Family inheritance drama a matter of trust
Family relationships are often complex. Those of the Huang family are no exception but they make for an engaging drama. The Huangs are a well-to-do TaiwaneseAmerican family living in Silicon Valley. Their strained family dynamic only intensifies after the news that patriarch Stanley Huang has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The events that follow are explored through chapters alternating between the points of view of Stanley, his two adult children Fred and Kate, his wife Mary and first wife Linda.
Stanley, proud and shorttempered, is married to the much younger and devoted Mary. In contrast, first wife Linda spent her marriage to Stanley ensuring a bright financial future for the family and wants to see her children receive their fair share of their father’s fortune. And they might need it. Fred, a Harvard Business School graduate with a beautiful Hungarian girlfriend, is dissatisfied with his professional status, resentful of his superiors and believes he deserves to be further ahead than his current mediocre job. Kate’s a middle manager at one of Silicon Valley’s leading tech companies and the breadwinner of her family, supporting her two young children and husband whose supposed start-up business doesn’t seem to be starting.
So the characters are interesting but they’re flawed and not easy to like. For the most part, they are proud, selfinterested and overly concerned with status but, nevertheless, believable and multifaceted.
As it becomes apparent Stanley’s condition is terminal, the inheritance becomes central. Though the extent of Stanley’s wealth is not clear, his wife claims he is worth $7 million: one third will go to her and the other parts to his two children.
Family Trust comes hot on the heels of last year’s hit film Crazy Rich Asians and though there are obvious commonalities between the two family dramas, Family Trust is different both in content and tone. The book is steeped in Silicon Valley’s tech industry and the corporate details of the characters’ lives are a main feature.
At times this descends into in-depth passages describing bosses, colleagues and acquaintances who do not resurface and are left hanging like loose ends. Regardless of this, Family Trust makes for a clever and quick-witted read.