 | |
| Author | Kevin Kwan |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Novel |
Publication date | June 30, 2020 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 368 [1] |
| ISBN | 9781786091055 |
Sex and Vanity is a satirical romantic comedy novel written by Kevin Kwan first published in 2020. Centered around the romantic life of a teenager, it was written in four months. It was generally well received by literary critics. A film adaptation of the novel is in development.
Set in Capri, New York, and The Hamptons, [2] the novel details the escapades of Lucie Tang Churchill, [3] a nineteen-year-old biracial New Yorker and descendent of Winston Churchill who is engaged to Baron Cecil Pike while being wooed by Chinese Australian surfer George Zao. [2] [4] [5]
The novel was written by Kevin Kwan, author of the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy. According to Kwan, the title of Sex and Vanity came from a friend's son who had remarked about his generation: "At the end of the day, all that shit is sex and vanity and I want nothing to do with it." [6] Compared to the Crazy Rich Asians series, Sex and Vanity has a smaller cast of characters; Kwan wanted "a much simpler, more intimate story that surrounded one very fascinating young woman." [7]
Kwan wrote Sex and Vanity in four months, from October 2019 to January 2020. [8] Intended to be the first part of a new trilogy, [4] it was released on June 30, 2020, by Penguin Random House. [9] [10]
The novel received generally positive reviews from literary critics. It was listed by Time as one of the "100 Must-Read Books of 2020". [5] Angela Haupt of The Washington Post described the novel as "vacuous entertainment" and that it was "all style and little substance — unfathomably expensive style, which can be gratifying for those with an appetite for rich-people problems." [11] Francesca Angelini of The Times wrote that it is "a straight-up retelling of A Room With a View ", [12] whereas The New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin opined that "Sex and Vanity is what A Room With a View might have been if E. M. Forster’s characters had been micron-deep, Instagram-obsessed and unable to make conversation." [3] Writing for the Asian Review of Books, Susan Blumberg-Kason praised Sex and Vanity for being "a timely story that pokes not too gently at some of society’s less tractable flaws". [13]
As of July 2020, Sony Pictures has purchased the film rights to Sex and Vanity and the project is in development. [14]
Hotel Room is an American drama anthology series that aired for three half-hour episodes on HBO on January 8, 1993, with a repeat the next night. Created by Monty Montgomery and David Lynch, each drama stars a different cast and takes place in hotel room number 603 of the New York City-based "Railroad Hotel", in the years 1969, 1992, and 1936, respectively. The three episodes were created to be shown together in the form of a feature-length pilot, with the hope that if they were well received, a series of episodes following the same stand-alone half-hour format would be produced later. Following a lukewarm reception, HBO chose to not produce more episodes.
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Caryl Lesley Churchill is a British playwright known for dramatising the abuses of power, for her use of non-naturalistic techniques, and for her exploration of sexual politics and feminist themes. Celebrated for works such as Cloud 9 (1979), Top Girls (1982), Serious Money (1987), Blue Heart (1997), Far Away (2000), and A Number (2002), she has been described as "one of Britain's greatest poets and innovators for the contemporary stage". In a 2011 dramatists' poll by The Village Voice, five out of the 20 polled writers listed Churchill as the greatest living playwright.
Kevin Kwan is a Singapore-born American novelist and writer of satirical novels Crazy Rich Asians, China Rich Girlfriend, and Rich People Problems. His latest book, Sex and Vanity, was released in June 2020.
China Rich Girlfriend is a satirical 2015 romantic comedy novel by Kevin Kwan. It is the sequel to Crazy Rich Asians, a novel about the wealthy Singapore elite. Kwan was urged to write the sequel by his publishers after the initial success of Crazy Rich Asians. The title refers to a line in the novel in which Nick's mother, Eleanor, exclaims over the wealth of the "China rich" who are billionaires, "These people aren't just everyday rich with a few hundred million. They are China rich!" The novel was followed by a sequel, Rich People Problems in 2017.
Crazy Rich Asians is a satirical 2013 romantic comedy novel by Kevin Kwan. Kwan stated that his intention in writing the novel was to "introduce a contemporary Asia to a North American audience". He claimed the novel was loosely based on his own childhood in Singapore. The novel became a bestseller and was followed by two sequels, China Rich Girlfriend in 2015 and Rich People Problems in 2017. A film adaptation of the novel was released on August 15, 2018.
Crazy Rich Asians is a 2018 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Jon M. Chu, from a screenplay by Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim, based on the 2013 novel of the same title by Kevin Kwan. The film stars Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Awkwafina, Ken Jeong, and Michelle Yeoh. It follows a Chinese-American professor who travels to meet her boyfriend's family and is surprised to discover they are among the richest in Singapore.
Rich People Problems is a satirical 2017 romantic comedy novel by Kevin Kwan. It is the third and final novel in Kwan's "Crazy Rich..." trilogy that looks at the rich and powerful families of Singapore. It was preceded by the bestsellers of Crazy Rich Asians in 2013 and China Rich Girlfriend in 2015.
The Crazy Rich Asians media franchise is a novel and film series created by Singaporean-American author Kevin Kwan. The franchise was established with the publication of the novel Crazy Rich Asians in 2013. The first film, Crazy Rich Asians was released in 2018, as an epochal film, being the first major Hollywood film with a majority ethnic Asian cast telling a contemporary Asian-American story in a quarter century, since 1993's The Joy Luck Club.
Constance Lau is a Singaporean actress and model. She is best known for her role as Celine Lim in the 2018 American romantic comedy-drama film Crazy Rich Asians.
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