With all of these Jewish holidays right near each other, I’ve found myself at a loss of things to do. My family is pretty religious and practicing so I’m extremely limited in cures for boredom, I can’t draw, watch TV, or go anywhere, I can’t even do homework (not that I would want to). I do, however, have two shelves lined from top to bottom with my all-time favorite books, we can refer to them as Bella does and call them the “young adult section”. The young adult section is filled with classics from my childhood, my moms, and my newer books. I even have a little section for comic books and graphic novels.
So anyway I saw a bright red book at the top of my shelf just calling my name, and I ended up rereading Crazy Rich Asians. Now you may remember the amazing movie that came out a few years ago based on the 2013 novel. But let me just tell you the movie has NOTHING on the book. The movie was great, it was hilarious and opulent and representation wise was phenomenal. The book is all of that and more. It’s hilarious and the way it talks about Chinese culture is so interesting. Every time you think you know where the plot is going, it finds a new way to surprise you. Not to mention the author has these little annotations throughout the book, for cultural context and just for fun, that are so cute and the random interjections really add to the comedy.
I think my favorite thing about the book has to be the characters though. Even the ones you hate are actually fun to actively hate. Each one is so unique and has so much depth even if they show up for like half a scene randomly. I think my favorite character is probably Oliver T’sien, he’s a gossiping art expert from London and he helps the main character, Rachel figure out the crazy rich world she’s been swept up into. Every piece of dialogue he has is absolutely hilarious and he’s not afraid to just trash his own family. But behind his gossipy front, he’s quite the mastermind manipulator. He just kind of shows up in a scene toward the beginning of the book and comes back at important moments.
Like I said before it’s also a ton of fun to hate the characters. A lot of them are really entitled, snobby, and just all-around mean. Though the book is quite poetic in making sure bad things happen to bad people, all well deserved and executed in a perfect and ironic way.
The books also just kind of randomly switches perspectives from character to character to best describe a scene from all sides. And though that may sound annoying, the distinct ideas and tone of each character make it easy to follow. Plus I think it’s cool to see how each completely different character sees an event play out and reacts to it. In summary, it’s just a really great book, and now I desperately want to go to Singapore!
What books have you been reading lately?
Omg I love this book!! I'm procrastinating getting the rest of the series because I almost don't want it to end, if that even makes sense. But yes! You do have your own "Young Adult Section" and one of these days I will rob you.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I never really read outside of school work but sometimes when I hear of people reading books and enjoying them I question why I never really read. Stories like the one you just described are fun to get into. Seems like you really enjoyed the book and I'm happy to see that you found a way to occupy yourself over the holidays.
ReplyDelete