BookLife Review: Counterfeit, by Kirsten Chen
criminal enterprise, counterfeit luxury handbags, Stanford Law, at-home mom, chic lit, pop fiction
Not my usual fare. Kirsten Chen’s Counterfeit strains credulity. But once you get on board, and suspend belief, it is a mildly entertaining ride.
The author places our Stanford Law alum protagonist in a strained marriage, and holding on by fingernails to her role as a new at-home parent while her husband accepts an academic promotion that has the virtual newlyweds living apart but for occasional weekend visits. In a grand leap, the author jumps from a dissatisfied lawyer-turned-at-home mom to an “I’m-not-fulfilled-so-let-me-hop-into-the-world-of-international-organized-crime” mastermind. Questioning “but would she?” is irrelevant here, as she barrels into the enterprise.
Our luckless anti-heroine at first dabbles into a fraudulent luxury bag return scheme under the persuasive lure of a fringe Stanford acquaintance. But after taking one trip to China, under the self-justified cover of visiting her relatives, and seeing the cash and bounty available for the taking, she dives headlong into the the world of luxury handbags and the enormous underworld that is the counterfeit production of them. Along the way, she and her husband all-too-readily practice laissez faire parenting not normally attributed to high achieving first time parents, and gloss over some significant and very noticeable developmental and behavioral issues with their son, all in pursuit of their own self-interests. Fear not, crime ultimately doesn’t pay.
It's an @reesesbookclub pick that seems to have been chosen for its big (or small) screen production value, rather than its literary power. But a quick read and mildly interesting if you need one of those, or if you want the colorful cover for your bedside table.