The Majesties

The Majesties by Tiffany Tsao starts strong. Estella has poisoned their entire family,  leaving over 300 relatives dead and her sister Gwendolyn as the only survivor. Gwendolyn lies in a coma, and looks back on what led their family here. I had a weird feeling from the short sentence Gwendolyn overhears that even this dramatic event was… not quite the full story, but I didn’t guess the ending, not even close.

If you heard the Crazy Rich Asians comparisons about this book, the similarity is the wealthy Chinese diaspora, not any similarity in tone, theme or writing style. The Majesties is more of a dark, twisted fairy tale. Estella and Gwendolyn’s family meets for endless dinners and vacations together, indulging in glamorous shopping trips and fine restaurants, when they’re not handling the family business and investments. There’s a constant undercurrent of lies and unspoken, unspeakable actions — for the good of the family, or at least the good of the family bank accounts. It never quite becomes juicy, gossipy scandal, instead there’s a heavy sense of corruption, greed, and guilt.

This book reminded me of We Have Always Lived In The Castle, with two entwined sisters quietly considering own guilt and complicity in family dysfunction and death. For most of her life, Estella’s pretty passive, watching all the underhanded actions around her, not participating or even strongly reacting to them, just watching. She’s not making choices as much as observing them, while Gwendolyn observes Estella.

Most of this book is Gwendolyn looking back on memories, and building to an established  conclusion to the family’s story. I love family sagas, but knowing that everyone was dead turned some of the tension down. It was still fascinating to watch the shocking, unspoken sins of the extended family slowly unfolding.

Some sections of the story are confusing, particularly the section introducing Doll’s company Bagatelle. I like artistic prose, but I also like knowing what the heck is going on. Fortunately for The Majesties, I’m in week 10 of covid quarantine, so I had the time and patience to stick with Doll’s meandering memories to the payoff conclusion. The payoff is great, but it takes a long time to build up to it.

Eventually, the story shifts, when Estella decides that the family is beyond redemption. The concluding section is tense and beautiful at the same time, with ties between insects and fungi and human actions,  and almost supernatural revelations.