Friday, September 21, 2018

Audiobook Review: Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan

Series:     Crazy Rich Asians #1
Pub. Date:June 11, 2013
Publisher:Random House Audio
Narrator:Lynn Chen
Length:13 hrs 53 min
Source:Overdrive/Library

This book is a little out of my typical genre, but the previews for the movie piqued my interest so I thought I would give it a shot. I didn't know quite what to think at first, but I warmed to the book as I got more into it and got invested in a few of the characters.

I will say that this book is somewhat difficult to follow in audio in the beginning, as there are just so many people and names being thrown around. But once the main characters are clearly established and you know who to focus on, things got easier and I ended up enjoying it.

So this story is mainly following the Young family, specifically Kevin Young, and his girlfriend, Rachel Chu. Kevin has been dating Rachel for about two years, but he has never really told her about his family, or their extreme wealth. So when she agrees to spend the summer with him among family in Singapore, Rachel will be unexpectedly thrown into a new and cruel world to which she is not accustomed. We will see a detailed account of how the Young family treats outsiders, particularly those they deem not good enough. Most of the Youngs are money and lineage-obsessed, as it seems is most of Singapore.

Kevin, and his sister Astrid, don't quite fit the Young mold. Kevin seemed to be willfully blind to his family's faults and ideals... and I couldn't quite get a grasp on how Astrid felt about her family in this book. Though, through both siblings, we will see the disastrous effects the family ideals have on the children's lives. I was amazed by the judgmental and ostentatious attitude that most of the family had, and a few of them I just wanted to push into a big ol' mud puddle!

I know this is supposed to be a comedy, but I don't know that it met its comedic mark in the audio version. I just found most of the people to be incredibly rude and held them in great contempt. I think that the movie may be able to express some additional artistic license with these characters to make them more humorous. But I was more focused on the tragic effect the family had on Astrid and Kevin.

Maybe I will come back and do a comparison once I've seen the movie. Stay tuned.

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