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Jun 03, 2019Liselara rated this title 0.5 out of 5 stars
When I picked this up at the library, I had no idea what this was: A book, certainly, but a novel? I was scratching my head trying to figure this thing out: no plot, about 100 characters (the author was kind enough to provide a family tree but even that was too much to read), and no real chapters, just sections containing anything from a bunch of text messages, to articles, and vignettes. Footnotes are something I despise although I will agree that in some education presses, you don't have a choice. In a "story", it's just laziness demonstrating that the author doesn't even know how to work these things into his own manuscript. When I finally looked it up on the public library online, it said it was the third book in a triology starting with Crazy Rich Asians. Was that one written in the same style? Perhaps this is the way Asian authors write successful books? I found nothing in common with any of the characters and I wasn't sure if this was comedy, satire, slapstick or drama but whatever it is, I didn't find it cohesive enough to want to read another one. Clearly Kwan can write because I did indeed finish it and I don't mind when authors stray from mainstream - that's creative license - but clearly I need to see that first movie.