The Price of Love - How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid

As far as getting rich is concerned, love can be an impediment. Yes, the pursuit of love and the pursuit of wealth have much in common. — Mohsin Hamid.

How to get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia is technically not a romantic fiction but love remained one of the driving forces of the story that moved the character “ You”. As Mohsin Hamid said it, love much like wealth are synonymous that they can inspire, motivate, uplift and kill. This novel has quite an uncommon love, contrary to any traditional ideas of love and love story.

𝘙𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺, 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘏𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘊𝘭𝘶𝘣 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘢 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘭𝘺 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘬 𝘪𝘴 "Which romance author do you think deserves more recognition, and what book would you recommend from them? ". 𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 : 𝘏𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘊𝘭𝘶𝘣 𝘏𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 #315

I think this story and the author deserves more recognition. I know, it’s not exactly the happier kind of story with a happy ending. This particular novel is full of symbolism and requires you to decipher them. The character is “You” which somehow as reader, it feels like it’s talking back at us as we’re given a chance to live another life through this story.

This “You” is a male, living in a fictional asian country whose background came from an impoverished family who rose to wealth in his mid 30’s. It’s about “You”’s life navigating life in rising Asia where though it’s about to be modernized, old culture is still heavily embedded in and the pursuit of wealth has so many more obstacles that sometimes it even challenges our morality.

The love that the “You” character has spans not only for the family but also this romantic interest of him referred to as “ The pretty girl”. Both of them cross paths every now and then when their lives are somehow always at crossroads. The pretty girl didn’t want to settle down or be bound into the traditional form of love and courtship. The “You” was a guy who ended up getting married, had a son with an even more complicated love story and a wife that he later divorced.

The pretty girl has been the main interest of the You’s life and even after he got married. He met her through her rise to fame to the old age where she died. It wasn’t exactly the kind of love that ends in a contemporary love story but throughout the novels you could feel “you”’s yearning for love as well as regrets. Even through it all, you could feel the immense love and the fire in their love that never got to be fully realized.

I do recommend this novel if you are the type that enjoy Herman Hesse’s work such as Siddhartha. The prose and symbolism of romance in the story truly reminded me of them. Although to be fair, I got to know How to get Filthy Rich in Asia almost 6 years ago from a Tim Ferris channel. It was more about the entrepreneurial kind of thing but I truly didn’t expect that there would be a whirlwind romance hidden in the story. I thought this book was a mere futuristic fiction and soulsess. Now, after many years and picking it up, the book was electrifying. Some of the paragraphs are hard to read due to the punctuation. It was almost like reading a ramble. Still, if you enjoy an unconventional love story, this is the book and you might also discover the way to get filthy rich in rising Asia.

This week's book review is a little bit late. I got more preoccupied lately & trying my best to find time to read. While I hate how I am late, next week I definitely won’t. I initially was about to read The Hating Game by Sally Thorne but I stopped halfway just because I couldn’t vibe with the book. Then, I revisited some of the list I had from the past and picked one that I’ve been meaning to read. So, that’s when this book came up. I am currency picking up another book and committing to finish it before the next week comes. See you around and I’ll read more book reviews.