Book Review: Women Of Good Fortune by Sophie Wan

Once upon a time, best friends Lulu, Jane, and Rina joked that they were Leftovers, the derogatory term often applied to Chinese women who weren’t married by the age of twenty-seven. But as the years pass, they each feel the increasing pressure to wed. Jane succumbs first, marrying a man she despises because of her parents’ constant reminders that her lack of good looks should make her grateful for anyone she can get. While Rina is a happily single workaholic desperate to prove to her boss that she’s as devoted to her job as any man, Lulu has finally gotten engaged—against her own better judgment—to one of Shanghai’s most eligible bachelors.

Harv and Lulu’s courtship was a whirlwind driven mostly by Harv’s interest in her, and she can’t say whether she actually even loves him. What she does know is that the entire thing has taken her by surprise, in no large part due to his rigid parents’ unexpected acceptance of her, a girl from the countryside working as a restaurant hostess, as an acceptable mate for their only son. As the formidable Peng Ayi, her prospective mother-in-law, bluntly explains:

“I can’t have my son marrying just anyone. It was strange to me why he insisted on you when there were many better options. Of course I looked into your family. Such short lifespans, and a no-good brother. With your looks, you probably would have commanded a very good bride price with some peasant man. When I met you, I realized why we could accept you into our family.” Lulu is almost afraid to breathe. “You’re obedient, soft. And the benefit of coming from a background like yours is that you’ll be grateful for everything you get.”

 

Lulu was surprised Harv’s parents didn’t attempt to block his marriage to a girl who wasn’t rich or from some notable family. In fact, she’d almost hoped they would. Here, then, is the truth: she was chosen because she is weak.

But Lulu isn’t completely passive. She dreams of running away and traveling the world, despite her mother’s constant demands for her to marry well so that her husband can support her parents as they age. Her best friends nurse similar unconventional desires. Rina wants to fly back to where she was raised in San Francisco so she can freeze her eggs—an illegal act in China—and stop worrying about her future fertility. Jane is desperate to get plastic surgery so that she can divorce her husband and trade up for someone who will give her the life of luxury she desires. As the three women commiserate, they realize that money is really the only barrier to achieving these goals… and that they could easily get quite enough of it if they mastermind a heist to steal a safe filled with the red envelopes of money traditionally given as wedding gifts.

The safe in question will be at Lulu’s upcoming and impossibly lavish wedding to Harv. Given his family’s status and wealth, the wedding guests will strive to outdo themselves with generous gifts. In order to make off with the money, Lulu, Jane, and Rina will not only have to craft and execute meticulous plans but also recruit a getaway driver and an expert forger. As they work together, Lulu finds herself asking the forger, aptly nicknamed Michelangelo, why she got into the business of counterfeiting luxury goods. Michelangelo responds:

“I’ve spent my life surrounded by women desperate to fool themselves with something that can only ever approximate the real thing. And I wondered–why shouldn’t someone get the admiration she craves, simply because she cannot spend a ludicrous sum on a pile of leather? I wanted to make their dreams feel a little closer.”

 

“You help them lie to themselves,” Lulu says, watching as a bee floats around a gardenia before landing on one of its creamy petals.

 

“There’s good money in lies. Too often, we let people around us inflate our views of something that might be objectively worthless.[“]

As the day of the wedding approaches, the expected stresses—but also several unexpected obstacles—begin to expose the cracks in the five women’s relationships with one another. Will they be able to carry off the heist as planned? Perhaps more importantly, will their friendships survive the attempt and its aftermath?

As an examination of the unfair ways in which modern women, particularly in but not necessarily restricted to China, are treated, this is an excellent novel that well deserves comparisons to the social satire of Kevin Kwan’s Crazy Rich Asians. Lulu, Jane, and Rina all have very different but very sympathetic plights, as each realizes that playing by society’s rules will gain them nothing but scorn and unhappiness. Some of the heist stuff seemed a little odd—the idea that Lulu’s role as the bride was negligible, for example, was entirely laughable—but the realistically bittersweet ending more than made up for any logistical issues. Women Of Good Fortune is a highly entertaining crime caper debut with strong and insightful social commentary that is a must-read for anyone with an interest in contemporary Chinese culture.