Crazy Rich Asians (2013)

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan has recently been turned into a successful Hollywood movie, with the first ever all-Asian cast. The novel was a bestseller and was published in 2013 by Corvus in the US and later by Doubleday. I got hold of the Kindle edition as it was on offer for 99p. The novel is 538 pages long and divided into three parts. I'll briefly cover the writing style and key insights that I found refreshing in my reading. 

The novel is preceded by a disturbing yet fabulous prologue. Each part begins with a quote about the Chinese. The first two parts are divided into chapters that focus into specific characters, either one at a time or as a family. In this way we are gradually introduced to the key personages who make up the complex social dynamic of the novel. In the third part, the chapters are headed by location and the earlier characters are merged into mutual social situations. By focusing onto characters separately at the beginning, the novel reminded me of Shafak's The Forty Rules of Love, however Kwan's insights and style of writing are immensely more interesting and engaging. Through his unnamed narrator Kwan gives the reader selected snippets of information about given characters, sometimes choosing to flashback in time to contextualise their present circumstances. Kwan also includes lots of "Singlish" terminology and words from various Chinese dialects, but these terms and others are comprehensively explained in the footnotes. 

While this novel does have a central romantic couple, it does not feel like a romance in the conventional sense, because this couple's relationship has already been long established (two years) so there is little courting involved. Even so, the couple are (for me) quite likeable because they are mature (nearing 30) and are generally reasonable and sensible personalities. Nicholas's "fatal flaw" is his naivety but no one is perfect and this also drives the plot. 

As Kwan admits, his motive for writing this novel was to give Americans an insight into another lesser known reality of contemporary Asia. For this reason, the book works very much as a socio-cultural tour guide or travel book into the wealthy world of Singapore. There is a sense of it being more of a touristic adventure which allows the reader and Rachel (a Chinese-American) to gain an exclusive insight into a new culture, world and family. In some ways I felt that the extreme wealth of the Singaporeans functioned as some sort of magical powers (money is power, right?) and so it felt other-worldly and bordered on fantasy in my personal experience. This made it even more fun to read.  

Some of the issues that Kwan touches on include racial discrimination as well as social class and standing. He also explains the difference between Old Money and New Money Chinese families and how this is relevant historically as well as in contemporary circles. In this way I felt that I learnt a little about the history of China and its people, including their migration. We also quite quickly realise that Singaporeans love their food, which can result in some friendly argumentation. 

Overall, I found the writing to be dynamic and catchy. I was immediately gripped into the novel and felt like I was exploring a whole new world and culture. Despite being worlds apart to the protagonists, they still captured my interest and care, and Kwan competently deals with socio-political issues while maintaining a strong narrative and plot. I'm on the verge of buying the sequel, and I hope I won't be disappointed! 

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Have you read this novel or watched the film? What did you think of it? Comment your thoughts below, I'd love to hear what you thought. 

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The Forty Rules of Love (2009)

I finally bought a copy of The Forty Rules of Love, because kindle was offering it for 99p so I obviously had to download it. Elif's Shafak's novel was initially published in 2009 though I downloaded the 2015 edition published by Penguin. It is 350 pages long and divided into five parts, which are associated with the four elements and "The Void". I'll briefly summarise what the novel is about, and then share my thoughts on the writing style and some of the ideas expressed in the novel. 

The novel follows two plots. It begins with Ella, who is a wealthy middle-aged, (non-practising) Jewish American housewife with three children. She is at a turning point in her life as she takes up a job with a literary agency. Her first manuscript that she needs to report on is the source of the second plot, and it is a novel about Shams of Tabriz and Rumi, the renowned Sufi mystics of the 13th century. Ella is dissatisfied with her life and the manuscript and the author's words push her to view and experience life differently. 

In terms of structure and style, Shafak plays with the chronology of the two plots by firstly intertwining them but also by revealing scenes from the end at the beginning and then taking the reader through the journey of revealing how those initial decisions came to be made. I'm not sure if this was a good structural move for the Shams story. The novel within a novel Sweet Blasphemy is written through the perspectives of numerous characters, who are interconnected by circumstance. In doing so, it offers several people's engagement with faith and religion, varying from indifference and hopelessness to the "zealot" and the mystic, which are valuable in their own ways. 

However, despite creating these different characters, who speak in their own chapters, and who offer their own experiences (thus changing the content), the style of writing seems fairly unchanging. The lack of variation in these characterisations resulted in me not being able to really get invested in any of the characters. Also, each character's chapter is relatively short (even if we meet them several times) and so this limits one's attachment too. Ella's emails provided a slight change, but that may have also been because it was a change of plot too. So I mainly continued to read for the characterisations of Rumi and Shams of Tabriz, who are renowned personages outside of this novel and thus piqued my interest more greatly. 

The novel's main theme, as expressed in the title, is love. It explores the transformative powers of love (and not only romantic love) and it contextualises Shams of Tabriz's forty rules of love by engaging with various characters and human experiences. I think this is a really nice idea, though I am less convinced by the execution of this concept due to the writing style and some structural reservations. 

As well as love, Shafak clearly wants to write about faith and religion. I appreciate her nuanced viewpoints of this controversial and delicate subject (since in many ways religion is considered hugely problematic and almost taboo or backwards now). This is a brave topic to engage with and she provides her readers with an opportunity to look at religion with a more open-eyed approach. Despite this, I did have some reservations about a couple of her descriptions of Sufis, that I felt were problematic, such as a protagonist claiming to be "spiritual not religious" and that Sufis are "not violent even when they have a reason". I felt that these expressions in particular pander to Western expectations of Sufism so it suits them. The first one is problematic because it seems to absolve the likeable character of the "ugly" label of religion, when rather the label should not be considered ugly, as religion comprises of spirituality. The second is problematic because it implies that Sufis (the good guys in this book and the "good Muslims" in Western discourse) ought to be passive and pacifists, which removes their right to self-defence, for example. Later in the novel Shafak counters the second notion slightly by stating that "There's a difference between patience and passivity", which I agree with more. 

Overall, I found that the idea behind the novel was promising, but the execution of it was not to my liking. The writing took some getting used to and perhaps that may be partly because Shafak is not a native English speaker. I do not know if that is the case or rather because I personally did not find myself invested in the story or characters. Nevertheless Shafak shares the importance and universality of love and how it can break barriers and transform people from all backgrounds and experiences, including those most "disconnected" from the real world or notions of injustice. The praise this novel received no doubt created high expectations and I was somewhat let down. I would give it about 3 stars. 

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Have you read this novel? What did you think of it? Comment your thoughts on it below, I'd love to hear what you thought. 

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