★★☆☆☆ The clothes crazy rich people wear

Crazy Rich Asians

Kevin Kawn

I just hated this, for one very specific reason -- the clothing. I don't much care about the things people wear. Kevin Kwan does, and the characters of Crazy Rich Asians do, too, possibly even more than Kwan himself. There is a plot somewhere in here, and, I suspect, some not entirely uninteresting characters. But they are so buried in long technical descriptions of clothing, and of the culture of high-end expensive clothing. Since I understand French, the word "couture" was not unfamiliar to me -- it is just French for "sewing". But in Crazy Rich Asians "couture" is not just sewing -- it is a totally obnoxious culture of snobbery and exploitation around custom-made clothing.

Crazy Rich Asians reminded me of nothing so much as those detective/war/zombie novels in which the protagonists spend an enormous amount of time fondling guns, and every gun is described in loving, almost pornographic detail. I don't like those either. But, in terms of the time and attention spent describing the objects of lust, Crazy Rich Asians was even worse than the ammosexual novels.

This sort of thing obviously appeals to some readers. Likewise, I know there are folks out there who are happy to read long, technical exclamation-point-laden descriptions of expensive clothing. You know who you are. If that is you, take my two-star rating as a five-star.

For some reason that I could not possibly now explain (this was five years ago) I went on to read the second book in the series, China Rich Girlfriend. It was even worse.

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