Kwan, like his characters, is more interested in the glitzy surface of the world he describes than the dark depths - his characters all speak with a similar, breezily conversational voice and fit certain well-worn stereotypes. Similarly, I have no patience for Carlton Bao’s feelings of guilt and self-pity over his act of manslaughter, considering no one ever suggests turning him in for it - and no one, not even the author, deigns to give the girl he killed a name. The trouble with telling a story about the world’s richest people is that they never seem to experience consequences Astrid Leong’s fortune, for instance, gives her an instant golden parachute when she’s had enough of her abusive marriage. It’s when the book goes for a more serious tone that it stumbles. Kwan speaks of this culture with the authoritative tone of an insider, and the best passages are his footnotes with anthropological analysis detailing the habits of various subspecies of “crazy rich Asians.” What I enjoyed most while reading “China Rich Girlfriend” were the moments of nihilistic glee at the self-absorption of the Chinese demimonde, the “American Psycho”-like obsession with designer brands and desirable addresses. But the soap opera is less important than the black comedy. The tangled genealogical web that connects the brooding Carlton Bao, the Singapore-socialite-turned-housewife Astrid Leong, the narcissistic social-media star Colette Bing, the odious social climber Kitty Pong and our unassuming Everywoman Rachel Chu becomes hard to follow. In this one? It’s just one of many high jinks that begin the wild tale of how Edison’s wealthy aunt learns that the scandalously middle-class woman her son is running away with - Rachel Chu, the protagonist of “Crazy Rich Asians” - is actually Carlton’s illegitimate half sister and heir to a bigger fortune than her own.
In a different novel, the sheer inhumanity of literally erasing a human being’s death would be the core theme. We follow the family banker, Edison Cheng, as he scrambles to move assets around to pay people off and protect Carlton from legal consequence, altering the official record so that the dead girl never existed. The opening event of the novel sets the tone: We learn that Carlton Bao, the scion of a billionaire family from mainland China, has gotten into a car accident in London and killed a girl. Well, if great wealth is a great crime, Kevin Kwan’s “China Rich Girlfriend,” a sequel to his 2013 “Crazy Rich Asians,” slots neatly into the grand tradition of true-crime narratives - those lurid paperbacks that aim to repulse and to fascinate, all in order to keep you turning the page. Proudhon said, “Property is theft” Balzac said, “Behind great fortunes without apparent cause lies a crime forgotten.”
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