![]() ![]() In this one? It’s just one of many high jinks that begin the wild tale of how Edison’s wealthy aunt learns that the scandalously middle-class woman her son is running away with - Rachel Chu, the protagonist of “Crazy Rich Asians” - is actually Carlton’s illegitimate half sister and heir to a bigger fortune than her own. ![]() In a different novel, the sheer inhumanity of literally erasing a human being’s death would be the core theme. We follow the family banker, Edison Cheng, as he scrambles to move assets around to pay people off and protect Carlton from legal consequence, altering the official record so that the dead girl never existed. The opening event of the novel sets the tone: We learn that Carlton Bao, the scion of a billionaire family from mainland China, has gotten into a car accident in London and killed a girl. ![]() Well, if great wealth is a great crime, Kevin Kwan’s “China Rich Girlfriend,” a sequel to his 2013 “Crazy Rich Asians,” slots neatly into the grand tradition of true-crime narratives - those lurid paperbacks that aim to repulse and to fascinate, all in order to keep you turning the page. Proudhon said, “Property is theft” Balzac said, “Behind great fortunes without apparent cause lies a crime forgotten.” ![]()
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