“COUNTERFEIT” by Kirstin Chen

When I hear about Ivy league graduates, I imagine they get spectacular jobs based on their grades and that their lives are extraordinary.

The writer Kirstin Chen, through her latest novel “Counterfeit,” changed my opinion completely.
She showed me that it is possible to be miserable in a job obtained even after you graduate from an Ivy League university.
And also, it is possible to get way more money by selling counterfeited coveted bags while using the knowledge obtained in the said university. 

“She only had to hang out with Ava a couple of times before she saw her opening. 
Of course Ava’s Harvard-educated doctor husband was absent and neglectful; of course she couldn’t admit that she hated being a lawyer and twisted herself into contortions downplaying her son’s developmental issues.
As far as Winnie could tell, Ava’s entire life could be boiled down to this: great on paper, rotten everywhere else.

And Winnie was sorry to see it. Her old friend deserved better. 

Truly, when Winnie decided to bring Ava into her business, she was doing her a favor. As much as she needed Ava’s help, Ava needed hers. 
Winnie was prepared. She trotted out her well-worn argument: the corporations were the real villains. They abused their workers, paying them pennies and then going out and hawking the fruits of their labor for thousands.

Ava’s upper lip curled into a sneer. 
– Spare me the excuses, she said. You’re no Robin Hood.
Just say you saw an opportunity to make money and took it.

– Okay, she said slowly. You’re right.
The scheme is foolproof and I’m proud of it. I make good money. Great money, actually, and I could use your help.

When she raised her head, Ava’s eyes bored into her.
– You’re disgusting, she spat before charging out the door, leaving Winnie behind. 

Winnie sat there, hands clutching opposite elbows, wondering how she’d gotten it so wrong. She’d expected shock, displeasure, sure, maybe condemnation. She hadn’t expected rage. 

And then she understood: Ava took Winnie’s cheating as a personal affront. She saw Winnie as taking something that was rightfully hers–a life of wealth and delight and adventure, a life she’d been promised if only she worked hard enough and followed the rules and never, ever slipped up.

Except Ava had done all those things.
She’d gone to the right schools, chosen the right career, married the right partner, formed the right family–and made enormous sacrifices in the process, and yet here she was, thoroughly miserable, horrified by the prospect that her entire existence had been built on lies.”

Kindle, 2022