Family Trust – TLC Blog Tour

Family Trust

William Morrow Paperbacks – October 29, 2019

*Book Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours & the publisher in exchange for an honest review*

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Hello November! I must admit I’m not entirely thrilled to see you. If you’re kept up with my Instagram you may know that I’m currently in grad school and unfortunately November is going to be hell. At least December will be wide open for binge reading and I’m really looking forward to that!

Thanks to William Morrow Paperbacks and TLC Book Tours for organizing this book tour for Family Trust!

About the book

Some of us are more equal than others….

Meet Stanley Huang: father, husband, ex-husband, man of unpredictable tastes and temper, aficionado of all-inclusive vacations and bargain luxury goods, newly diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. For years, Stanley has claimed that he’s worth a small fortune. But the time is now coming when the details of his estate will finally be revealed, and Stanley’s family is nervous.

For his son Fred, the inheritance Stanley has long alluded to would soothe the pain caused by years of professional disappointment. By now, the Harvard Business School graduate had expected to be a financial tech god – not a minor investor at a middling corporate firm, where he isn’t even allowed to fly business class.

Stanley’s daughter, Kate, is a middle manager with one of Silicon Valley’s most prestigious tech companies. She manages the capricious demands of her world-famous boss and the needs of her two young children all while supporting her would-be entrepreneur husband (just until his startup gets off the ground, which will surely be soon). But lately, Kate has been sensing something amiss; just because you say you have it all, it doesn’t mean that you actually do.

Stanley’s second wife, Mary Zhu, twenty-eight years his junior, has devoted herself to making her husband comfortable in every way—rubbing his feet, cooking his favorite dishes, massaging his ego.  But lately, her commitment has waned; caring for a dying old man is far more difficult than she expected.

Linda Liang, Stanley’s first wife, knows her ex better than anyone. She worked hard for decades to ensure their financial security, and is determined to see her children get their due. Single for nearly a decade, she might finally be ready for some romantic companionship. But where does a seventy-two year old Chinese woman in California go to find an appropriate boyfriend?

As Stanley’s death approaches, the Huangs are faced with unexpected challenges that upend them and eventually lead them to discover what they most value. A compelling tale of cultural expectations, career ambitions and our relationships with the people who know us best, Family Trust skewers the ambition and desires that drive Silicon Valley and draws a sharply loving portrait of modern American family life.

My Thoughts

I really enjoyed this satirical contemporary fiction book. While it’s not a genre I always read, when it’s done well and I’m in the right mood there’s nothing better.

Told in the third person and different character’s perspectives, I liked that we could see the situation and fallout of Stanley’s health diagnosis on him and his family. While I can’t say that I truly liked any of the character’s I felt like I understood who they were and their thought processes. I could sympathize about their musings about how their lives turned out opposed to what they pictured for themselves. Fred and Kate’s disappointment with their lives that seemingly are everything a millennial should hope for hits all to close to home for me!

While, disappointing millennial lives may sound eerily familiar, the glimpse into the supposedly plush lives in Silicon Valley reveals that all is not well in paradise. Rather the examination of ambition, assimilation, racism, and greed is sobering. There’s enough levity to keep this book enjoyable, but it does make you think.

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Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About Kathy Wang

Kathy Wang grew up in Northern California and holds degrees from UC Berkeley and Harvard Business School. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and two children.

Visit Kathy’s website and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.