The Wangs vs The World

While reading this book I kept thinking, "At some point this has to get more interesting". It never did. I never felt anything for the characters and only finished it because I hate buying a book and giving up on it.

Did you ever spend a significant amount of time with a family and not like a single member of their group? Reading "Wings vs the World" is a little bit like that. There's not one main character of the five in the novel whom the reader can truly grow to like.

The book is very well-written (hence the three stars) and I do look forward to reading the author's next book to determine if I can put Jade Chang on my "authors to follow" list. But I hope that next time she will give us at least one character who isn't a narcissistic whiner like the members of the Wang family.

As someone who is very familiar with Chinese culture - both overseas and in America - someone who is married to a wonderful Chinese man, speaks Mandarin, and spent several years teaching ESL specifically to Chinese immigrants - and as someone who generally enjoys the type of novels this one claims to be, I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, it was a big let down.

The story itself felt extremely disjointed to me. The point of view kept changing between characters without warning or break, which was confusing, and the characters felt stereotypical (each fulfilling a different common stereotype) rather than real. In addition, this book is often marketed as funny, but I don't think I laughed once (and I love humor in books).

Then there's the issue of the use of Chinese language in this book. The author clearly speaks Chinese (as does the audio book narrator - I switched back and forth between the two forms of this novel). Most of the characters also speak at least some Chinese, and this is reflected in quite a bit of unexplained Chinese dialogue. Readers who don't know Chinese will have no idea what any of it means, and those who do know the language will often find themselves confused by the author's decision to frequently write out words as they'd sound in English, rather than using standard pinyin. This is made worse by the fact that the author's accent clearly differs from standard Beijing pronunciation, so the word "sheng" is written as "shen," and so forth. That said, readers will be able to follow the story even if they know zero Chinese. They'll have to skip the occasional sentence (as well as a few entire conversations), but those things aren't essential to understanding the plot.

Speaking of plot, don't expect much of one when reading this book, and definitely don't expect a fulfilling end to the story. This is a book that follows a fictional family down a rather boring path as they attempt to cope with and regain their lost wealth. I'm not sure what all the hype was about - maybe I missed something - but this is the first book I can remember giving less than three stars to. And I read a lot. If you really want to read this one, I suggest finding a way to borrow it, then buying only if you truly enjoy it. This is a book I can't see myself ever wanting to revisit in the future.

The "Wangs", contrary to descriptions above, is not "outrageously funny". It's not even mildly amusing. I quit at the 50% mark; I will not finish this book. I did not like a single character, it spent most of the first half giving a lot of background that was neither interesting nor necessary. There are tons of Chinese phrases, some translated, some not. You can get away with that with many European tongues because the reader can guess the meaning given a word or two, or imagine something based of context. It is not a road story - very few descriptions of what's out there, what people are encountered. Instead, we have this very sour family that I want nothing to do with. And the plot sounded so interesting. Felt like this was a big waste of time. Very disappointing. I don't often quit on a book, and when I do I almost never write a review, holding out the possibility that even tho I won't be around for the end, maybe it will save itself in the final chapters........But I still had 200 pages to go, and I can't think of one thing I liked to this point. Life is too short, so ta-ta!

This is an extremely disappointing novel by a gifted writer. It is her first novel and it shows. Evidently, whoever was her editor must have been on vacation during the time she wrote it. Jade Chang is an amazing wordsmith,but the story was shallow and lacked depth especially when I compare her other writers,writing abou the Asian-American experience, like Madeleine Thien or Vu Tran.

Referred by my niece, this humorous book resonated like no other of the Chinese experience in the US.
The characters are multidimensional and we learn to embrace beach cha tree after as we learn more about them

Referred by my niece, this humorous book resonated like no other of the Chinese experience in the US.
The characters are multidimensional and we learn to embrace beach cha tree after as we learn more about them

Loved the scope and ambition of the book - in the vein of the Great American Novel. Reminded me of White Teeth by Zadie Smith - debut novel with overflowing energy and an all-encompassing scope/interest in the world. Loved that it wasn't about fitting in - no one asks "who am I?". Really liked the family dynamic, particularly between the siblings - it's a relief to read a book that is not about a dysfunctional family. Particularly liked Saina and the descriptions of her art works - could totally see them happening in real life! (Also note: I do speak Mandarin, so could follow the pinyin sections - if you don't, don't be turned off by it! You're not losing anything crucial plot-wise.)

"The Wangs vs the World", debut novel by Jade Chang, is a road-trip/bildungsroman about the fractured family of Charles Wang (properly pronounced "Wong") coming together through adversity. It's funny and heartwarming, and hits all the right marks.

Many years ago Charles came to the US from his father's urine factory and built a multi-million dollar make-up business. Make-up being both ephemeral and delusional, when the economy fizzles out in 2008, Charles finds himself completely broke. He does, however, have a fantasy about reclaiming lost family land in China.

Charles' second wife, Barbra, who blatantly stalked and married him for his money, is not at all convinced that Charles' idea to return to China and wrest his property from the Communists, is a workable plan. But Charles is determined, and after all, he's been successful before. Leaving their foreclosed home in LA, they borrow a car (previously given to the nanny) and sweep up Charles' sixteen year old daughter, Grace, exiled by love to a boarding school which they can no longer afford. Grace is immature, shallow, and entitled; she is a "style blogger" with some talent. They proceed to fetch son Andrew, who is equally immature, shallow, and entitled, from Arizona State University, which they also can no longer afford. Andrew aspires to be a stand-up comedian who makes fun of his Asian heritage.

Thus the family embarks on their cross-country trek to reunite with the eldest Wang daughter, Saina, who at twenty-eight, has already ascended and descended the ladder of fame in the "spectacle art" world. Now living in upstate New York, immature, shallow, and entitled Saina has retreated in shame after her flame-out failure in the NYC contemporary art world. But Saina has access to her trust fund, and thus seems like the perfect meeting point for the family to regroup.

What Chang does beautifully is put the reader right in the car with Charles, Barbara, Grace and Andrew (or in the town with Saina), and by sharing their adventure/travails, they become more sympathetic characters. They are changed by their circumstances and the trip, and our impressions of them soften accordingly. So while at first, I didn’t much care about any of them, by the end I was hoping for good things for them all.

"Charles Wang was mad at America." So Jade Chang's novel begins. It ends with the entrepreneurial Mr. Wang's having a very different feeling about his adopting, adopted country. Meanwhile, I fell in love with the Wang family, perhaps partly because I have been in love for a half-century with my Chinese-American wife, Tina Su Cooper, and I love our extended family, the Coopers, the Sus, the Conleys, the Carters, and the Lees. About half of second-generation Chinese in America marry Caucasians, and our family's statistics are right in line with this. America has gained from their being here and so have they.

The Chinese interest in education and business has made them sometimes called "the Jews of the Orient," and they have stirred up at times a similar level of envy and prejudice. Where once the Jews faced quotas in American university admissions, now the Chinese do, a dirty little secret easily uncovered, rarely admitted. Still, they soldier on, the first generation often working at menial jobs, the next running little stores, the next becoming professionals: doctors, teachers, lawyers, scientists, business executives. As is true of Indian and Japanese families here, the Chinese are among the most successful groups in America today.

When Charles Wang's highly successful business crashes, he cannot get back-up financing, gambles his opulent home, loses all. He gathers his family and goes on a trip across the U.S. and then across the Big Pond, in an attempt to recoup his losses by regaining the land in China his notable family once owned. Meanwhile, kids and wife have troubles and triumphs of their own. I am hoping there will be a sequel to find out how their lives progressed, but the ending is quite satisfactory, quite satisfying.

I "read" it mostly with my Kindle's text-to-speech feature, and I found much of it eloquent. My sampling of the written word indicated it was well edited. My only complaint is that much of the infrequent, Romanized Chinese dialogue is not made clear, even to someone like myself who has some familiarity with Chinese.

"The Wangs versus the world" could be read as also meaning "the Chinese take on the world," which current events suggest is the case, a cause for concern. Still, we can hope to find allies among the billion or so energetic, talented, often-loving Chinese here and abroad.

As for author Jade Chang, write on! I eagerly await your next novel.

In The Wangs Vs. The World, Jade Chang revisits a time period perhaps too recent for many writers to draw from yet: September 2008, during the downswing into economic recession and for millions, financial ruin. Most stories from those years probably aren't very interesting (I lost my job and then my savings and trust me, it was acutely boring) but Chang's plot is promising and unique. Chinese immigrant Charles Wang, having lost his American factories, fortune and mansion, collects his family in a cross-country drive from Los Angeles to upstate New York, where his oldest daughter has a house and nest egg which Charles might use to fund his last desperate plan. Will they each learn something about the importance of family and relationships along the way? Gee, I wonder.

Chang is a journalist but published no fiction prior to this novel. Not a single short story! I'm extremely impressed by that but then again, if you've never published a 20-page story don't be surprised when your 350-page debut novel has serious structural problems. I will say it's gratifying that when a character says something in Chinese, Chang almost never gives writes out an English translation. I hate when authors do that. But... that's all the nice things I have to say. My list of grievances will, tragically, run far longer. By necessity there are plot spoilers below.

Marketed as hilarious, uproarious, etc., the humor here is fairly one-note. There are some decent one-liners but I find the frequent comparison of the book to the film Little Miss Sunshine telling--it too was laboriously "quirky" and short on character-driven humor. The strangest swing-and-a-miss in the novel is when the middle child, Andrew, tries to masturbate with ketchup. I suspect others will point to this as a comedic high point only because it's a scene where the book is clearly trying to be funny, as opposed to its usual steady stream of sitcom-level quips.

The story traces the Wangs' circuitous drive across the U.S. with a few manufactured adventures along the way. Most incidental characters are ripped straight from the blogosphere, sporting tattoos and producing artisan [something] in quaint small towns. Then suddenly, as if realizing the plot is losing steam, the Wangs crash their car in North Carolina. The next chapter skips them to their final destination in New York and then it's patently obvious that Chang doesn't have much for the characters to do once they're all together, so there's an extended coda where everyone travels to China to catch up to Charles, whose ultimate fate has been telegraphed to the reader repeatedly.

The characters interact through text messages, Facebook and conference calls often as the plot calls for them to separate and reunite. To some extent I accept this as an unfortunate necessity of a modern story but think cinematically: how boring is it to picture a character reading her email? How anti-climactic is it to have her type "I can't love you anymore" versus the conflict and emotion of saying it in person?

The prose itself is passable, albeit with irritating, recurring devices. Although Chang hasn't published fiction before I'm betting she has hundreds of Yelp reviews under her belt. She dotes on her descriptions of food. This adds some local color to stops on the Wangs' journey but that wordcount on fried rice or crawfish would be better served developing the character arcs of the incompletely fleshed-out younger children, Andrew and Grace. Each has a half-baked epiphany about the importance of love and connection but if you combined them into a single character the book wouldn't lose much. Also, I can't stand when a character "rolls her eyes internally" or "pumps a mental fist"--it illustrates that the writer can't describe a reaction in terms of emotion. Have you ever pumped a mental fist? If so, I hope ketchup wasn't involved.

Scenes where a character confronts an anonymous crowd always bug me and we get five or six of them in this book: oldest daughter Saina making a brief speech to art students, Andrew abortively performing stand-up comedy in different cities and a college lecture where a professor explains the subprime mortgage crisis. The lecture is literally Chang paraphrasing magazine articles of the time. It's a perfect demonstration of how labored-over this novel is. It checks its facts, it moves the characters across the map and ties up loose ends such as they are but all without much weight. Chang doesn't trust her writing to carry big emotional moments and pads it with paragraphs of pop culture-studded simile. Rather than letting a tearful break-up close a chapter, it trails off with descriptions of a lover falling away like prize lost in a claw game at Chuck E. Cheese. Seriously.

This might seem like a real hatchet job but that's not my intent. Chang isn't a bad writer but until she can do more than stitch together what amount to blog entries and character sketches she will be a poor novelist. However, if you like the forced comedy of something like Little Miss Sunshine, the tedious melodrama of A Visit from the Goon Squad, or TV shows that think you're too stupid to keep paying attention if there isn't a sex scene every 15 minutes, you might enjoy this book.

Charles Wang came to America and amassed a fortune by building his own makeup production company from the ground up. But a poorly thought out business decision has not only lost him his company, but his house, cars and all other assets as well. Pulling two of his children out of school and packing them, along with their stepmother, into an old car he sold to his long time nanny, Charles takes his family from LA to rural New York to live with his eldest daughter.

At times, I do enjoy character-driven contemporary novels and when I saw this book was available on NetGalley, I’d already seen quite a few people on Instagram talking about it. I did enjoy the first half of this book – getting to know the characters and what led to the fall of the family business was intriguing. I especially liked Grace, who at first appears to be a spastic teenager, but proves herself to be very savvy when it comes to her blog and observant when it comes to her family.

As a character, Charles didn’t really interest me, though his story did. I enjoyed learning about how he built his business and I was desperate to know how it all fell down around him. For quite some time he refers to his mistake as simply The Failure, leaving readers guessing as to how he lost his fortunes. I also enjoyed Saina’s chapters, as she was so removed from the family and their drama and she was probably the character I was most engrossed in. Her life was almost a secondary plot to the story, so there was more detail and development for her than her siblings.

However, shortly after the halfway point, this book really petered out for me. I wasn’t sure what Chang was working towards and I began to get bored with the characters. I found Andrew especially annoying and often wanted to reach into the book and smack him. Even Saina began to disappoint me and I stopped caring about where her story arc was headed.

I slogged through the last half of the book and while at times it made me chuckle, the book was a letdown. I’m really not sure what I was expecting from this book, but it didn’t deliver for me. The ending felt unresolved as well and left me wondering why I read the rest of the book if it was going to be so open-ended. Perhaps I just missed the message? Totally possible!

I’m not mad I read it, but I wouldn’t quite recommend it either. Just not the story for me!

I RECEIVED THIS BOOK FOR FREE FROM NETGALLEY IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW. THIS DOES NOT AFFECT MY OPINION OF THE BOOK OR THE CONTENT OF MY REVIEW. ALL OPINIONS IN THIS POST ARE MY OWN.

Wrote five initials reviews and lost them all after holding my finger on an incorrect written word and a blank scree came on wiping all my entries. I will have to redo this on my laptop as this screens screws up time after time. I will either return if allowed or write a new review.

Book's subject was too large. Author does not bond the reader to the characters. Starting a trip by Charles losing his fortune. He moves from California to New York stopping on the way to pick up youngest daughter, then son a road trip with second wife to move in and live with the oldest daughter who had a trust, an apt in N.Y.

I will continue if I can read more but it is difficult. The characters are described and actions were performed but one does no live it, no empathy, the youngest thinks about suicides and the pro and cons of each choice for no reason, no association with why the consideration. It is a pot luck of scenes with no commen theme. Hard to read and like. Many mandarin sentences with no translation but they are insignificant but except it adds word count to the story.

I struggled with this book initially. I found it to be very slow in the beginning. It did pick up but I had to make an effort to finish this book. It is never a good thing when I would rather stare into space or *gasp* pick up another book and finish that book before getting back to this one. I did not find this book to be as hilarious as others have found it. Maybe the humor is lost of me, but I don't think so. I enjoy a good laugh and have been told I am witty at times. For me it just didn't work. Maybe because the book was too slow in the beginning. Mainly because I just didn't care due to the rambling at time. I feel this book needed some editing. I am going to be in the minority here and say that this book was okay, not great.

Charles Wang has made a fortune in the cosmetic business. He is on his second marriage after his first wife died in a helicopter accident. He has an adult daughter, a son in college and another daughter who is a senior in high school. Unfortunately for all of them, Charles loses his fortune through bad business decisions and has to pull his son and daughter out of their schools and drive cross country in order to move in with his oldest daughter. The premise of the book is a good one.

Liked. Didn't love.

More ironic than funny, this book offers a Great Recession's take on the post American Dream for late 20th Century immigrants. Lots of qualifiers in that opening sentence, but this book is very specific in its focus. Namely, a former Chinese mainland family, escaping Communism, moves to Taiwan, then seeking riches, moves to the U.S. when the eldest son realizes he can make millions selling fertilizer to cosmetics companies. He makes millions and then enjoys gambling. His children live in complete luxury. Along comes the Great Recession and all is lost. The father decides to return to China and reclaim land taken by the Communists. It's hard to care about the characters because they are so very demanding and certain of their needs. They aren't likeable but they are eccentric in a Paris Hilton kind of way. The book makes the case that the children aren't the least bit Chinese anymore, they are completely pampered, spoiled Americans. Assimilation at its finest. I received my copy from the publisher and NetGalley.

Jade Chang has written a hilarious story of a family coming together to deal with a financial catastrophe in 2008. The head of the family, Charles Wang, created a cosmetic dynasty with an idea he brought with him from Taiwan. He has three children, Saina, Andrew, and Grace. They provide much of the humor in this story along with their quirky father. Charles's wife, Barbra, plays the straight role in this comedy. She is the second wife and a stepmother to the children.

A trip from L.A. to Helios, NY with stops along the way provide substance to the characters. I wanted the Wangs to win out against the hurdles thrown in their way. Chang gives us fantastic pop culture references and has a good understanding of the financial crisis that caught Charles Chang unaware and oblivious to the fact that he might not be able to work the miracles he relied on for so many years. A story about financial ruin shouldn't be funny, but Chang has achieved this with acute understanding of things that make young people

Charles Wang is the antidote to The Tiger Mom. He is the most adorable father in literature. When is daughter, a beautiful artist apologizes for a scathing article about her in a mass publication and the embarrassment she fears she brought to her family. He instantly denies he was embarrassed and declares that she has led an interesting life and those who slam and criticize her lead boring lives. Leading an interesting life, forget the consequences is the Charles Wang way.

This is a first rate, wonderful book written by a more than talented author. It is very, very funny and sharp and provides an education to the fashion illiterates who never dreamed of clicking on a style or fashion blog. The three children are spoiled rotten, all beautiful and very nice.
There is not an evil or ugly character in the book.

The author is sharp, seems t know the scene, and makes interesting, funny observations. I love Charles Wang , but not as ahusband

{Many thanks to the publisher for sending me an eARC of The Wangs v. The World free of charge.}

Maybe it's not my finest trait, but I love a riches to rags story, which is exactly what you'll find in Jade Chang's The Wangs v. The World. (That title really captures the feel of this book.) Combine the riches to rags plot with a road trip and now we're really talking.

Charles Wang has lost his entire fortune, both professional and personal. In The Wangs v. The World, we follow the Wangs as they drive away from the family mansion in Bel Air and head towards the home of the eldest child in New York.

This novel is decidedly character driven. There is navel gazing, there is pontificating, and there are several passages that were so sexually graphic, they made me squirm. (You have been warned.) Even if these things will bother you, the writing is superb.

Despite that fact that character driven novels and I are generally not friends, I enjoyed this reading experience (minus the aforementioned sexually graphic parts). I did find myself skimming through some "deep thoughts" sections because I just had to know what was going to happen next.

Unfortunately I couldn't finish this book. It seemed appealing at first, but for some reason at one point I lost my interest.

It is told from the point of view of the members of the Wang family. Following their father's business collapse, the Wang family embark on a road-trip. Their father's plan is to go to China to claim their heritage. It made me go ahead and request this book for review, but it didn't work out. Not to mention, I laughed zero times, and I read about 30% of the book. Not funny. And the untranslated phrases bothered me; at least help me figure them out from the context!

I am not sure I will ever return to this book, to be honest. It did seem intriguing when I saw the book, but after a few weeks of reading it sporadically, I completely lost my interest, and the characters started irking me. There's no clearer sign for me that maybe I should stop reading a book than the level of contempt I have towards the characters.

I received a free e-book copy of this book from the publisher via Net Galley. All thoughts expressed here are my own.

At the conclusion of reading "The Wangs vs. the World," I have mixed feelings. It is not what I expected when I first read the lure. I am not sure if it is because I am of Asian descent myself, but I felt more like crying than laughing throughout. Ms. Chang's talent is undeniable, however, and I certainly will not hesitate to pick up further works by her. Her characters are so likeable and real, it is hard not to experience their world right along with them.

Oh my goodness. You have never read anything like this.

Jade Chang’s glittering, fresh debut, THE WANGS VS. THE WORLD, does so much incredible work at once, while weaving through a propellant, brilliant plot.

Charles Wang came to America with nearly nothing, leaving behind a hefty family inheritance in order to try his hand at American business. He succeeds, gloriously --- for a while. He bears indifferent witness to capitalism and its effect on women’s self-esteem, and tweaks his ancestral formula for fertilizer to create a high-end line of oils, powders and other beautifying unctions. For decades, his cosmetics empire builds and builds upon American-bred insecurity, financing an extravagant lifestyle and trust funds for each of his three children that would more than satisfy the average citizen for life.

The 2008 crash catalyzes the downfall of his empire in a prescient way I won’t spoil. He has lost everything. He earned the American Dream, and then America woke the hell up. Now, all he can focus on is taking his second wife on a cross-country trip in a beat-up old car “borrowed” from the former family caretaker, pulling his kids out of the schools he can no longer afford, and returning to China to reclaim his land. We meet Barbra, the second wife, who took on a breathless opportunity and now must live with it; Grace, the 16-year-old fashion blogger; Andrew, the college wanna-be comedian with a surprisingly vulnerable outlook on love; and Saina, the former art world it-girl who bought herself a massive upstate house and is now struggling to navigate her alluring ex and her sweet new boyfriend. The novel alternates smoothly between their perspectives and Charles’.

Character is one of the book's strongest suits, and it isn’t lacking in strength. I’ve never quite read a novel that treats each of its characters so fondly. They could be outright annoying, but Chang delves into their humanity. Each has their own distinct voice and perspective. Overall, the family dynamic is hilarious, natural and refreshingly sweet. The experiences the Wangs endure are painful, and their intimacy with each other forms a balance that allows Chang to explore crucial issues from a very human place. Their love for each other is complicated but real, and she portrays it beautifully.

THE WANGS VS. THE WORLD confronts racism. It confronts privilege, white supremacy and anti-Asian racism. I bet you didn’t know that “Wang” can and typically does mean “king.” Chang weaves in Chinese characters and dialect that Western readers typically recognize as foreign. She writes for Chinese-Americans but also makes these concepts accessible.

This is such great writing. Chang delves into detail. The plot swells; the writing is illuminative, confident, necessary and hilarious. My parents are immigrants. I know what it is to ache for a homeland from which you feel disconnected. She gets it, more so than I do, and has created something sweeping, immersive and --- no matter where you’re from --- absolutely satisfying.

This is an authentic, contemporary immigrant story. This is the debunking of stereotype and the restoration of agency, alit with humor and much-ached-for in-group nods. This is a tender, intimate family portrait and a sweeping indictment of America’s ingrained racism and unforgiving capitalism. Chang sharply contextualizes the story of the Wangs within our current moment, and the product is nothing short of astounding. The characters will stick with you; the plot resonates and is wholly unique. The naturally flowing insights will open your eyes.

THE WANGS VS. THE WORLD is a must-read for every American citizen --- and a breath of fresh air for many Asian-American citizens and immigrants who can find our story told only rarely, and even then not often as unapologetic and tender as this. It is simply an expertly executed, beautiful and brilliant work. I am grateful for Jade Chang and so excited to hear more of her voice in the near future.

Reviewed by Maya Gittelman

A gaudy new money Chinese immigrant family goes bust in California, then must travel cross-country together by car to stay with the one family member who hasn't lost it all. What a terrific premise. Unfortunately, there is nothing fun or funny or sly or even that interesting about the rest of the the story. The cardboard characters are unsympathetic. The situations are unoriginal. The ending doesn't really fit with anything, making the reader wonder if this is a fictionalized family memoir instead of an attempt at a well-crafted narrative. If only this writer had a strong editor. I had high hopes for this book. Bummer.

Okay, first things first. I want you to strike the word ‘hilarious’ from your mind when you read this. Also strike any thought of the book Crazy Rich Asians. (Loved it and definitely suggest you read it, but if you have, please forget it!)

This book is about the fuderai – the wealthy Chinese around the world who are famous for an over the top lifestyle. They are new money – super rich and live lives of fast cars, faster women, and yes, as in the case of our main character Charles Wang and his family, family manses with secret passageways, priceless art, and everything you could possibly buy.

Now imagine what happens if, in one fell swoop, all of that wealth disappears. This is that book.

When the wealth and privilege leave, the cracks in the perfect family world are revealed as Wang and his family set across country to live with a daughter who still has some money and a house where they can stay. Honestly, they’re also hiding from their own lives. From the people who knew them when they were wealthy – people who now look at them with pity or humor.

But you’ll find that you won’t be reading this with any sense of schadenfreude. You see, as different as the Wangs are from the rest of us, they’re generally good people. Charles Wang loves his kids with every bit of his soul. And his kids, even as they have some culture shock from everything they knew simply dissolving, are good kids who you simply like. Some of what happens in the book is heartbreaking. And the Wangs need to rise above a loss of pride to find themselves again.

It’s a road trip about self-discovery and it’s a blast to read.

People unfamiliar with the fuderai may find the book seems somewhat stereotypical. I didn’t find it so. Of course, I shop in Mistress City (the nickname of Arcadia, CA where the fuderai have their mistresses live). I feel the wind in my hair as the custom sports cars speed past me in the SGV. Jade Chang knows her stuff.

I’ll admit that I would have liked the book to start – really start – when the Wangs were on top. I wish the author had scandalized us with their fantasy existence and almost obscene wealth before tearing them away from it. Instead, we start right with the loss and learn about what exactly they lost as they deal with the news.

But overall, this was a very good book. And those who belong to the fuderai or who are simply peeking in at darkened Maserati windows will get it.

I enjoyed this family road trip novel, but I didn’t find it as hilarious as other reviewers did. For me, the highlight of the book was the in-depth characterization of the three “kids.” The patriarch, Charles Wang, seemed like a stereotype to me, but his three kids were richly described. I connected with all of them in different ways. I did get a bit annoyed that there was so much untranslated Mandarin in the novel. One or two lines every now and then would be okay, but there were whole exchanges that were left untranslated. I’m perplexed by that decision. Perhaps the reader is meant to feel like an outsider? All in all, I’m glad I read this one.

This story is about an immigrant family that was prosperous, then falls on hard times. They travel across America and try to find answers to their predicament. I have repeatedly tried to read this novel. I just cannot find any interest in it. It seems slow with lots of characters that don't hold my attention. I read a lot of books, but this one isn't for me.

I was not feeling the members of this family , I found reason not to like most of them, but Grace is a typical 16 year old . If you want to read a book about Chinese characters then I suggest Jean Kwok's "Girl in Translation" or "Mambo in Chinatown ". Both books had great characters that you care about and very interesting story. Or Lisa See's books.

This book has been described as "hilarious," but I would describe the humor as biting and irreverent; I often felt a sting as I laughed. I was drawn in by all of the Wang characters and their American experiences. May Lee's legacy has had a profound impact on each of them; fascinating to think about how our relationships and experiences affect everyone involved in vastly different ways, and perhaps that is one of the things that intrigued me so much. Very different from books I normally choose, and I highly recommended!

Charles Wang left China for the American dream and made it big. He's been living it up ever since and he has the vain, empty, emotionally distant family to prove it. But now he's lost everything in the financial crisis of 2008 and is taking his family on a road trip across the country to the home of his oldest daughter in New York state (who is recovering from her own fall from grace), where they can figure out their next step. No more mansion in Bel Air. No more privilege. No more fame or notoriety. It's supposed to be a madcap, darkly comic road trip, but in the end it's just tiresome and annoying.

There are a lot of things to be irritated by in The Wangs vs. the World, and chief among them would be the insanely self-involved and self-righteous characters. There's also the crazy presumption that putting a globalist spin on the 'unhappy family spirals out of control' premise would make it feel fresh and new. Jade Chang seems to think that having the central family be Chinese-American (and including some incredibly boring passages about the Chinese economy) will make these pages sparkle with the luster of a diamond display in Tiffany's. It doesn't.

Oddly enough, what really made me roll my eyes and want to throw this book across the room was Chang's repeated assertion that if only Charles had stayed in China, everything would have been fine. It's meant to be the ultimate irony--that if he had stayed in China and been patient, his tide of fortune would have risen with China's place in the world economy. Here's the problem, though: in order for that to work, you have to assume that Charles' presumption that America unfairly took his money away is true. And it's not. He lost his money because he's terrible at business. Yes, a perfect storm of circumstances heading into the financial crisis is what technically did the taking away of the money. But you can't remove the fact that Charles made a bad business decision, doubled down on it (ignoring the advice of multiple advisors), then tripled down on it (not only ignoring more warning signs but putting his own fortune and home on the line this time). It wasn't America that led to Charles' financial ruin, it was his pride combined with his terrible business sense. The book even admits that he basically made his money in the first place without using business sense but by getting lucky. The first piece of that luck was that his ancestral home in China had access to a commodity the American market needed. He was never a smart businessman.

So why would things be any different had Charles remained in China? I don't think they would have been any different at all, but Chang contorts the whole plotline to try to make you wonder "what if?"

There's more to discuss about the plot itself and why it's lazy and cliched, but I'm weary of this book and I think you get the point.

Grade: D

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