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HT reviewer Farzana Versey picks her favourite read of 2023
On this year’s celebrated novel Yellowface by RF Kuang that mimics woke social media outrage against the backdrop of friendship and jealousy in the publishing world
I rarely read popular books, and certainly not soon after release. This year’s celebrated novel Yellowface by RF Kuang claimed to mimic the woke social media outrage on trending topics like diversity, appropriation, cancel culture against the backdrop of friendship and jealousy in the publishing world. As a cynical observer of online antics, I was ready to see “legends” and their “epic” works satirised.
The tone is set with a snarky take on writers who “run in packs. You’ll find evidence of cliques all over social media — writers gushing over excerpts of one another’s unpublished manuscripts (LOSING MY HEAD OVER THIS WIP!), squealing over cover reveals (THIS IS SO GORGEOUS I WILL DIE!!!), and posting selfies of group hangs at literary meet-ups across the globe”.
Asian American Athena Liu is an acclaimed author with a Netflix deal. Her fame and her not following the above-mentioned protocol is the reason she has almost no friends. Except for the narrator: “I’m just brown-eyed, brown-haired June Hayward, from Philly — and no matter how hard I work, or how well I write, I’ll never be Athena Liu.”
June admits, “People always describe jealousy as this sharp, green, venomous thing… But I’ve found that jealousy, to writers, feels more like fear. Jealousy is the spike in my heart rate when I glimpse news of Athena’s success on Twitter.” Which really is such a shallow way to judge anything. Besides, is she envious of Athena’s writing skills or the perks that go with it — attention and money?
After Athena dies (choking on a pancake), June steals the draft of her new manuscript (on the role of Chinese labour during World War 1), works on it and becomes acclaimed as June Song. All too pat and implausible, for Kuang’s narration lacks the chutzpah to caricature caricatures. The book hovers over handy issues like plagiarism and exotica instead of examining the question of identity. June isn’t only copying a story, but a whole persona.
She dismisses the publishing industry for picking “someone attractive enough, someone cool and young and… ‘diverse’ enough — and lavishes all its money and resources on them”, but does not acknowledge her own white privilege when she becomes popular.
When Twitter cancels her, she says: “It’s the internet that’s fucked, not me. It’s this contingent of social justice warriors, these clout-chasing white “allies”, and Asian activists seeking attention who are acting up. I am not the bad guy. I am the victim here.”
There is much to be said about convenient consciences on social media, and June isn’t immune to it herself. She lacks a moral spine, letting Athena pay for her drinks and nights out, but defending her plagiarism as “payback for the things that Athena took from me”. She then starts a scholarship in Athena’s name.“I’m going to be better than Athena. I am a woman who helps other women.”
It is fitting that despite its lack of depth, Yellowface gets away with the benefit of doubt because its storytelling is reflective of the very superficiality it is holding a mirror to.
READ MORE: HT reviewers pick their best reads of 2023
Farzana Versey is a Mumbai-based writer. She tweets at @farzana_versey
