The Books Behind the Summer's Best Movies

Singapore at its wealthiest and most sparkly provides the setting for Crazy Rich Asians, out August 17, starring Henry Golding as Nick, the handsome scion of a wealthy clan, and Constance Wu as Rachel, his gorgeous but decidedly less-affluent girlfriend. The two are headed to the island from New York to attend the wedding of Nick's cousin, and both the book and the movie have plenty of scenes of Constance being floored by the high-class lifestyle (private suites in first class, giant mansions) and anxious about hyperrich sass. Kwan's novel also has plenty of froth, but it's also Austenesque in its savvy understanding of the upper-crust pecking order and how a slight faux pas can lead to greater mortifications. And by tightly focusing on Nick and Rachel, the movie gives less air to some of the book's most engaging secondary characters, like Astrid, a fashion plate dealing with her husband's infidelities.