The Mutual Friend by Carter Bays
Publisher: Dutton
Publication Date: June 7, 2022
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
From the co-creator of How I Met Your Mother, a hilarious and thought-provoking debut novel set in New York City, following an unforgettable cast of characters as they navigate life, love, loss, ambition, and spirituality—without ever looking up from their phones
It’s the summer of 2015, and Alice Quick needs to get to work. She’s twenty-eight years old, grieving her mother, barely scraping by as a nanny, and freshly kicked out of her apartment. If she can just get her act together and sign up for the MCAT, she can start chasing her dream of becoming a doctor . . . but in the Age of Distraction, the distractions are so distracting. There’s her tech millionaire brother’s religious awakening. His picture-perfect wife’s emotional breakdown. Her chaotic new roommate’s thirst for adventure. And, of course, there’s the biggest distraction of all: love.
From within the story of one summer in one woman’s life, a tapestry of characters is unearthed, tied to one another by threads both seen and unseen. Filled with all the warmth, humor, and heart that gained How I Met Your Mother its cult following, The Mutual Friend captures in sparkling detail the chaos of contemporary life—a life lived simultaneously in two different worlds, the physical one and the one behind our screens—and reveals how connected we all truly are.
The Mutual Friend was a funny, yet scarily realistic look at how much social media and the internet control our lives and distract us. I chose it because it’s written by the co-creator of How I Met Your Mother and I love that show.
Alice Quick posted on Facebook three years ago that she was going to medical school. It’s time for her to bite the bullet and actually study for and take the MCAT. After all, tons of people liked that post. But there are so many distractions, like making the perfect Spotify playlist for when she is studying. Her new roommate Roxy, who has the attention span of a gnat and her nose permanently in her phone, is not helping. She is always twisting Alice’s arm to go to a party or somewhere else.
There are a lot of supporting characters too. It’s one of those books where you know they all end up being tied to each other in one way or another even though it doesn’t seem like it at first. The connections the author made between them were really clever. The internet is a small world!
This book was my book club’s May selection and it got mixed reviews. A couple of us – like me – loved it. Others thought it was too slow. I thought it started out slow but drew me in as I kept reading. I could totally relate to Alice and Roxy – I have a social media addiction that I’m constantly fighting. TikTok is my latest obsession! I’m glad I put my phone down long enough to read this book.
Recommended.
July 6th, 2023 in
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You Can’t Be Serious by Kal Penn
Narrator: Kal Penn
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Release Date: November 02, 2021
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
The star of the Harold and Kumar franchise, House, and Designated Survivor recounts why he rejected the advice of his aunties and guidance counselors and, instead of becoming a doctor or “something practical,” embarked on a surprising journey that has included confronting racism in Hollywood, meeting his future husband, and working in the Obama administration, in this “incredibly joyful and insightful” (Kiefer Sutherland) memoir.
You Can’t Be Serious is a series of funny, consequential, awkward, and ridiculous stories from Kal Penn’s idiosyncratic life. It’s about being the grandson of Gandhian freedom fighters, and the son of immigrant parents: people who came to this country with very little and went very far—and whose vision of the American dream probably never included their son sliding off an oiled-up naked woman in the raunchy Ryan Reynolds movie Van Wilder…or getting a phone call from Air Force One as Kal flew with the country’s first Black president.
“By turns hilarious, poignant, and inspiring” (David Axelrod, New York Times bestselling author), Kal reflects on the most exasperating and rewarding moments from his journey so far. He pulls back the curtain on the nuances of opportunity and racism in the entertainment industry and recounts how he built allies, found encouragement, and dealt with early reminders that he might never fit in. He describes his initially unpromising first date with his now-fiancé Josh, involving an 18-pack of Coors Light and an afternoon of watching NASCAR. And of course, he reveals how, after a decade and a half of fighting for and enjoying successes in Hollywood, he made the terrifying but rewarding decision to take a sabbatical from a fulfilling acting career for an opportunity to serve his country as an Obama White House aide.
Above all, You Can’t Be Serious shows that everyone can have more than one life story. The book “is insightful, funny, and instructive for anyone who’s ever grappled with how they fit into the American dream” (Ronan Farrow, New York Times bestselling author), and demonstrates that no matter who you are and where you come from, you have many more choices than those presented to you. And okay, yes, it’s also about how Kal accidentally (and very stupidly) accepted an invitation to take the entire White House Office of Public Engagement to a strip club—because, let’s be honest, that’s the kind of stuff you really want to hear about.
You probably know Kal Penn best from his starring role in the Harold and Kumar movies. You were probably as surprised as I was when it was announced that he had taken a role as an advisor in the Obama administration. After reading this book, I’m not surprised at all.
The first part of the book is about how Kal got his start in Hollywood and oh my gosh, the overt, unabashed racism and sexism he encountered was astounding. I know the entertainment industry can be racist and sexist but I thought people perpetuating it were a little more subtle about it. But no – like the producer who told Kal he doesn’t hire “chicks” because he doesn’t want to deal with possible sexual harassment lawsuits. Instead of maybe just controlling himself and not being a jerk? Or the producer who said Joseph Gordon-Levitt would never get a job because he was too Asian. Said this to Kal, who is, hello? Also Asian! Kal was not afraid to call out people who treated him poorly. Most of the time, he doesn’t use names but I bet you could figure out who they were if you tried hard enough.
The next part of the book was about Kal’s time in the Obama administration, which totally makes sense to me now. He was taking an international studies course through Stanford at the time. He was a surrogate for Obama during the campaign and learned a lot so when Obama was elected, he applied for a job. He truly did get it on merit, not because he’s a movie star. His role was not symbolic, he actually made important decisions.
One thing that I thought was odd was that he didn’t talk about being gay at all, other than to briefly mention his first few dates with his finance Josh. Apparently, this book was the first time he publically stated that he’s gay. Since he wrote about his parents struggling with his decision to pursue a career in the arts instead of medicine or engineering like most Indian children, I thought he would also write about how they felt about his sexuality. I mean, it’s none of my business but I just thought it was a pretty big part of his life to leave out since he writes about other personal stuff.
He reads You Can’t Be Serious himself and I think that made it extra funny. He has a conversational style that was really engaging. Highly recommended.
July 3rd, 2023 in
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The Celebrants by Steven Rowley
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons
Publication Date: May 30, 2023
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
It’s been a minute—or five years—since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they’ve reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living—that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves.
But this reunion is different. They’re not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage crumbled, to lift Naomi after her parents died, or to intervene when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud. This time, Jordan is sitting on a secret that will upend their pact.
A deeply honest tribute to the growing pains of selfhood and the people who keep us going, coupled with Steven Rowley’s signature humor and heart, The Celebrants is a moving tale about the false invincibility of youth and the beautiful ways in which friendship helps us celebrate our lives, even amid the deepest challenges of living.
Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, Marielle and Alec were best friends at Berkley. When Alec dies before graduation, the rest of them make a pact that they will all have living funerals. That is, when one of them is needing support, they will call on the rest of them to gather for their “funeral.” That way, they get to hear all of the nice things their friends have to say about them versus waiting until their actual funeral when they would not be able to benefit from hearing them.
For instance, Marielle called the group together when she was going through a divorce and Craig’s funeral was because he was having some serious legal problems. Now Jorden has called them together but no one is sure why.
The friend group in The Celebrants is made up of friends who don’t actually do a very good job of keeping in touch in between funerals, but once they get together, they pick right up where they left off. I think we all have friends like that. You love them but sometimes life gets in the way.
Like The Guncle, The Celebrants is the perfect blend of humor and heartbreak. Steven Rowley is now on my automatic buy list for sure. Highly recommended.
Other books I’ve reviewed by Steven Rowley:
Lily and the Octopus
The Editor
The Guncle
(I received a complimentary copy of The Celebrants for review.)
June 29th, 2023 in
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Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell
Publisher: Harper Wave
Publication Date: June 15, 2021
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
The author of the widely praised Wordslut analyzes the social science of cult influence: how cultish groups from Jonestown and Scientology to SoulCycle and social media gurus use language as the ultimate form of power.
What makes “cults” so intriguing and frightening? What makes them powerful? The reason why so many of us binge Manson documentaries by the dozen and fall down rabbit holes researching suburban moms gone QAnon is because we’re looking for a satisfying explanation for what causes people to join—and more importantly, stay in—extreme groups. We secretly want to know: could it happen to me? Amanda Montell’s argument is that, on some level, it already has . . .
Our culture tends to provide pretty flimsy answers to questions of cult influence, mostly having to do with vague talk of “brainwashing.” But the true answer has nothing to do with freaky mind-control wizardry or Kool-Aid. In Cultish, Montell argues that the key to manufacturing intense ideology, community, and us/them attitudes all comes down to language. In both positive ways and shadowy ones, cultish language is something we hear—and are influenced by—every single day.
Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,” revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish” everywhere.
I’ve always been intrigued by cults and wondered why seemingly normal, intelligent people join them. Cultish explains how language has a lot to do with it. Each cult has its own language. A good example of this is Scientology with their “pre-clears” and “Thetans” and whatnot. Members feel special because they are in the know. They have been chosen to learn this special language that not everyone knows.
What I found most eye-opening is the chapters on multi-level marking companies (MLMs) and workout organizations like CrossFit. They both use the same language strategies that cults do. Some might argue that they are cults or at least as the book title says, cultish. Having been briefly part of an MLM myself, I can attest that they used every single ploy that Montell outlines in that chapter.
Cultish was a fascinating look at cults and their language. What I learned stuck with me and I think about it often.
Highly recommended.
June 26th, 2023 in
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I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Narrator: Jennette McCurdy
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
Release Date: August 09, 2022
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when she had her first acting audition. Her mother’s dream was for her only daughter to become a star, and Jennette would do anything to make her mother happy. So she went along with what Mom called “calorie restriction,” eating little and weighing herself five times a day. She endured extensive at-home makeovers while Mom chided, “Your eyelashes are invisible, okay? You think Dakota Fanning doesn’t tint hers?” She was even showered by Mom until age sixteen while sharing her diaries, email, and all her income.
In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly, she is thrust into fame. Though Mom is ecstatic, emailing fan club moderators and getting on a first-name basis with the paparazzi (“Hi Gale!”), Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing, which manifest into eating disorders, addiction, and a series of unhealthy relationships. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants.
Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.
Even though I didn’t know who Jennette McCurdy was (iCarly was way after my time), I heard so much buzz about this book, I had to read it. I’m so glad I did. Jennette reads the audiobook herself with an eerie detachment that made me want to keep listening. She is unflinchingly honest about what she shares and I imagine some detachment was necessary to keep from breaking down while reading it.
Her childhood was basically ruined by the hands of her narcissistic mother. Her mother had breast cancer when Jennette was very young and played the cancer card whenever she could to manipulate situations to her benefit. As a child, Jennette wanted to do everything she could to keep her mom happy. So that meant when her mom announced when Jennette was seven-years-old that Jennette was going to become an actress, she went along with it even though it made her nervous and uncomfortable. She taught Jennette how to be anorexic, setting her up for a lifetime of disordered eating – so she could stay small and young looking to get better acting jobs. She did a lot of other disturbing things too, like washing Jennette’s hair in the shower until she was eighteen years old – saying that Jennette didn’t know how to do it properly.
Because Jennette didn’t know any different, she doesn’t realize she was being abused by her mother until after her mom dies of a relapse of cancer. I totally get the title, even though it’s morbid sounding. I don’t know that she would have been able to get out from under her mother’s control without her death – at least not for a good long while.
Whether you’re a Jennette McCurdy fan or not, I’m Glad My Mom Died is a memoir worth reading.
Highly recommended.
June 22nd, 2023 in
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Know My Name by Chanel Miller
Narrator: Chanel Miller
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Publication Date: September 24, 2019)
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
She was known to the world as Emily Doe when she stunned millions with a letter. Brock Turner had been sentenced to just six months in county jail after he was found sexually assaulting her on Stanford’s campus. Her victim impact statement was posted on BuzzFeed, where it instantly went viral–viewed by eleven million people within four days, it was translated globally and read on the floor of Congress; it inspired changes in California law and the recall of the judge in the case. Thousands wrote to say that she had given them the courage to share their own experiences of assault for the first time.
Now she reclaims her identity to tell her story of trauma, transcendence, and the power of words. It was the perfect case, in many ways–there were eyewitnesses, Turner ran away, physical evidence was immediately secured. But her struggles with isolation and shame during the aftermath and the trial reveal the oppression victims face in even the best-case scenarios. Her story illuminates a culture biased to protect perpetrators, indicts a criminal justice system designed to fail the most vulnerable, and, ultimately, shines with the courage required to move through suffering and live a full and beautiful life.
Know My Name will forever transform the way we think about sexual assault, challenging our beliefs about what is acceptable and speaking truth to the tumultuous reality of healing. It also introduces readers to an extraordinary writer, one whose words have already changed our world. Entwining pain, resilience, and humor, this memoir will stand as a modern classic.
Chanel Miller is the woman that Brock Turner raped behind a dumpster while she was unconscious. The case sparked a national outcry when Turner was sentenced to just six months in the county jail. Chanel’s eloquent victim statement went viral, eventually leading to the recall of the judge that presided over the case.
Chanel reads the audiobook herself, which made listening to it just that much more heartbreaking and personal. Before I started, I wondered how she could get a whole book out of what happened – I was thinking there would maybe be enough material for a long magazine article. Boy, was I wrong. I was truly stunned by the amount of time she had to take out of her life to prepare for trial. It took over three years. During that time, she was also dealing with the trauma of the rape itself. There was no way she could hold down a job. I found myself wondering how any victim carries through with a rape trial – it takes a lot of time and energy.
One thing that surprised me was that Chanel became an amateur stand-up comedian as part of her healing journey. I looked for a clip online but I couldn’t find one – I’m really interested in seeing her act. I wonder if she’s still performing. I did watch a clip of her being interviewed by Trevor Noah on The Daily Show and was impressed with her sense of humor.
Chanel does a great job of pointing out how prevalent rape culture is. For instance, the focus of most “unbiased” news articles was on how Turner’s life would be impacted and wasn’t it a shame. Very little was about the impact on Chanel’s life. And Turner’s father said something like, “Brock shouldn’t be punished for the rest of his life for 20 minutes.” That made my stomach turn. No wonder Turner was so entitled as to think he could have his way with someone just because she was passed out.
Know My Name is an unflinchingly honest, important memoir. Highly recommended.
June 19th, 2023 in
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The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication Date: September 14, 2021
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
As a third-year Ph.D. candidate, Olive Smith doesn’t believe in lasting romantic relationships–but her best friend does, and that’s what got her into this situation. Convincing Anh that Olive is dating and well on her way to a happily ever after was always going to take more than hand-wavy Jedi mind tricks: Scientists require proof. So, like any self-respecting biologist, Olive panics and kisses the first man she sees.
That man is none other than Adam Carlsen, a young hotshot professor–and well-known ass. Which is why Olive is positively floored when Stanford’s reigning lab tyrant agrees to keep her charade a secret and be her fake boyfriend. But when a big science conference goes haywire, putting Olive’s career on the Bunsen burner, Adam surprises her again with his unyielding support and even more unyielding…six-pack abs.
Suddenly their little experiment feels dangerously close to combustion. And Olive discovers that the only thing more complicated than a hypothesis on love is putting her own heart under the microscope.
Olive, a biology Ph.D. student needs to convince her best friend Anh that she has a boyfriend. Anh is very interested in Jeremy, who Olive went on a couple of dates with but is not interested in at all. Despite Olive’s telling her to go for it with Jeremy, Anh refuses to break girl code. One night in the lab hallway, Olive sees Anh out of the corner of her eye and grabs the nearest guy and kisses him. That guy turns out to be Dr. Adam Carlsen, who is not only the most sought after professor in the department, he’s also the department’s biggest jerk. Even so, somehow, Olive convinces him to keep up the charade of their romance.
I’m not a huge romance reader but I’ve been hearing so many good things about this book, I had to check it out. And you guys were right! I love that the female protagonist has brains. It reminded me a little of Lessons in Chemistry in that it showed just how hard it is for women in STEM. Of course, that book took place in the 1960 and The Love Hypothesis is set in the present day. Not much has changed, unfortunately. Adam was a great character. He and Olive had palpable chemistry. I loved his sense of humor and his hidden sensitive side. I want him to be my fake boyfriend!
There is one spicy scene and it’s a doozy but my favorite part was actually not spicy and was towards the end- when Olive goes to the restaurant where Adam is having dinner with the Harvard faculty. I was swooning for him and had to reread it.
The Love Hypothesis is a cute take on the fake dating trope. I liked that the characters occasionally acknowledged that Olive’s situation was straight out of a rom-com – kind of giving a wink to the reader. This was the perfect summer read. Highly recommended.
June 15th, 2023 in
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The Patron Saint of Liars by Ann Patchett
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Publication Date: May 1, 1992
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
St. Elizabeth’s, a home for unwed mothers in Habit, Kentucky, usually harbors its residents for only a little while. Not so Rose Clinton, a beautiful, mysterious woman who comes to the home pregnant but not unwed, and stays. She plans to give up her child, thinking she cannot be the mother it needs. But when Cecilia is born, Rose makes a place for herself and her daughter amid St. Elizabeth’s extended family of nuns and an ever-changing collection of pregnant teenage girls. Rose’s past won’t be kept away, though, even by St. Elizabeth’s; she cannot remain untouched by what she has left behind, even as she cannot change who she has become in the leaving.
When Rose discovers she’s pregnant, she knows that she needs to get out of her marriage. She doesn’t love her husband or want to be married anymore and she doesn’t want to be a mother either. She sets off from California to Kentucky for a home for unwed mothers. She doesn’t tell her husband or her mother she’s pregnant or where she’s going – lies. She tells the nuns at the home that her husband died – a lie. Soon the lies are piling up.
I dug deep into my TBR shelves for this book. I loved Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House and have been meaning to read more of her books. The Patron Saint of Liars, which is her first book, did not disappoint. Patchett is a master of character development. I liked how each of the main characters had their own section in the book and their own unique voice. I felt like I knew them inside and out.
Highly recommended.
June 12th, 2023 in
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Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
Publisher: Penguin Press
Publication Date: October 4, 2022
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. His mother Margaret, a Chinese American poet, left without a trace when he was nine years old. He doesn’t know what happened to her—only that her books have been banned—and he resents that she cared more about her work than about him.
Then one day, Bird receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, and soon he is pulled into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of heroic librarians, and finally to New York City, where he will finally learn the truth about what happened to his mother, and what the future holds for them both.
Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice. It’s about the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children, and the power of art to create change.
In Our Missing Hearts, the United States government has convinced the public that all of America’s problems are China’s fault. Asian Americans of all descent are routinely harassed and assaulted, just like Muslims (or anyone who looked Muslim) were harassed and assaulted after 9/11. The government has passed a law called PACT (Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act). Anyone found in violation of that act, which is basically doing or saying anything that could be construed as anti-government, can have their children removed from their home permanently. Asians are especially under scrutiny for violations.
Bird, a twelve-year-old boy with an Asian mother and a white father, hasn’t seen his mother in years. Bird isn’t sure why and his dad says they just need to forget all about her. But Bird is on a quest to find her and find out why she left.
I know that I’m in the minority here but I was a little disappointed with Our Missing Hearts. I loved Ng’s previous two books and I was hoping to love this one too. I found the pacing to be too slow for a dystopian novel. I also wanted the ending to pack more of a punch. I did appreciate the social commentary – sometimes it seems like we’re not too far from enacting PACT in real life.
This was my book club’s pick for May and we all pretty much felt the same way about it. But from looking at the reviews online, we are the only ones in the world who didn’t love it. You should probably read it and make up your own mind.
Other books I’ve reviewed by Celeste Ng:
Everything I Never Told You
Little Fires Everywhere
June 8th, 2023 in
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Sex and Vanity: A Novel by Kevin Kwan
Publisher: Doubleday
Publication Date: June 30, 2020
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
On her very first morning on the jewel-like island of Capri, Lucie Churchill sets eyes on George Zao and she instantly can’t stand him. She can’t stand it when he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she can have a view of the Tyrrhenian Sea, she can’t stand that he knows more about Casa Malaparte than she does, and she really can’t stand it when he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa and they are caught by her snobbish, disapproving cousin Charlotte.
The daughter of an American-born Chinese mother and a blue-blooded New York father, Lucie has always sublimated the Asian side of herself in favor of the white side, and she adamantly denies having feelings for George. But several years later, when George unexpectedly appears in East Hampton, where Lucie is weekending with her new fiancé, Lucie finds herself drawn to George again. Soon, Lucie is spinning a web of deceit that involves her family, her fiancé, the co-op board of her Fifth Avenue apartment building, and, ultimately, herself as she tries mightily to deny George entry into her world—and her heart. Moving between summer playgrounds of privilege, peppered with decadent food and extravagant fashion, Sex and Vanity is a truly modern love story, a daring homage to A Room with a View, and a brilliantly funny comedy of manners set between two cultures.
Sex and Vanity bears a lot of similarities to Crazy Rich Asians but it mostly takes place in fabulous Capri and New York. Lucie Tang Churchill, the daughter of an American Born Chinese mother and white father, is invited to the wedding of her friend Isabel Chiu to Dolfi De Vecchi in Capri. It’s a multi-day affair with ultra–rich people from all over the world, not just Asia. Old money is forced to associate with new money, which can lead to some humorous interactions.
Lucie comes to Capri with her older cousin Charlotte as her chaperone. When they arrive they are put in the wrong hotel room – Charlotte had requested one with an ocean view. Rosemary Zao, an extremely wealthy woman from Hong Kong, overhears Charlotte complaining and offers to switch rooms with her, saying:
“…we come from Hong Kong, where our flat overlooks the harbor. And we have a house in Sydney, in Watsons Bay, where we can see whales do backflips, and another beach-front house in Hawaii, in Lanikai. We get to see the ocean till we’re sick of it, so this is nothing to us.”
Charlotte and most of the other wedding guests find Rosemary to be extremely gauche and are put off by her. To make matters worse, her son George is on the strange side and hardly speaks to anyone. Because of this, he seems mysterious to Lucie and she finds herself simultaneously repulsed by him and attracted to him. After an embarrassing incident, they part ways and don’t see each other again until several years later.
When George and Lucie meet again, Lucie is engaged to Cecil Pike, a world-class snob and social climber. Somehow Lucie can’t see it. I had trouble believing that Lucie, who is down to earth and not materialistic could love Cecil. And their sex life was weird. It seemed more like an arranged engagement to me. As you can probably guess, Lucie begins to have doubts about Cecil once George shows up in her life again.
Sex and Vanity has Kwan’s trademark snarky footnotes throughout, which I loved. It also has some serious things to say about race, which surprised me. Since Lucie is mixed race, she feels like she never quite fits in anywhere – she’s either too Chinese for white society or too white for Asian society. She experiences hurtful microaggressions because of that too.
I didn’t realize until after I read Sex and Vanity that it’s a tribute to A Room with a View by E.M. Forster. I’ve never read that book but now I want to. Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed the escapism in to the lives of crazy rich people that Kwan offers. Highly recommended.
June 5th, 2023 in
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