- Date published: May 2023
- Date read: August 2023
- Format read: Hardcover (borrowed from library)
- Why I wanted to read this book: This book has been all over Bookstagram since its release! And no surprise – R.F. Kuang’s follow-up to Babel was sure to be buzzy, and a lot of early reviews raved about this book. I was on the fence of whether I wanted to read this, because I wasn’t the biggest fan of Babel (it was a 3⭐ read for me). I was worried I’d feel similarly about Yellowface. Then I saw a copy of Yellowface at my local library as a peak pick, and figured “why not?”, so I checked it out.
My review:
As mentioned above, I had a lot of pre-conceived ideas going into Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. That often does not make for an ideal reading experience. So I tried my best to put these opinions aside and go in with an open mind. I ended up liking this book more than I expected!
Yellowface is about a young author named June Hayward, who has somewhat of a toxic friendship with Athena Liu. Athena and June met in college when they were aspiring writers and have since both gotten books published, but Athena is wildly successful while June’s career has been a bit of a flop. Within the first few pages, June witnesses Athena’s unexpected death. June decides to take home Athena’s recently completed first draft manuscript, a new book about Chinese soldiers who fought for the French and British in World War I, a largely forgotten piece of history. After some editing, June publishes the book as her own under the ethnically ambiguous name Juniper Song, and receives the acclaim and success she’s always wanted.
But that is just the start of the story, as June eventually faces critics and accusers who question whether June did write this novel about Chinese soldiers on her own. Mostly satirical social commentary and a little bit psychological thriller, Yellowface brings up interesting topics such as about which authors have “permission” to write which stories, an inside look at the darker side of the publishing industry, and how social media has a very real effect on our lives.
At certain points, it was a bit tiresome to always be inside June’s head, and there were times where her thoughts behavior just seemed a little too terrible. At these times the writing walked the line of being too heavy handed and I wanted to say, “I get the point!” But later in the book, as the plot progressed and June story twisted and turned, I had fun enjoying the ride and was curious to learn what would happen.
Ultimately, this book worked for me because I thought R.F. Kuang created a thought-provoking story with few clear answers and a lot of gray area. I read in a Guardian article that for Kuang, the question of which writers have permission to engage with certain topics or stories is not the right question to ask. Instead, the better questions are: How do they approach these topics? Are they engaging critically with the tropes and stereotypes? What is their relationship to the people represented in the stories?
I think these are good points. And as Yellowface shows, although the main character June Hayward certainly isn’t the best writer to tell the story in Athena’s manuscript, perhaps Athena is not the greatest fit either. Yellowface broaches these complex topics, but doesn’t offer any clear answers, because there are not any.
I really enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look into the publishing world. It was super interesting to learn about all the steps that authors and their teams go through to get a book out into the world.
One of my favorite things about Yellowface was how Kuang engaged the reader in not only the central themes of the book, but also in the character of Athena Liu, and her striking similarities to Kuang herself. Athena clearly shares a lot with Kuang, to the point where the reader can’t help but ponder, “how much of Athena is based on R.F. Kuang?” They are both 27, Chinese American, attractive, attended Yale (though Athena went there for undergrad and Kuang is there now for her PhD), and got big publishing deals before they graduated college. But to say that Athena represents R.F. Kuang is an oversimplification. And to say that June is bad and Athena is good is also an oversimplification.
Kuang does a clever job of encouraging the reader to think about these ideas, and I think it takes guts to create a complicated, morally gray character like Athena Liu that has such resemblance to yourself. It’s a bold move!
My rating:
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ (4 out of 5 stars)
Buy Yellowface: from Bookshop | from Amazon
