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Ava recounts about up until this point, she’s always been a rule follower. She’s a Chinese American lawyer who is married to a surgeon and they have a toddler son. But beneath the perfect facade, her marriage is full of troubles and she’s having difficulties handling her son’s outbursts. She put her career on hold to take care of her son and now she’s having an identity crisis. Counterfeit is decadent and delicious. The sparkling story line seduces with its compelling twists and turns even as Kirstin Chen deftly interrogates issues of race, identity, wealth and consumerism. A true delight for mind and heart from beginning to end.” — Jean Kwok, New York Times bestselling author of Searching for Sylvie Lee Swift, surprising, and sharply comic, Counterfeit is a stylish and feminist caper with a strong point of view and an axe to grind. Peering behind the curtain of the upscale designer storefronts and the Chinese factories where luxury goods are produced, Kirstin Chen interrogates the myth of the model minority through two unforgettable women determined to demand more from life. Recommended by New York Times Book Review• Washington Post • People• Entertainment Weekly• USA Today• Time• Cosmopolitan• Today show • Harper’s Bazaar• Vogue• Good Housekeeping• Parade• New York Post • Town & Country• GMA.com • Buzzfeed • Goodreads • Oprah Daily • Popsugar • Bustle • theSkimm • The Millions • and more!
Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen - Book Club Chat Review: Counterfeit by Kirstin Chen - Book Club Chat
Hmm... What can I say about Counterfeit? There was just something about this book that I didn't quite like. For fans of Hustlers and How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, the story of two Asian American women who band together to grow a counterfeit handbag scheme into a global enterprise—an incisive and glittering blend of fashion, crime, and friendship from the author of Bury What We Cannot Take and Soy Sauce for Beginners. The novel starts out well enough. We are introduced to Ava, the main character, who struggles as a new mom to a (I think?) developmentally challenged son and her husband (a cardiac surgeon), while they somehow have money problems. Already, this is drastically unrealistic but alright... go on.There are many other problems associated with this book, like the problems with the narration and the way the character's arc was created. There are problems with even the basics, like the author’s usage of quotation marks in this novel. There are no quotation marks for dialogues in Ava’s narration to the detective. I don’t like this writing style.
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Ava Wong hasn’t heard from Winnie Fang for over twenty years, in fact since Winnie hurriedly left Stanford. What does Winnie want? Ava‘s life hasn’t panned out the way she hopes and she’s dazzled by the wealth, beauty and confidence Winnie displays. An added bonus if she is very good with her two year old son Henri who has the most spectacular of tantrums. Oh boy, does Eva ever get lured into a Winnie web, a con involving counterfeit designer handbags which are so good they are the creme de la creme of counterfeits they could be the real thing. It becomes intoxicating as common sense flies out the window until it all crashes to earth. Recommended by The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • People • Entertainment Weekly • Time • Cosmopolitan • Today show • Harper’s Bazaar • Vogue • Good Housekeeping • Buzzfeed • Oprah Daily • Parade • Popsugar • Goodreads • theSkimm • Katie Couric Media • The Millions • and more! But then the narrative changes. And we get Winnie's perspective. I was getting ready for some action! The biggest problem with this book is excessive use of racial stereotypes. The way in which the author describes a few of the stereotypes seen in this novel are - The reality is much different and her life is coming apart at the seams. Her son has constant tantrums, Ava hates being a lawyer and has taken an extended break, her husband works non-stop and doesn’t even live in the same residence, and she feels a little bitter she did everything she was supposed to and ended up here. If she is living the Asian-American dream, she is waiting for someone to wake her up from it.
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Engrossing . . . . There is something particularly joyful and delicious right now about reading a novel centered around a feminist caper. This novel is a lot of fun, but it also asks a lot of questions about what we covet and why.”— Roxane Gay Example #1: Side-by-side comparison of an original and a counterfeit. The item on the right has a different color tone: It’s funny because going into the novel, I thought about how I’m not caught up in expensive purses anymore. I used to be all about getting a new Coach or a Kate Spade purse (at the outlets) but ever since the start of the pandemic, I’ve been fine carrying the same purse. But that said, I found myself looking at a Lululemon belt bag so maybe I do still care about name brands, haha. I loved the main character development (though you need to have a lot of patience to discover the development.) Neither Ava nor Winnie function on a WYSIWYG model – they are complex, sometimes irritating and sometimes vulnerable. Henri the toddler is l’enfant terrible. While I don’t enjoy children being portrayed in such a way, Henri’s behaviour adds a further layer of complexity to Ava’s arc as her parenting skills depict her attitude towards life.
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