Reviewed by Jeanne
Mebel Tanadi is a trophy wife and proud of it. She’s even trophy shaped. She’s been groomed
to be the perfect trophy wife practically since birth. Her son (because of
course she produced a son, just as expected) says she is a CHIP—a Chinese
Indonesian Princess, and Mebel thinks that is a perfect description. It’s hard
work keeping one’s face and figure, not to mention being sure one is perfectly
dressed (Mebel is not going to be caught dead in last year’s fashions) and
sport flawless make-up.
Then her husband drops a bombshell. He’s leaving her for Wendy, their 26 year old
chef.
Once the shock wears off, Mebel knows what she has to do. Obviously, Henk is leaving her because Wendy
is a fabulous cook and not because she’s 40 years younger so all Mebel has to
do is learn to cook. There’s a cooking school
in Paris which she takes as a sign because that’s one of the places she likes
to shop. So she packs her monogrammed
Louis Vuitton luggage and head for the City of Lights.
Cooking—how hard can it be?
I’ve enjoyed several of Sutanto’s books (I adore Vera Wong’s
Unsolicited Advice for Murderers) so I decided to give this one a try even
if it wasn’t a mystery. I was amply rewarded.
Like Vera, Mebel is a force of nature and laugh-out-loud funny. There are so many passages that beg to be
read aloud that I lost track. What I
love best about the book is that while as we readers are discovering Mebel,
Mebel is discovering Mebel.
For me this book was a delight from start to finish. Not only is it very funny, but it has heart.
I found myself cheering for Mebel as she learns to navigate knives, fellow
students young enough to be her children, and a dorm room smaller than one of
her closets. I didn’t recognize all the
luxury brands named dropped in the book but that didn’t matter. Mebel’s sincere
delight shone through in every mention of Birkin bags or Kate Spade.
I’ll be recommending this to a lot of people!
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