If Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite” was a book, it’d be White Ivy. Drawing startling resemblances to the movie, White Ivy revolves around the life of a Chinese girl, as she tries to climb up the social ladder in America, in whatever way possible- through deceit, lies and thievery.
The protagonist, or should I say antagonist of the book, Ivy is brought up in China until she turns five. After that, she’s put on a plane and sent to live with her apathetic parents and younger brother. Ivy’s family is constantly under financial duress. Ivy yearns to be as “American” as the rest of her peers, but faces several obstacles- her family, especially her mother, is overly conservative, and absolutely abhors certain classical American things, like ripped jeans and makeup. As a result, she begins to steal, and stash her findings in her bedroom. Her all-American dream wouldn’t be complete without her having an American boy on her arm. She develops a crush on her classmate, Gideon Speyer, the son of a US Senator, and from a rich, influential family. A teenage crush is no matter of concern, but Ivy takes her interest in the boy to an obsession. Her family eventually finds out, and what they come to know is just the bare minimum. Even this mild infraction is enough to convince Ivy’s mother to send her back to China.
In China, Ivy is sent to live with her wealthy aunt, and all her needs are well taken care of. It is at this point, that Ivy begins to see money as being capable of giving her power and security, and longs to live an extravagant like her relatives. When she returns to the United States, her family has moved to a completely different state and expects Ivy to start over all over again. Ivy quietly lives under her domineering parents’ noses, continuing to thieve and become “all-American”. She continues to remain obsessed with Gideon.
A decade later, with Ivy working as an elementary school teacher, she runs into Gideon’s sister. A meeting with Gideon seems inevitable, and she is quickly reintroduced into his social circle. Clearly, Gideon harboured no such obsession over Ivy as a teenager and vaguely remembers her as a middle school classmate. Ivy wastes no time this time around though. She is quick to wrap Gideon around her finger, solidifying her stance among the country’s elite.
In a classic romance novel, readers are made privy to the thoughts of both individuals and are in a way able to sense the growing attraction between characters. However, in White Ivy, the author deliberately offers no insight into Gideon’s thoughts. We are able to see him only through Ivy’s eyes- stoic, poised and the very epitome of an affluential American. In reality, Gideon is nothing short of a figurine, gullible to Ivy’s scheming, to associate herself with wealth and society’s elite. Ivy’s carefully crafted persona threatens to collapse, upon the return of a childhood friend, Roux, who was Ivy’s partner in crime, when she shoplifted. As much as Ivy likes Roux, she is far from willing to throw the luxurious lifestyle she has with Gideon out of the window, in exchange for Roux, who still doesn’t seem to have gotten the hang of adulting.
White Ivy details Ivy’s deceptive machinations and presents a haunting tale, deep-rooted in ideas of class and race. The book is written in an almost clinical fashion, with the author laying bare all of Ivy’s flaws. Reading White Ivy is at par with the feeling of being on a train hurtling towards derailment- as the reader witnesses Ivy make one poor decision after another, all for materialistic gain.