White lies. Dark humor. Deadly consequences… Bestselling sensation Juniper Song is not who she says she is, she didn’t write the book she claims she wrote, and she is most certainly not Asian American—in this chilling and hilariously cutting novel from R.F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel.
Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.
So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.
So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.
But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.
With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable.
ASIN : B0B9SN8K6H
Publisher : William Morrow (May 16, 2023)
Publication date : May 16, 2023
Language : English
Print length : 329 pages
Page numbers source ISBN : B0B965J9KX
Genre: Fiction Satire, Asian American Literature and Fiction, Mystery Thriller and Suspense
Firstly, any book writing from the point of view of a plagiarist is intensely entertaining. In a twisted way you want them to succeed, knowing they will be challenged all the way to the bitter end. But this riveting satire is nothing quite like this. For aspiring writings waiting in the wings to get into publishing, this is a starkly honest reveal of how it all works.
June Hayward is a struggling author with a college friend called Athena Liu. Where Athena is a literary and critical success, June is nowhere near achieving such high fandom. Her writing isn’t there yet and she knows it. But when Athena tragically dies⸺a scene any onlooker would find truly traumatic⸺June intrusively goes through Athena’s rough draft manuscript and decides to edit it. There is a lot of June’s natural writing within the manuscript which may have excused or given her a reason for believing the majority of the book is hers. Adopting the pseudonym June Song and using an ethnically ambiguous photo, she submits the book which is about Chinese laborers during WWI. The manuscript is accepted on the spot. Thus begins her literary career. But when the book is “chosen” by the publisher to be the blockbuster bestselling book du jour, accusations mount because June is not Chinese and someone knows the book isn’t rightfully hers.
What I love about this tale is how it takes the reader through the editorial process all the way to marketing and PR. It’s about self-indulgence, exploitation, and ruthless ambition. But as June basks in the spotlight, “enjoying this delightful waterfall of attention” and a production company options the rights to the book, somebody launches a social media rebellion over their distaste for June’s cultural appropriation. Not only is she dominating literary conversations everywhere as a breakout success, but she’s becoming a target of abuse.
With stunning writing and clever characterisation, this book will no doubt spark much discussion on social media literary threads. There’s too much truth in it to go unnoticed. Where R. F. Kuang has tapped into some of the major issues of publishing today, there’s also a lesson to be learned here. Highly recommended.
About the author: Rebecca F. Kuang is a Marshall Scholar, Chinese-English translator, and the Astounding Award-winning and the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Award nominated author of the Poppy War trilogy and the forthcoming Babel. Her work has won the Crawford Award and the Compton Crook Award for Best First Novel. She has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford; she is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale.
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