Kevin Kwan loves to write about the ultra-rich. In his new novel, wealth is just ‘smoke and mirrors’

One thing Kevin Kwan has learned as a novelist who writes about wealth is that rich people say the darnedest things. 

Since he published his hit debut novel, Crazy Rich Asians, in 2013, the Singaporean American novelist has been mining his real-life interactions with jet-setting one-percenters to write biting satire about the comedy and tragedy of the ultra-rich.

“People, when left to their own devices, they say the most outrageous things. And literally that’s what I do — I overhear conversations, and I literally just put them in the books,” Kwan told As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

And his newest novel, Lies and Weddings, unfolds over a series of elite destination weddings — settings guaranteed to provide juicy material for a writer like Kwan. 

“I think after this book, no one’s going to invite me to anything anymore,” he said with a chuckle.

‘The tragedy of too much money’

Kwan was born in Singapore to an established and wealthy family, and moved to Texas when he was 11. That’s when he first learned what it feels like to be an outsider. 

“I mean, how can you not? Your basic existence is you’re different from most people,” he said. 

In the U.S., he also lived a more modest life than his family back in Singapore — attending public school, for example. But he tapped into his family history when he wrote Crazy Rich Asians, a book that spawned a blockbuster movie and is now being adapted into a Broadway play.

“Having left Singapore, you know, and not having been back for so many years, allowed the distance to really look at that world, because it’s sort of crystallized, like amber,” he said.

“I feel like you really have to be outside of the bubble in order to look into it, you know?”

Since then, he says he’s continued to live on the outskirts of that wealthy universe — not quite a part of it, but often a fly on the wall.

“I get invited to peek in every now and then. But, you know, my daily life does not involve private jets or destination weddings and five-star cuisine…. Nor would I want it to,” he said. “It’s not my speed.”

What’s more, he says he’s learned that being rich isn’t the fairy tale it appears to be.

“People that I knew who were powerful or wealthy or influential, they were never happy,” he said. “You really see the tragedy of too much money.”

Being a billionaire, he says, “warps reality.”

“They think they can shift reality. They think they can be immortal. They think they can buy everyone,” he said. “And the truth is, you really can’t.”

Not always as rich as Instagram would suggest 

Looks can be deceiving in more ways than one.

“Oftentimes, these fortunes are not as big as you think, and it’s all smoke and mirrors,” Kwan said.

“They’re buffering things to, you know, to keep the stock price high. But underneath it all, they’re scrambling — you know, companies overleveraged, fortunes overleveraged. They’re always waiting for that next payoff.”

That, he says, is the core of Lies and Weddings. 

The novel follows Rufus Leung Gresham, the future Duke of Greshambury and heir to the legendary Gresham Trust. 

His family’s brand is one of wealth and influence, and they reinforce that image through magazine covers and Instagram stories displaying their lavish and decadent lifestyles. 

But in reality, their money has long been depleted, and Gresham is due to inherit mountains of debt. So he attends luxury weddings with elite guests in search of a rich woman to seduce and marry in order to secure the family’s fortune and status. 

But with all his books, Kwan says he tries to insert Trojan Horse characters — regular people who are exposed to decadent societies, offering a way into the story for audiences and acting as a sort of moral compass.

In Crazy Rich Asians, that character is protagonist Rachel Chu, a middle-class professor whose husband comes from a rich Singaporean family.

In Lies and Weddings, it’s Eden Tong, a doctor who works for the U.K.’s public health system and is the true object of Gresham’s affections.

“It’s always the outsider that does not have money that’s looking at and placing her judgment on this,” Kwan said.

“So I don’t think I’ve ever glorified the wealth. You know, it comes with a conscience. It comes with a price. And then more and more, I think that conscience has seeped in. And that’s especially true of this book.”