CBR 16 Bingo – Scandal: An illegal counterfeit handbag business. Is that sufficiently scandalous for you?
I read this book for my book club, but probably would have picked it up anyway since it seems right up my alley. It tells the story of Ava Wong, a Chinese-American woman living what seems to be the perfect life, but she’s not happy. Her marriage is falling apart, she hasn’t used her law degree in years, and her toddler Henri’s tantrums are going to drive her over the edge. Because of this, when she gets a chance to reconnect with her former college roommate Winnie Fang, who dropped out mysteriously, she takes it.
Winnie had been running an ingenious counterfeit handbag scheme, but she needs Ava’s help to run it since Ava has a U.S. passport. Ava accepts, and they work together on this business.
The first half of the book was pretty slow, but otherwise I really liked it. It was funny, and I appreciated how it played on the model minority stereotype. It was confusing at first to understand the narration and what was really happening, but it got clear towards the end in a satisfying reveal. I did find that many of the characters were fairly one-dimensional, except for Ava and Winnie who both had many layers (like ogres and onions! I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself, the opportunity was right there).
In general, pretty good, I liked the writing style, narration, and how it was overall pretty funny. Definitely not my favorite book of all time, but pretty solid.