Luxury cars, designer clothes, expensive jewelry, mansions and an Asian family at the center of it all … Sounds like that book that became last summer’s hit movie.
But Kathy Wang hasn’t even seen “Crazy Rich Asians.”
“I haven’t seen any movies since my kids were born,” she says, laughing. “I loved Kevin Kwan’s book, though. I know there’s comparisons, but I definitely think mine is more ‘crazy middle class Asians.’”
Wang, 34, is sitting in a Starbucks near her home in Los Altos. Tucked into the booth next to her is a bunch of bananas and a small bag of cookies.
“I wanted a chocolate bar,” she confesses, “but they were like $15! Very artisan. It’s really a Silicon Valley thing.”
Silicon Valley (and its excesses) is at the center of Wang’s first novel. “Family Trust” (William Morrow, $26.99, 400 pages) is a successful Chinese immigrant family saga featuring a manipulative patriarch who’s dying; his ex-wife, who is entering the dating scene again at age 70; and their two stressed-out adult children with messy personal lives.
There’s plenty of juicy intrigue. Just how much is Stanley Huang worth, now that he’s dying (and has he written a will)? Is his new young wife trying to cure him with herbal remedies — or hurry the process along? Does the normally pragmatic former wife Linda get her head turned by a new online love? What does daughter Kate discover when she tests out her company’s new spy cam in her husband’s office? And will son Fred put his Harvard MBA to use when he’s poached by a tech company that may be too good to be true?
Wang, who grew up in Saratoga, had not planned on being a novelist. The only child of older Chinese immigrant parents, she went to the University of California at Berkeley, and eventually got her MBA at Harvard. Along the way, she worked at Intel, where she met her husband, then she worked at Seagate as a product manager.
An avid reader, she’d never considered writing fiction until reflecting on her life after graduating from Harvard. “I was obsessed with the idea of what happens when your life gets to a certain point, and it’s not what you thought it was.”
Her first character was Fred, who was also disappointed that the entire world wasn’t celebrating him after he graduated from Harvard. The similarities don’t stop there. Her parents divorced when she was in college, and Wang admits she was never close to her father’s new wife. Her father died two years ago.
Her mother is also sensible, like Linda. And plays mah jong, like Linda.
Wang laughs. “The components are there, but then it exploded and went out of control! I’ve repeatedly stressed, especially to my mother, that it is not autobiographical. She didn’t even know I was writing it. I didn’t tell her until the contract with Harper Collins was signed; it wouldn’t count otherwise.”
Wang had just given her mom a copy to read the previous day. “I told her it was dedicated to her. She was like, ‘OK, thanks.’ And went into the kitchen and had this talk with my nanny about the things I’m doing wrong when I cook!”
Was she nervous about her mom’s reaction? Wang sighed, but grinned. “She’s pretty stoic, so I’m not too frightened. My friends describe her as an Asian WASP. I love my mom. She’s so strong. And Linda is everyone’s favorite character.”
The novel came about because of a New Year’s resolution when she was home with her toddler and pregnant with her second child. “I just felt I needed something for myself, an adult activity.” So, she wrote what she knew: The second-generation immigrant experience in Silicon Valley.
“And a reporter from the Midwest said, ‘Where you live is so strange and weird in the book!’ I didn’t even know it came off that way. We just live here.”
Wang is currently writing her second book, stealing time when her 1 and 3-year-olds nap or after they go to bed. She’s not sure what the book’s about yet, she just knows she feels guilty if she doesn’t write every day. “I guess I’m obsessed. I have to just get whatever I’m thinking about down, even if it’s bad.”
And Wang isn’t the type to dwell on the thrill of having her book published. “It is exciting, but I’ve got the two small kids, so whenever I get good news, it’s great, but then I have to go buy bananas or something. So, I’m happy! But I don’t know if much will change in my life.”
