Description
Product Description
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA Book Club Pick!
"Kevin Kwan's new book is his most decadent yet." --Entertainment Weekly The iconic author of the bestselling phenomenon Crazy Rich Asians returns with the glittering tale of a young woman who finds herself torn between two men: the WASPY fiancé of her family's dreams and George Zao, the man she is desperately trying to avoid falling in love with.
On her very first morning on the jewel-like island of Capri, Lucie Churchill sets eyes on George Zao and she instantly can't stand him. She can't stand it when he gallantly offers to trade hotel rooms with her so that she can have a view of the Tyrrhenian Sea, she can't stand that he knows more about Casa Malaparte than she does, and she really can't stand it when he kisses her in the darkness of the ancient ruins of a Roman villa and they are caught by her snobbish, disapproving cousin Charlotte. "Your mother is Chinese so it's no surprise you'd be attracted to someone like him," Charlotte teases. The daughter of an American-born Chinese mother and a blue-blooded New York father, Lucie has always sublimated the Asian side of herself in favor of the white side, and she adamantly denies having feelings for George. But several years later, when George unexpectedly appears in East Hampton, where Lucie is weekending with her new fiancé, Lucie finds herself drawn to George again. Soon, Lucie is spinning a web of deceit that involves her family, her fiancé, the co-op board of her Fifth Avenue apartment building, and ultimately herself as she tries mightily to deny George entry into her world--and her heart. Moving between summer playgrounds of privilege, peppered with decadent food and extravagant fashion,
Sex and Vanity is a truly modern love story, a daring homage to
A Room with a View, and a brilliantly funny comedy of manners set between two cultures.
Review
A NPR, Marie Claire, and New York Post Best Book of 2020Good Morning America's July Book Club PickA CNN "Perfect Summer Read"A New York Times "New & Noteworthy Book""Kevin Kwan has had a singular influence on Asian American storytelling and Hollywood’s pop cultural landscape."
— Yoonj Kim, Los Angeles Times
— Elizabeth Egan, New York Times
“Kevin Kwan has dedicated his fourth novel,
Sex and Vanity, to two unique destinations. One is New York... the other is the Italian island of Capri... Both locales—rich, glamorous, and filled with their share of both insiders and outsiders looking for their ticket in—serve as backdrops for Kwan’s latest ode to love, class, and the problematic, hilarious search for happiness in a world spinning with too much of pretty much everything. Kwan… is an urban romantic and he’s also a keen observer of social mores and the Teflon charms of an offbeat character.
Sex and Vanity is sharp, clever, and irresistibly drawn.”
—
Cornelia Guest,
Interview"On its face, the story is a zippy beach read, but Kwan engages with serious subject matter (racism, identity, and deep-rooted Asian classism) all while thoroughly lampooning the extravagance of the ultrarich... The best part is that like all of Kwan’s work,
Sex and Vanity also functions as a vacation read — it’s funny, there are ridiculous, steamy sex scenes, and part of the book takes place at a luxurious destination wedding. It’s the kind of thing you can take to whatever beach substitute you’re working with right now (the bedroom with the most sun, or a patch of asphalt at the nearest park) and escape for a little while."
—
The Cut
"
Sex and Vanity [is] both homage to
A Room with a View and very much in Kwan's style. It begins as Forster's book does — with a hotel room swap — and then spins off into its own gold-plated world, with a few unexpectedly serious stops along the way... Kwan's witty
Sex and Vanity is a fine beach read.
— Moira MacDonald, Chicago Tribune
"A romantic comedy set in New York and the Hamptons, and a nuanced exploration of race and identity."
— Avenue"Another r