Yellow Face by R.F Kuang, the latest international best-seller is an interesting novel which tells the story of Juniper Song(June Hayward), a white author who steals and rewrites an unpublished Novel by her deceased Asian- American Author friend , to become a global best selling author.
June Hayward is a struggling, failed white author who is a close acquaintance of Athena Liu, the latest literary sensation. Both of them are celebrating Athena’s recent literary success (a Netflix deal) in a bar . In a bizarre twist of fate, Athena chokes on a pancake and dies instantaneously. Juniper chances upon a nearly finished manuscript which Athena had been working on till then. Though initially clueless about what to do with it, June soon realizes that her deceased friend’s manuscript might be her ticket to redemption. She steals it , works around a bit and publishes it as her own work. The book becomes an instant best seller, June’s life takes an upward turn ,but she also makes a few enemies on her way.
The biggest strength of Yellow Face is that it manages to hook the reader from srtart to finish. There aren’t many characters in this Novel and the story is largely told from June’s point of view. Still,there is never a dull moment in the narrative. H.Kang offers an insider’s view on the publishing industry and also manages to be a social commentary on racial stereotyping. The anxieties and insecurities of new age authors and the futility of social media discourses are also well etched out. Though the book reads like a thriller , I prefer calling this one a satire- (a ruthless and a savage one at that!) .From June’s attempts at sounding ‘more Asian’( her ‘rechristening’ as Juniper Song) to the altercation scene at the Asian writer’s workshop , the critique is unmissable, but at the same time, not all over the place.
On the whole, I loved reading this one.
-nikhimenon
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