“CRAZY Rich Asians” by Kevin Kwan is being adapted into a feature-length film, starring some of the best Asian actors in the world: Michelle Yeoh, Constance Wu, Gemma Chan, and others. The adaptation is an example of how a film can help to bring recognisance to a work of literature by appealing to a demographic that would have remained unaware of the existence of the book, were it not for the film.

This is not an unusual phenomenon, as many people, for example, started reading the “Harry Potter” series after the movies began to emerge. Kwan’s book is interesting for me, because it is the first novel I have ever read by a Singaporean writer, and it is also the first book I have read that is essentially about Singapore, even if it does focus on only a small contingent of people (the filthy rich) who live on the island-state in Southeast Asia.

The story fluctuates between several characters, but mainly focuses on Rachel Chu who goes to Singapore on a trip with her longtime boyfriend, Nick, to meet his family and to attend the wedding of his best friend. When in Singapore, she discovers that Nick belongs to one of the richest families in Asia, therefore making him one of the most sought-after bachelors, and Rachel a woman who suddenly finds herself in a world of glamour and envy, where she is forced to go up against Nick’s formidable mother, Eleanor, and his grandmother, Shang Su Yi, as well as Nick’s wealthy and vain ex-girlfriend, Francesca. In one sudden shift, Rachel finds her normal life upturned into a display of people filled with secrets, narcissism, pride, traditions, and, of course, lots and lots of money.

Although Kwan’s take on the rich people of Singapore is satirical, the novel still manages to encapsulate the awe that comes when confronted with the kind of wealth that does not come with any sort of humility. It is hard not to be enthralled by people who travel around on private jets to have weekend holidays on exotic islands, or people who spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on clothes in a single shopping trip in Paris (the way Nick’s cousin, Astrid, does), or people who can buy an entire hotel on a whim, or people who associate with supermodels and princes and princesses from various royal families across the globe.

There’s an almost voyeuristic pleasure that one gets while reading the novel – perhaps, similar (although this is a far-fetched example), to the way that people can be fascinated by fantasy, like when we read of a knight slaying a dragon, for example. I suppose that the chances of ever being confronted by so much wealth can be likened well to a fantasy, in that it might never happen to us normal folk, and so, the allure of “Crazy Rich Asians” is definitely understandable and explainable.

The humour in the novel is reminiscent of the works of Oscar Wilde and even Jane Austen that often poked fun at the upper echelons of society. Kwan’s target is, of course, the richest of the rich in the contemporary Singaporean upper class, which is a group that is sometimes so foreign, it feels alien, and at other times the people and their concerns and needs are way too familiar. Humour has a lot to do with this, and the writer’s use of humour is built on the universality that connects us all, regardless of our own traditions, values, and bank accounts. Regardless of the difference in class, gossipy aunts will always be gossipy aunts, jealous ex-girlfriends will always be jealous ex-girlfriends, and overprotective mothers will always be overprotective mothers.

There is an emotional core at the centre of novel, found in the way that Rachel, despite her pure love for Nick (and not his money) is not enough for his mother and grandmother. Rachel, despite her good upbringing, her education, and her career, still does not fit the idea of the kind of woman that is worthy of Nick.

Rachel’s lack of desire to smarm up to these people, her desire to not go drastically out of her way to make sure they like her, makes her a compelling heroine, and a bit of an underdog, that we have no problem rooting for. The scenes where she is bullied by the spoiled rich girls or when Nick’s mother brings up her marred family lineage only serve to make Rachel more likeable to the reader – after all, being a normal, middle-class woman, makes her the most relatable character in the novel.

“Crazy Rich Asians” is a lot of fun, but the ending is a letdown because rather than successfully wrapping up all the loose plot threads, many of them are left dangling in a way that is geared towards ensuring that we are left wanting more in the sequels that came after. It leaves the reader feeling a bit slighted and the story a bit incomplete. Nevertheless, the book is sufficiently funny and interesting to keep us hooked until the end.