Counterfeit

This part introduces the premise that Ava is narrating the story of how she became involved in a criminal enterprise. Her addresses to the detective suggest she is being interrogated, a practice that creates an intimate, confessional tone and which makes Ava appear both guilty and sincere. The text dispenses with quotation marks, embedding dialogue in the narrative in a way that makes it feel like exchanges are being reported secondhand.

Ava portrays herself as a victim who was exploited by a clever and smooth-talking con artist whom she thought was her friend—a ploy designed to arouse reader sympathy. Ava describes a vulnerable emotional state due to sleeplessness and her struggling to take care of her toddler, depending on her nanny for emotional support as she has little help from her absent surgeon husband. As she is also grieving the loss of her mother, Ava suggests these combined factors made her susceptible to Winnie’s calculated efforts to recruit her.

The theme of Counterfeit, Disguise, and Deception enters when Ava admits she does not speak of her dissatisfaction with her career. Ava’s childhood as a good student and obedient child has led her to conform to what other people demand of her and also represents Living Up to Expectations. What Ava wants for herself, besides the success and happiness of her family, is simply ease and comfort, the chance to feel rested and healthy and to pursue her own interests, which will emerge more clearly in later chapters.

Ava’s objections to being a stay-at-home mother are twofold. One objection borrows from the widespread belief that the labor of raising a child isn’t recognized as valuable or important. The story of the law partner who divorced his wife after she gave up her career exemplifies how Ava feels her public self, which had economic value and earned respect, has disappeared into motherhood. Her second objection is the lack of money. She mentions to Winnie how depending only on Oli’s income has put a strain on their finances, though they can afford a nanny and a separate apartment for Oli. The economic dependence, emotional vulnerability, and guilt about how she looked down on Winnie previously all lead Ava’s audience—the reader as much as the detective—to understand her motivations for her next choices. Her outrage at learning about Winnie’s fraud signals that Ava is a moral character who adheres to rules, further painting her as a sympathetic character, one invested in doing what is right.

Woven through Ava’s narrative are hints of anti-Asian bias that silently add to the pressures she is under. The expectations that she perform well in school hint at a need to live up to the “model minority” belief about high-achieving, compliant Asian students. Ava holds her own prejudice toward Winnie for being “fresh off the boat” (6), a term established Asian Americans use to describe new immigrants who haven’t adapted to mainstream American culture. Ava identifies Winnie’s look, with her designer accessories, as “Asian-tourist rich” (3), but this assessment holds a different, more demeaning charge when delivered by the elderly white diner at Neiman Marcus. Winnie is amused at Ava’s indignation over the use of the outdated term, considered by many to be derogatory, while Winnie is accustomed to being pinpointed as foreign, though she is in the process of gaining US citizenship. These ideas speak to the theme of Negative Beliefs About Asia and Asian Identities. The Chinese woman Ava sees on the street with a cart of cardboard boxes provides a sobering parallel to the wealthy Neiman Marcus diner, hinting at the very different economic realities that immigrants or non-white groups in the US may face. The Chinese woman demonstrates that Asian American peoples are not a monolith; they experience life and discrimination in different ways and belong to a wide range of economic groups. This depiction is in contrast to the white diner’s comments; she groups all Chinese people into one group, “Orientals” who are “everywhere,” but they are varied. This also demonstrates the white prejudice that Asian American women are docile or always law-abiding, which Winnie will subvert.

Winnie’s experience in college points to further anti-Asian bias as the Chinese students who falsified their SAT scores received harsher penalties than the wealthy white students did. Winnie remarks that saleswomen at the Hermès store wouldn’t sell her a bag, suggesting that she, with visible Asian descent, isn’t seen as worthy of possessing such a coveted item. Winnie’s employment of young Asian women as the shoppers in her scheme seems justifiable in this light, as she uses the bias in her own favor and exploits assumptions about docile, hard-working Asians. Winnie uses the “model minority” stereotype against racist white people by having Asian American women return the bags to avoid suspicion.

In dramatic terms, these chapters offer exposition, the explanation of why Ava comes to make her choice. These chapters emphasize Ava’s vulnerability and her internal conflicts. The prose style is direct, smooth, and readable, with little figurative language, though flashes of Ava’s individual voice emerge in Ava’s asides. The tone of her narrative, frank and confessional, makes her a believable narrator. As readers will discover, however, not all is as it seems. Ava’s supposed honesty and vulnerability are part of her deception: These traits distract from the fact that she is manipulating the truth and therefore the detective.