Yellowface(2023) by R.F. Kuang

Author R.F. Kuang

 Book Review

Yellowface (2023)

by R.F. Kuang

   I love fiction about the writing of fiction, particularly the business side of writing fiction.  The ideology of the romantic artist-creator is so entrenched in the western culture of creativity that finding fiction that talks about the publishing process is rare, the major exception being roman a clef type books written by young women who have worked in said industry.  Yellowface, then, is a rare treat- a wickedly funny satire(?) about the writing and publishing of literary fiction.

    At the start of the book we are introduced to June Hayward, a recent Yale graduate struggling to make it as a writer.  She's put out one book of YA fiction and... it wasn't a hit.  Her only tie to literary success is her university classmate and frenemy Athena Liu, an R.F. Kuang type (both author and character wrote their first novels while undergraduates) and the opening chapters recounts their troubled "friendship."  Everything take a turn when Athena, giddy about the recent optioning of her first novel for a prestige television/film adaptation, chokes to death on pancakes inside her apartment, with June as the only witness.  June doesn't struggle that hard with her decision to swipe Liu's just completed manuscript, a work of historical fiction about the Chinese Labor Corps during World War I.   

   June submits the manuscript as her own, and we are off from there, as the book is picked up  and June is left to deal with the consequences of her actions.  Kuang is often wickedly funny- I found myself laughing out loud, but I also found myself cognizant of the fact that Kuang's publishing material feels more like what her audience expects than what actually occurs.  But the book is a huge hit, and it's good, so that's really all one needs to observe.