Month: December 2024

Yellowface

By R.F. Kuang

Published 2023

Read Dec 2024

This reader finished the first third of this book in one setting—apparently it was engaging.  The narrator is a white author in her twenties whose first novel was published, but it didn’t sell many copies. In contrast, a Yale classmate, Athena, achieved the success our narrator craves.  It’s clear in the first few pages that the narrator is jealous of her success.

The two have remained in contact since graduating but the narrator isn’t sure they are actually friends, but rather acquaintances who both ended up living in the Washington DC area.  However, one night after celebrating Athena’s deal with Netflix, they end up at Athena’s apartment (the narrator’s first time there).  On a trip to the bathroom, the narrator sneaks a peak at Athena’s writing room and finds a stack of paper with “the end” on the top page.  Athena suggests she read a bit of it, but they are both pretty drunk and leave the book behind.  They make pancakes and Athena suffocates when a partially baked pancake gets stuck in her throat.  Eventually the narrator is allowed to go home when the EMT’s are leaving.  Amazingly, the narrator takes the draft home with her and starts playing with it, first “as a lark”, and then seriously.  She makes an active decision to submit it to her agent as her own work.  She knows she’s minimally plagiarized and probably stolen but she is very convinced her efforts to refine the book make it ok to hide Athena’s involvement in the project.  The agent puts it out for auction and gets her a deal with a substantial advance.  

The publisher she sold the book to is an indie house where she’s a “big fish in a small pond”.  The author describes the path of the book and its presumed author through the pre-publication process after the publisher decides it’s going to be a major hit.  She has a great relationship with her editor, Daniella.  She is giddy that some of Daniella’s favorite passages are ones the narrator wrote herself—this proving to the narrator that she can really write. 

The book is expected to be a major hit given its topic, so much attention is paid to how to market it.  During the marketing planning, the questions of “cultural authenticity” comes up—can a white author write about this topic—the story of Chinese laborers during World War I (Athena was Chinese American so probably wouldn’t get this question).  An editorial assistant, Candice, suggests a sensitivity reader to provide cultural consulting to ensure there aren’t any “bumps” post-launch.  The narrator believes Candice doesn’t like her and insists this isn’t necessary as she’s done her homework.  The publishing team ends up supporting the narrator and Candice is removed from the project which continues ahead with lots of pre-publication marketing.  To soften the narrator’s whiteness a bit, the book will be published under the name Juniper Song vs June Hayward, her actual last name and the name used when publishing her first book.  Song is her middle name but might be mistaken for a Chinese name.  There is even an article put out about authorial identities and pen names to get ahead of any issues.  She feels fine that they aren’t lying or committing any fraud.  The narrator is head over heels in love with the attention she and the book are getting and that’s she’s “made it” in the publishing world.  She’s getting to taste the various perks saw Athena enjoy.

The book hits the market and climbs the best-seller list.  The narrator is thrilled and revels in all the positive tweets she’s getting on twitter.  But then some negative tweets show up including the question of whether a white author can adequately tell this story, whether the author is trying to pretend to the market she is Asian, and ultimately there are questions about whether she is really the author vs Athena.  Our narrator assures her publisher that she is the legitimate author, and they take her at her word.

As the book progresses, the narrator gets completely consumed with social media which diverts her from starting a new project.  She realizes she doesn’t have any ideas for what to do next.  She takes an idea she gets from a paragraph she finds in some other papers she has from Athena and uses the paragraph verbatim.  Of course, this causes her more problems on social media after this comes to like post-publication.  This reader will leave the plot line at this point. 

This reader had several reactions to this book:

As indicated, the first third was extremely engaging.  This reader was excited to learn about the pre-publication process.  But it also became clear that some books are chosen to be heavily promoted while others aren’t. Questions this drove for the reader include:  What’s the criteria? Was this book so wonderful that it deserved this attention or was the “diversity” topic driving the marketing?  

There have been some authors trashed for writing “outside their lanes” — generally when white authors write about non-white people and situations and generally when the authors are women.  Why are we having this conversation?  Many books have editorial issues and maybe we wish all authors/editors to be more careful and complete.  The “sensitivity reader” may be a very useful editorial tool.  Certainly, many authors already use many readers in addition to their official editorial staff to help them hone their work and those that choose readers that will give them honest feedback are likely the most successful. 

The narrator justifies her actions of stealing from Athena repeatedly and convinces her agent and publisher that she is the author.  This reader was astonished by this but of course it makes for a good story.

Is June Hayward the good writer she thinks she is?  She spends essentially no time writing anything while she’s promoting the book (maybe that’s normal) or after the book tours and talks, etc have ended and can’t get herself away from social media.   She needs to directly steal Athena’s words for her next book and once again thinks this is ok. 

Why does the narrator want to be a writer?  She is very clear that she relished the attention, the money, and the social media reaction to her book and was saddened that it wasn’t going to last.  Of course, we all want some validation that the work we’re doing is valuable to something or someone. Making a living at writing or any other type of art is certainly not for the faint of heart and requires inner strength that transcends the need for constant external accolades.  Frankly, that’s true for most people to get through the rough spots of their jobs.

This reader has noted in several posts that she looks forward to the next book by author X and that she reads books from author Y as soon as she can.  Some of these writers, such as Ann Patchett, have very different story lines/characters/etc for each of her books.  This reader finds this impressive and something that makes this author fresh each time.  One of these writers, Elizabeth Strout, could be accused of recycling her characters, but the stories she weaves about them draw this reader “to that flame” readily to learn what Elizabeth Strout is going to tell us about past and new characters.  Thus, these authors may have something that the narrator of this book doesn’t have that allows them to keep producing works that draw a large audience.  This reader isn’t qualified to say exactly what or why this is—which this reader finds fascinating.    

In the end, this reader found Yellowface to be a book worth discussing with others.  One doesn’t need to like the protagonist to be engaged.