It's midnight in Los Angeles, where Kevin Kwan lives, but it's his favorite time to make a call. “I'm a night owl,” he says. “If I was doing an interview at 8 a.m., I'd be groggy and under-caffeinated. I swear to God I'd feel better in the middle of the night.”
In fact, Singapore-born best-selling author Crazy Rich Asians He is witty when talking about his latest novel. Lies and weddingsThe film tells the story of a married British-Chinese aristocrat, Rufus Leung Gresham, and his mother, a former supermodel from Hong Kong, who tries to save the family's finances by marrying him off to a wealthy woman.
Kwan, 51, told me the book is “my take on the English country house novel,” but it does feature exotic locations and mansions like Hawaii, Beverly Hills and Marrakech. Meanwhile, novelist Plum Sykes describes the book as “a tale of a young woman who has been brought up in a very sensible, sensible, and sensible way.”Crazy Rich Asians Mated Saltburn” The 2018 film is based on Kwan's 2013 debut novel. Crazy Rich Asians It became Hollywood's highest-grossing romantic comedy in more than a decade and the first film with an Asian cast in leading roles. Joy Luck Club 1993.
His debut also introduced his signature themes of wealthy Asian dynasties with private jets, social ascendancy and the excesses of late capitalism, placing Kwan well ahead of the recent wave of rags-to-riches porn dramas. of White Lotus and InheritanceBoth, Lies and weddings.
In addition to a renewed focus on biracial identity and more plot twists than an Elsa Peretti-Tiffany corkscrew, Kwan's latest novel critiques the fashion and lifestyle habits of the world's wealthy in anthropological detail, as characters compete to assert their own coolness through Dolce & Gabbana couture, Wallace Chung diamonds, futuristic 118 Wally Power yachts, and even getting high on hallucinogenic toads.
Though there's no explicit mention of licking amphibians, the reference is based on Kwan's own research and observations. “I don't write about places I haven't been to, or restaurants I haven't eaten at. I have to make sure it's right for the book, or right for the characters.”
As a member of an old Singaporean family, Kwan has loved people-watching since he was a child — his grandfather was Singapore's first Western-educated ophthalmologist, knighted by Queen Elizabeth — and now a West Hollywood coffee shop is fertile ground for his observations, including the countless women clad in flesh-colored leggings and bra tops. (“It's way beyond yoga. Everyone seems to be wearing medical underwear.”)
Kwan is generally a lively conversationalist, but what really energizes him seems to be fashion shortcomings. (As he laughs at the spectacle of humans trying to look cool, he always adds, “I want you to know I'm kidding.”)
“When I think of a scene or a character walking into a room, I always think about what they're wearing from head to toe. In fact, I keep a folder of images of the clothing and costumes of every character and every scene,” says Kwan. Some of the observations made when the setting moved to Beverly Hills are some of the most astute.
When the character Eden Tong, a down-to-earth young British-Asian doctor, arrives in Los Angeles, she notes that “all the rich kids dress like old people and the old people dress like kids.” Is this something Kwan has noticed? “The rich kids in Beverly Hills…wear Loro Piana moccasins and cashmere cardigans…like perfectly dressed old Italian people. Their dads are CEOs or studio heads or bigwigs and they wear camo shorts and sneakers or those ugly Adidas sandals. There's a kind of Peter Pan syndrome going on here in LA.”
Lies and weddings He also takes down various LA watchdogs through wealthy heiress Daniella, who quips that “oysters are for the real estate brokers selling overpriced houses on Bird Street.” [an LA celebrity enclave]”The Nautilus is for mid-level entertainment executives. Look at that guy over there in cargo shorts and flip-flops. He's not even wearing a watch.”
Kwan says that while it's a character statement, there's some truth to her observation. As he ponders what it means to eschew watches, he ruminates, “The current trend I'm seeing among the 0.0001% is not quiet luxury. It's not luxury, it's anti-luxury. Total inconspicuousness has become the ultimate boast… Like, 'I don't even have to wear cashmere. I can go out in flip-flops and shorts and a Bermuda shirt, but I have the best yacht in the harbor of St. Barthélemy'… There's a sense of luxury fatigue.”
Kwan herself said that megabrands have become “very boring.” Lies and weddings.
Though Kwan prefers more exotic, family-run inns, he makes a point of staying at the Four Seasons Hawaii featured in his book because “to write well, you need to smell the air in the rooms,” but he thinks “they all have the same tranquil, luxurious feel. The artwork all looks the same – they're all Cy Twombly, scribbled on canvas. But it's always interesting to me to see how people express their wealth in these spaces, and how comfortable the wealthy are.”
True. But has the wealthy people he knows ever been offended by his satire? “I think people relate to the joke, and I think satire is a lot more true. When people see it and identify with it, they don't feel attacked. It's more like, 'Oh my gosh, that's funny. I had a hair transplant, so it makes sense that I wear a baseball cap.'”
A description of an unfortunate aristocratic family Lies and weddings Though he “turns up the volume for entertainment,” he likes to think there's “a certain amount of authenticity.” What he really wanted to do with the book was “to see Asians outside of Asia. To see what happens when cultures collide. Asians are moving around the world, migrating, falling in love with different people… and that comes with special challenges… What I want to achieve with my book is to show that these are complex people.”
Are there any literary heroes besides Trollope and Jane Austen who inspire this goal? The answer is surprising: “God bless Shirley Conran. I race When I was 11, my mother was inventing exotic, fantastical, decadent stories, and she was serious about it. She wasn't afraid to write about the rich, but she wasn't just writing about being rich; she wrote about the intrigues, the foibles, the tragedies, the triumphs.”
Ultimately, Kwan says he wants readers to have a good time — “make them laugh, make them hungry, make them want to be sitting on the beach at a beautiful resort” — but don't look at the check.
Lies and Weddings will be published by Hutchinson Heinemann on June 20th.
Follow us to be the first to know the latest news Financial Times Fashion Follow us on Instagram and subscribe to our podcast Life and art Wherever you listen
