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A review by book_concierge
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
2.0
Book on CD read by Lynn Chenn
2.5**
NYU Economics professor and PhD, Rachel Chu has sworn off Asian men. But then her good friend introduces her to the new history professor, Nicholas Young, who transferred from Oxford. They hit it off and after dating for a couple of years he invites her to join him during their summer break for a visit back to Singapore, where he’s to be best man at his best friend’s wedding. Rachel has no idea what she’s getting into. Nick is the scion of an ultra rich, and extremely private OLD money Singapore family.
Okay I knew it was chick-lit going into it, and of course I’ve seen the incessant trailers for the movie. Sounded like a fun, quick, breezy beach-read kinda book.
But I have to say that I really hated most of these characters. Rachel and Nick were okay but Kwan does little to really explore their relationship. Every time I thought we’d get to something important regarding the two of them, the story was side tracked to Nick’s cousin Astrid and her marital problems, or to his crazy mother and her friends, or to the crazily jealous “bridesmaids” of the aforementioned wedding party. (Talk about bachelor and bachelorette parties from hell!) I also got tired of all the “product placements” for designer this and designer that … much of which was lost on me. Not impressed.
And then it ends with basically nothing resolved …. WTF?! I’ll just put on my Walgreen’s sunglasses and Kohl’s sandals and enjoy a different book at the beach. (Though I might still go to the movie on $5 Tuesday …)
P.S. At the risk of sounding as shallow as most of these characters … for a book about the ultra rich who are SOOooo concerned about the latest fashions, this has got to have the ugliest cover EVER. Though, if you wanted to judge the book by the cover .. you wouldn’t be far off.
Lynn Chenn does a pretty good job of the audio performance. But she didn’t have very good material to start with. At least she moved along at a brisk pace. Her accents were all over the place and I found them distracting, but I think she was trying to differentiate all the many characters.
2.5**
NYU Economics professor and PhD, Rachel Chu has sworn off Asian men. But then her good friend introduces her to the new history professor, Nicholas Young, who transferred from Oxford. They hit it off and after dating for a couple of years he invites her to join him during their summer break for a visit back to Singapore, where he’s to be best man at his best friend’s wedding. Rachel has no idea what she’s getting into. Nick is the scion of an ultra rich, and extremely private OLD money Singapore family.
Okay I knew it was chick-lit going into it, and of course I’ve seen the incessant trailers for the movie. Sounded like a fun, quick, breezy beach-read kinda book.
But I have to say that I really hated most of these characters. Rachel and Nick were okay but Kwan does little to really explore their relationship. Every time I thought we’d get to something important regarding the two of them, the story was side tracked to Nick’s cousin Astrid and her marital problems, or to his crazy mother and her friends, or to the crazily jealous “bridesmaids” of the aforementioned wedding party. (Talk about bachelor and bachelorette parties from hell!) I also got tired of all the “product placements” for designer this and designer that … much of which was lost on me. Not impressed.
And then it ends with basically nothing resolved …. WTF?! I’ll just put on my Walgreen’s sunglasses and Kohl’s sandals and enjoy a different book at the beach. (Though I might still go to the movie on $5 Tuesday …)
P.S. At the risk of sounding as shallow as most of these characters … for a book about the ultra rich who are SOOooo concerned about the latest fashions, this has got to have the ugliest cover EVER. Though, if you wanted to judge the book by the cover .. you wouldn’t be far off.
Lynn Chenn does a pretty good job of the audio performance. But she didn’t have very good material to start with. At least she moved along at a brisk pace. Her accents were all over the place and I found them distracting, but I think she was trying to differentiate all the many characters.