Love unites East-West divide
SEX AND VANITY by Kevin Kwan (Hutchinson £14.99, 368pp)
THIS Singaporean novelist is best known for his Crazy Rich Asians trilogy in which, Kwan said, his aim was to ‘introduce a contemporary Asia to a North American audience’.
This latest goes further. Part social satire and part comingof-age love story, it’s shot through with a timely, thought-provoking examination of the casual prejudices experienced by people of mixed race even if they seem to have it all.
Protagonist Lucie is always mindful of the behavioural expectations of both the American and Chinese sides of her family, however confusing or conflicting. The first section takes place at the opulent high-society wedding of an old school friend in Capri. Swept away by the decadence, hedonism and romance of it, Lucie does something uncharacteristically impulsive and potentially reputation-ruining before she’s forced to flee.
Five years later, we’re in New York and the Hamptons where our girl is now engaged to Cecil, the most eligible billionaire on the planet. But they are totally unsuited and Lucie must find the confidence to go after what she really wants.
Notions of old-fashioned propriety are set against a whirlwind of trendy restaurants, ultra-fashionable clothes, high-tech drones and cocainefuelled parties. Delicious and delightful, I adored it.
OUT OF LOVE by Hazel Hayes (unbound £8.99, 384pp)
THIS fierce and often funny debut love story starts at the end and works backwards to the beginning. We meet Theo and his unnamed girlfriend, our narrator, two months after their relationship has imploded, when he is collecting the last of his possessions from their previously shared apartment that is now hers.
She is acting chirpy, keen to make it look like she’s moved on — what with the redecoration and new furniture — but her inner commentary tells a different, more honest story.
Although she doesn’t want Theo back, she can’t stop picking over the bare bones of what they had, where it went wrong and whether any of it could have been prevented.
She’s thoughtful, witty and relatable, all of which makes her voice appealing. It’s brilliant at examining patterns of behaviour, where they come from and how hard it is to recognise, accept and then change them.
As each chapter moves closer to the start we learn how a series of apparently random choices lead to an inevitable conclusion.
It’s counterintuitive to be hopeful for a relationship you know is doomed from the start, but the sheer emotional intelligence of the unpicking, from horrible break-up to magical first kiss, kept me hooked.
Wise, compelling and beautifully written.