A book with an over- the- top view
Can Kevin Kwan do for Capri when w he did Singapore? Well, WW yeah, I should say. The master of the 24- karat novel and modern- day Thackeray — dude who sired the “Crazy Rich Asians” trilogy returned this week with ww his latest froth. Titled Sex and Vanity” — still rich, still crazy, a teeny bit less Asian AA it swivels around the character cc of Lucie Tang Chur- chill, c young, mixed- race Asian- American lass whose family f — well, one- half — traces itself back to Mayflower snoots.
And the starting gun for this one? The ooh- la- la wedding of
the season, held on the soulstirring coast of Italy, entre son of an Italian count and a Taiwanese TT heiress. Lucie is the t list and trouble ( naturally) ensues.
The inspiration? Well, not- sosubtly, classic “A Room With WW a View” ( turned into a memorable coming- of- age film with Helena Bonham Carter in 1985). As Kwan confirmed to me this week in an email exchange, his newest was very much mm meant as a selfie- era homage to it.
“E. M. Forster,” he wrote, “has been one of my favourite authors since I was a teenager,
and like has done for lot of people, ‘ A Room with A View’ made me want to visit Italy in the tt first place. Then, on my
f visit Italy I only man- aged to spend a single day Capri, but was so overwhelmed ww by its beauty that I swore s I would be back as soon as possible for a longer stay. So in a way it feels like I’m coming
full circle with writing this book.”
Cue, then, the salty sea spray coming at us from likes of Arco AA Naturale, monster limestone arch looming almost 200 metres above the sea. Likewise: archeological gem that is the Grotta di Matro mania ( believed by some to be a temple originally owed Cybele, CC goddess of nature and fertility). f There are set pieces, too, in the nearby village Positano, which rises “into the cloudless blue sky like an apparition, its gleaming white buildings hugging a vertiginous cliff like an enchanted wonderland,” as well as, of course, Da Costanzo, the legendary sandalmaker in Capri made famous by Jackie O.
The bell of escapism dings so loud ( especially this first half of the novel, before the action moves to other not- so- shabby parts like Amagansett, N. Y.)
that there’s even a two- page wedding- ww week itinerary printed at the book’s front; one
that could easily double as Tatler TT travelogue. Check: a gasp- g causing luncheon feast held at Da Luigi Beach Club made of — just to name few items zucchini flowers stuffed with ricotta, fresh langoustines, and spaghetti beset ww pistachio pesto, clams, lemon basil.
Check, check: the post- wedding shindig itself, which unfolds at Villa Jovis, Neoclassical estate built by real- life Swedish- French baron/ poet
Jacques Fersen in 1905, after he escaped France following varied vv sex scandals involving schoolboys from the French aristocracy. Settling in Italy with ww his new lover, Nino, they built this villa, complete with opium den. Or, as one character gushes, “This place was like the tt Studio 54 of Capri back in t day.”
This being a Kwan novel, OTT is MO. Which always bemuses mm me, as someone who’s been friendly with since he published his first novel, and who once threw a party for him in Toronto. In person — as anyone who’s met him will tell you — he is unassuming to the point of self- serious. More homebody than Chateau Marmont.
“It was such a surprise to my friends that I wrote ‘ Crazy Rich Asians,’ ” he acknowledged recently to the Guardian. “They couldn’t believe this was the tt book I was writing because it’s not in my natural voice.”
But that he did — selling a combined 1.5 million copies worldwide ww in 40 languages and riding the first of the three books to big screen, a movie that made such boffo box office it became highest grossing rom- com in decade- plus ( buttressed, part, by a thirst the world over for films with broader representation)
Born in Singapore ( where his family lineage extends to the country’s oldest bank) and raised Texas he moved with his family when was ww 11 and where perhaps honed outside- observer skills), he has, I like to think, become that rarest of things: an aa egghead in the streets; Jack- ie Collins sheets.
Asked about tornado success that’s encircled him lately, Kwan tells me that a high point was — not going to the tt Met Gala or getting good table at Craig’s in L. A. but chance to meet Jane Goodall. One of his heroes.
Origami- ing the endless permutations of snobbery? Well, WW it remains play for author aa — though reserved the tt page. An incomplete list of
people, places and things t that get call- outs in “Sex Vanity” VV ( part, because the really fun footnotes it) include, in no particular order: Limoges china, Donkey Milk facials, Cy Twombly, Stéphane Boudin, Rexhep Rexhepi timepieces, Cornelia Guest, Wong Kar- wai, the Duchess of Alba, José Andrés and a 1973 Ferrari Dino 246 GTS.
Inevitably, we also get characters remarking on glassbottomed tri- level infinity pool in a private home — one that looks right into a wine cellar and prompts an onlooker to muse, mm “It’s very clever. He can stare at all his Pinot Noirs while swimming the butterfly.”
Aline that is about as Kwan as Kwan KK gets. A spinner of prose so sly, so dry and so deliciously petty, I always have a dumb grin reading him.