Intro for May 28, 2024

Dear Gossips, 

It’s beach read season and there are few novelists right now who are better at giving beach read than Kevin Kwan whose new book, Lies and Weddings,  was just released last week. 

You know the style if you’ve read the Crazy Rich Asians series. Yes, of course, Kevin’s stories are breezy, the settings are opulent, the people are obscenely wealthy and exceptionally well-dressed. But if that’s the only thing you’re taking away from Kevin’s writing, you’re missing so much nuance, so much class study, so much skillful understanding of family and friend and social dynamic, and sooooooo much humour. Kevin’s books are hilarious and just like it is in movies and television, where there’s so much prestige afforded to drama, and comedy is underrated, there’s a such a high degree of difficulty in the ability to make people laugh. Writing funny characters doing and saying funny things is hard, really, really hard. And Kevin does it really, really well. 

Lies and Weddings is a rom-com. The main romantic leads are Dr Eden Tong and Rufus Leung Gresham, the future Duke of Greshambury. If you’re thinking there’s some Bridgerton in here, you are correct – Kevin has said that this book is, in part, inspired by Bridgerton. 

Still, for me, the couple isn’t the best character. The best character is the complicated and chaotic mother, Rufus’s mother, Lady Arabella. And the deeper themes of what Kevin is writing about in Lies and Weddings are communicated through Lady Arabella’s ambitions, how she parents, the often terrible choices she makes, and most importantly, illuminating why she is the way she is. Somehow Kevin does this through the most outrageously comedic situations, and still without being too heavy-handed about the ideas he’s unpacking about race and identity. 

Also… the food, as usual, which is one of his signatures. And the footnotes, another signature. All of this together makes for exactly the kind of book for this exact season. 

Lies and Wedding is actually the second book in Kevin’s Cities series, after the first installment, Sex and Vanity. Sex and Vanity will be adapted for screen, just like Crazy Rich Asians, and Kevin recently revealed that two Oscar-winning actors are attached to the project. They are also apparently making some progress on the long overdue Crazy Rich Asians sequel, which I’m especially and shamelessly anxious about because I actually make a very brief cameo in the book, China Rich Girlfriend, LOL. I asked Kevin about this when I interviewed him yesterday for ETALK and then he mentioned it in his Instagram post so I’m taking this as hope that I can play myself in the movie!

Beyond his books, though, Kevin’s working on an entire universe. Crazy Rich Asians is becoming a Broadway musical, with Jon M Chu directing his first stage production. I can’t even imagine what that wedding is going to look like! 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey