Book Review: Yellowface
Wow. Did I “hate-read” this book? And that is not because I hated the book, no. I hated the main character, and it wasn't until I read an interview with Rebecca F. Kuang that I realised we are meant to hate her. And hate her I did. The premise itself is interesting - what to do when your more beautiful, successful, talented writer friend dies right before you? You steal their latest work for yourself, of course! What follows is a long dialogue about authorship, representation of people of colour and the necessity of ‘token’ hires who are everything but white.
The story is told from the perspective of June Hayward/Juniper Song Hayward/Juniper Song, depending. She is white, and her debut novel fell flat on its face. Athena Liu is the antithesis of June. She is asian, also a writer, but wildly successful. A slew of writing residencies, bursaries and scholarships most writers would kill for, all her books landing on the every notable best sellers lists and production studios clamouring to adapt her works. Safe to say, Athena has it made, and June is a beautiful shade of green.
In terms of literary writing, this isn't the strongest in terms of structure. Litfic tends to delve quite deeply into the transient themes, sometimes for the sake of being clever. Now I’m not saying that this book isn’t clever, it is. It points out all the things that are wrong with only hiring people because of their colour, it also looks at the issues of narcissism that are apparent in people who went to Ivy League schools and/or Oxbridge. We can also delve into post-colonialism here, but I do not think we have the time. That being said, what I do think is so beautifully clever is the fact that June/Juniper is a horrible main character. I love the fact that Kuang doesn't want us to like her. At all. And it is apparent in her attitude. Firstly she has a strong sense of ‘its about damn time I get what I deserve’ selfishness and the fact that she consistenly white washes history and asian characters. Not to spoil the plot, but the book she ‘inherits’ from Athena deals with the exploitation of Chinese labourers during World War One. According to June/Juniper, the weather wasn't hostile at all to the asian labourers, and they were so grateful and happy for the opportunity. (They weren’t - the history there is pretty awful.) That being said, I do think that there is an interesting point about Voice. Who is entitled to write what and why? Why can’t a white person write about asian culture, or an asian write about white culture? Do we all have to stay in our lane? Indeed, white people will not necessarily understand the nuances of lives lived by asians every day, and the same is true in the reverse. But, if you want to use the ‘freedom of speech’ argument (loved by conservatives as Kuang cunningly points out) - surely writers can write whatever the hell they want, no?
The book does remind me an awful lot about the Caroline Calloway Vs. Natalie Beach debacle a few years back - if you’re at all familiar. It deals with the subject of ‘voice’ and who exactly is telling the story. In this case, I would argue that June/Juniper is Calloway, and Candace (sorry, spoilers!) is Beach. As June points out in the ending, the truth is fluid, and the story can be claimed and retold in various ways. In the same way, Calloway has reclaimed her story about the Cambridge captions and how she is a supposed ‘Scammer’. Calloway’s book was a hit, and Beach’s?… That was barely worth a tweet. Yellowface is a wonderful piece of metafiction and well worth reading - I wonder what Caroline Calloway thinks of this diaspora? And in the same thread, Proust.