyone working out his trust/will. His wife Mary had (I think) one chapter thrown in from her perspective, and I’m not sure it added any value to what was already created.
Out of the 386 pages of this book, about half could be cut to shorten and improve the focus of this story.
The only person I found intriguing that I wanted to learn more about was Linda.
It felt like too much time was taken to flush out Fred and Kate’s life and careers, versus sticking to the main story line of their father dying and everyone working out his trust/will. His wife Mary had (I think) one chapter thrown in from her perspective, and I’m not sure it added any value to what was already created.
Out of the 386 pages of this book, about half could be cut to shorten and improve the focus of this story.
The only person I found intriguing that I wanted to learn more about was Linda.
This was a book I finished during finals, so here goes a difficult memory...refreshingly funny, with a pretty good handle on the ridiculous opinions of many characters. I never quite believed Wang was taking them seriously, but she respected each person enough to at least explain why they came to such delusions about wealth, familial duty, and the meaning(s) of life.
I enjoyed the interchanges of knowledge from the various generations, and found this to be a helpful way to tell a difficult backstory without it becoming too overwhelming. I do wish we’d heard from Mary earlier on in the novel, because I think she gets a bit shortchanged due to how much we associate her with her husband.
However, this comes together quite well in the end, almost entirely due to the twists of fate and fortune that we receive from Linda and Fred’s final stories. I especially am a fan of the email commentary here—can’t wait to read more of the senior-citizen snark in her future novels!
I enjoyed the interchanges of knowledge from the various generations, and found this to be a helpful way to tell a difficult backstory without it becoming too overwhelming. I do wish we’d heard from Mary earlier on in the novel, because I think she gets a bit shortchanged due to how much we associate her with her husband.
However, this comes together quite well in the end, almost entirely due to the twists of fate and fortune that we receive from Linda and Fred’s final stories. I especially am a fan of the email commentary here—can’t wait to read more of the senior-citizen snark in her future novels!
Did not think any of these characters were likable at all and their obnoxious actions were a huge barrier to me liking this book. I'm sure it's realistic but I couldn't enjoy it. Not helped by the fact that I let this book drag on for a few weeks.
3.75
Don’t think I will write a longer review, but I really enjoyed this, even though at times it did feel excessively drawn out (especially towards the last quarter of the book). As far as family drama goes, Family trust sets up very interesting dynamics by exploring the daily lives of the members of a wealthy Chinese-American family settled in the Silicon Valley. I don’t think the comparisons to Crazy Rich Asians are spot on though, as Family Trust is more subtle in its exploration of the characters’ relationships and views.
Don’t think I will write a longer review, but I really enjoyed this, even though at times it did feel excessively drawn out (especially towards the last quarter of the book). As far as family drama goes, Family trust sets up very interesting dynamics by exploring the daily lives of the members of a wealthy Chinese-American family settled in the Silicon Valley. I don’t think the comparisons to Crazy Rich Asians are spot on though, as Family Trust is more subtle in its exploration of the characters’ relationships and views.
I enjoyed some characters’ stories much more than others. Some characters felt a little half baked to me.
This was a very well-written family drama. Think of it as a much more adult The Wangs vs. the World.
I was surprised to find how real these characters are, and I guess that's a testament to the author. I am excited and looking forward to Kathy Wang's next release!
I was surprised to find how real these characters are, and I guess that's a testament to the author. I am excited and looking forward to Kathy Wang's next release!
This is the problem with writing a social satire - you risk making everyone too deeply unpleasant for readers to really get into it. I suppose Kate was meant to be the sympathetic one? And Linda the bolshy and awesome fun imperious older woman who gets shit done. Everyone else, though, could go hang. Also... the scam plot that emerged towards the last third of the novel was WEIRD.
I liked this book much better than I expected. Perhaps all the ho-hum reviews set the bar low. But being from the area describes in the book, it was spot on illustrating the culture of Sand Hill Rd, tech bros, and American Born Chinese. Linda was my favorite character and I’m glad to see Camille made a friend.
(Won through a Goodreads giveaway! Thank you to William Morrow for sending me a free ARC.)
3.5 stars.
The Crazy Rich Asians comparisons are inevitable, but despite surface similarities (Asian characters and culture, some discussion of class and business, family in-fighting over money and pride; in this case, an upper middle-class Silicon Valley family with a dying patriarch) it’s a very different kind of story. Unlike CRA, Family Trust (a fitting and clever play on words, including both the explicit and implicit themes that lay within - both the financial and the emotional) is as much about interpersonal relationships as it is individual struggles, its cultural values (filial duty, frugality, etc) not in-your-face but still very much present. It also touches on other, more Western topics, particularly through Fred’s and Kate’s eyes — #MeToo (though not in those words), millenial culture in general, diversity quotas, bro culture, various models of family and of romantic relationships, racial discrimination in dating, ambition, creativity and intellectual property — which gives it an Asian-American perspective that I liked.
The book seemed equally plot- and character-driven, which left me feeling a little lukewarm. To be quite honest, I sympathized with but couldn’t really relate to any of the characters, even though the locations mentioned and several of the situations are quite familiar: San Jose, Kaiser Permanente, Asian (grand)mother network, just to name a few. (Points for the super strong sense of setting, though! Each familiar name is like a friendly little smile and wave from home.)
As a Taiwanese-American girl who grew up in the Silicon Valley/SF Bay Area, I was definitely super excited to read this book, and I wasn’t disappointed.
3.5 stars.
The Crazy Rich Asians comparisons are inevitable, but despite surface similarities (Asian characters and culture, some discussion of class and business, family in-fighting over money and pride; in this case, an upper middle-class Silicon Valley family with a dying patriarch) it’s a very different kind of story. Unlike CRA, Family Trust (a fitting and clever play on words, including both the explicit and implicit themes that lay within - both the financial and the emotional) is as much about interpersonal relationships as it is individual struggles, its cultural values (filial duty, frugality, etc) not in-your-face but still very much present. It also touches on other, more Western topics, particularly through Fred’s and Kate’s eyes — #MeToo (though not in those words), millenial culture in general, diversity quotas, bro culture, various models of family and of romantic relationships, racial discrimination in dating, ambition, creativity and intellectual property — which gives it an Asian-American perspective that I liked.
The book seemed equally plot- and character-driven, which left me feeling a little lukewarm. To be quite honest, I sympathized with but couldn’t really relate to any of the characters, even though the locations mentioned and several of the situations are quite familiar: San Jose, Kaiser Permanente, Asian (grand)mother network, just to name a few. (Points for the super strong sense of setting, though! Each familiar name is like a friendly little smile and wave from home.)
As a Taiwanese-American girl who grew up in the Silicon Valley/SF Bay Area, I was definitely super excited to read this book, and I wasn’t disappointed.