I have just finished reading Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw 400 pages published by Spiegel & Grau $18.00 at Amazon. It is the story of four new, disparate arrivals to Shanghai: a venerable business woman, a pop star, a factory girl turned socialite, and an inheritor of his family real-estate, all of whose fates are tied to an elusive billionaire Walter. But Five Star Billionaire is as much about people as it is about a place: Shanghai represents the booming economic growth of China. 

But, this book has left me with so many questions. All of the characters that arrive in Shanghai are from Malaysia. The poor are illegals looking for money and a better life and the rich are looking to become richer in China. Is illegal immigration such a big problem in China? Is China the place where people from South-East Asia dream of becoming rich? The Chinese Dream? There seems to be a tendency to change the Chinese names to English names. Why? The city comes alive and seems to be on par with Mexico City: loud, polluted, contaminated and over-populated.  The story is well-told and all of the characters are finally connected and revolve around a very sick sense of capitalism gone awry.