Yellowface: A Novel

Yellowface: A Novel by R. F. Kuang

The novel is told from the view of a white female (June Hayward) writer who has not had much success. She did get one novel published, but it quickly fade. Meanwhile, her Asian college friend, Athena Liu, has had immense success with her novels. The two of them still keep in touch, meeting just a few times a year. Neither of them has many other close friends. One day the two get together and drink to celebrate selling film rights. They go to the apartment to make pancakes. The Asian friend chokes on the pancake. Despite attempts at the heimlich and calling 911, she dies. At this point, I had thought the novel would turn into a black comedy. However, it made other turns. 

The survivor finds an unpublished manuscript that her friend had been working on. She decides it needs to be published. Then she starts going down the "bad" path. After she makes a number of edits, she feels it is best to publish it under her name, and not as a work by her deceased friend. She makes extensive edits and does a great deal of research. She feels that she has put so much work in that it is effectively her own novel. (We later learn that the Athena had won acclaim for publishing a story based on one of June's experiences, so this may have been a form of payback.)

There are a number of other choices that send things further down the path. She uses her middle name "Song" as her new pen name, thus being a more Asian sounding June Song. She has a picture taken that makes her look more Asian. She refuses to have an Asian diversity reader look at the book, and causes an Asian employee of the publishing house to be fired. She goes through efforts to make sure Athena's early draft notebooks are not published. 

She has a few opportunities to come clean. She could fictionalize her life in a way to confess without confessing. She could admit to the degree she collaborated with Athena and split the royalties. Alas, she chooses to stay the course and live with the lie of sole authorship. She finds herself haunted by the "ghost" of Athena. She ends up confessing to this "ghost" - the fired publishing intern. Now the intern has the big book offer, and she is on the way to the soup kitchen. But, there are other dirty secrets. 

You can't help but feel for June. She had so many opportunities that could have led to better outcomes, but just continued to live the lie. You also realize from her backstory that things are not as clear. June had an unsupportive family. Athena seems to be a better writer, however, she is typecast as an Asian. She can't expand well into other areas. Publishing is very cutthroat and relies a lot on luck. Once successful, it is easy to continue; but success, is the luck of the draw. There is plenty of backstabbing and lying in the seemingly upscale media. After all, isn't fiction just the telling of one big lie?