R.F. Kuang's novel 'Yellowface' delivers page-turning, intensely relevant magic
(Editor's Note: This is a spoiler-free review)
Juniper Song, a white author who altered her name for a more eastern ring, doesn't let cultural appropriation or plagiarism stand in the way of her pursuit of literary fame.
She steals the pages of a near-complete novel, save for the line edits, from a college friend, the acclaimed author Athena Liu, who dies from choking on a late-night, drunkenly consumed pancake (a pancake!) in the riveting fictional novel "Yellowface" — an inspired work by the supremely talented R.F. Kuang that deals at once with ambition and race and the lengths of lies.
You'll read this in one gulp — much in the same way Athena dies from a gobbled pancake (suicide or murder?)
“Yellowface” has the grip of a mystery novel, an artfully constructed thriller, and the depth of high literature. It's a celebration of writing itself.
"I once met a poet who carried a tiny notebook everywhere she went and wrote down at least one quippy observation about every encounter she had during the day," Kuang writes.
Juniper, a privileged white girl who starts life as June Hayward, has fits and starts as a writer. Candidly, she comes across as just lazy — the kind of writer who might say, "I love having written, just not the heavy lifting of doing the writing." A take I heard years ago about the life and craft of writing.
"Imagine if Michelangelo left huge chunks of the Sistine Chapel unfinished. Imagine if Raphael had to step in and do the rest," is June/Juniper's reasoning for the high seas literary theft of the sensational work from her dead friend from Yale University.
Athena, meanwhile, races to literary stardom with a best seller and Netflix deals in the post-college years. She lives in Washington, D.C.
Athena and her former Yale classmate June, also living in DC, and a frenemy who barely conceals her envy, head out for a night of catch-up and book talk, and the lethal pancake.
Before Athena chokes to death in a tony DC apartment June stumbles across the pages of a book titled "The Last Front," a novel centered on Chinese laborers in World War I. June steals it, and publishes it under her new pen name — Juniper Song. It's a smashing success.
"I write a check for the entirety of my remaining student loan debt, lick the envelope, and send it off to the Department of Education," Juniper says. "No more Nelnet emails for the rest of my life, thank God. I get health insurance. I go to the dentist, and when it turns out I'll have to fork over several hundred dollars to get all those undetected cavities drilled out, I pay the bill without blinking. I see a primary care physician even though there's nothing wrong with me."
Juniper bathes in what Kuang describes as a "delightful waterfall of attention."
The awards flow.
The talk-show appearances and book signings clog her calendar.
She has a team of agents and publicists.
But soon the questions come: how can a white author capture the Asian experience? Awfully suspicious this white girl comes out with a book dealing with China and World War I so close to the passing or her accomplished friend — with whom she was late-night pancaking.
Juniper receives emails and texts, first from detractors, haters, Asian activists and as Kuang writes, "clout-chasing" white liberals.
The book is an intense examination of the public square and what happens when people write outside of their own identities. Can a white writer craft Asian characters? In this case, of course, the answer is no — but Kuang delves into the subject in provocative ways.
Finally, we get the ghost of Athena, the literary giant, taken too soon by the pancake. She texts the stealer of her genius with details only Athena could know.
Is it a ghost? Or cruel online revenge from a poser?
The pages can't turn fast enough, for both plot-revealing purposes and the stand-up-and-cheer turns of phrase from Kuang.
"Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic," Kuang writes. "Writing is creating something out of nothing, is opening doors to other lands. Writing gives you power to shape your own world when the real one hurts too much."
Amen.
Kuang herself is pure magic.
(Douglas Burns, a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read 48 of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers' Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. Please follow other writers on the roster below. )
Wow! As soon as I saw that you had posted this review, I read it as quickly as I could and plan to order the book, or better yet, hunt for it in person when it becomes available. I hope that the selectors at the Chautauqua Institute have this book on their radar, as it would make a wonderful addition to their course of study. (I am a member of the Mitchell Chautauqua Literary Circle in Blue Earth, MN, the longest-running Chautauqua in the country, org. 1883! I’ve been a member since my ‘09 retirement from teaching MS English.)
PS -I love the Iowa Writers Collaborative!
Read it earlier this year and loved it. Great job capturing what makes this not-quite-easy -to-describe work so riveting.