Number 71 - Yellowface - Rebecca F Kuang

 

My first RF Kuang book.  Apparently this made a big splash in the last couple of years but it passed under my radar until the end of last month when I found out my local Waterstones has its own book group and this was their choice.

The unlikelily named Juniper Song Bradshaw (normally known as June Bradshaw) is a failed writer.  One of her friends from college is the mega successful Athena Liu.  When June is invited up to Athena's flat one night and Athena dies in a freak accident, June finds the just completed manuscript of Athena's newest book.

She steals it, edits it and sends it to her agent who ships it out to publishers and it's snapped up and published under the name Juniper Song. It makes all the bestseller lists and turns her into an overnight sensation. How long can she keep the secret that this isn't her book?  How much pressure does fame put on a person? Exactly how cutthroat is the publishing world?

All these questions and more are answered in fine style in this entertaining novel.

June is a distinctly unlikeable protagonist but, as you may have noticed from other reviews on this blog, I don't mind that, and actually it can be a major positive for me.

June is a scheming, manipulative character with not so well hidden shallows. But I found her narrative to be an easy and fairly compulsive read. The levels of self justification she manages for the worst of her actions are so twisted she could win a breakdancing contest.

There are no real bon mots or startling insights into humanity on display here.  There's a deep rooted cynicism in its place. And that appeals to my personal worldview. I flew through this book in just a couple of days. 

Interestingly, a fair number of the criticisms leveled at the character of Athena in the book are lifted directly from online criticism of Ms Kuang herself. You can make of that what you will. For me, it added to the satire element inherent in a bestselling expose of the rotten heart of bestselling publishing.

It does raise valid points about accusations of cultural appropriation every time an author writes outside their own culture. The fact that she has genuinely stolen the story makes this an awkward lesson but adds to the satire. 

On the strength of this, I have already bought myself a copy of Babel which I intend to read sooner rather than later. It generated a heated discussion at the book group, which means it's doing something right.