Preeta Chag

PUB BY: The Borough Press- An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

The famous friend dies. And she walks off with her dead friend’s unfinished draft of a new novel.

The dead friend is Athena Liu. Famous, charismatic, successful author. The friend who walks off with the prized pages is June, Athena’s batch mate who craves success in the publishing world and secretly envies Athena’s success. Athena is where June wants to be.

‘Yellowface’ by Rebecca F. Kuang is a book which talks of the capricious, shifting sands of the publishing world, taking on issues of diversity, racism and cultural appropriation.

The book begins dramatically. “The night I watch Athena Liu die, we’re celebrating her TV deal with Netflix.” But once she is dead, June has the looted manuscript in her hand, palms it off as her own and reinvents herself as Juniper Song to become the new literary sensation.

The book portrays June’s  fear of being caught, and the insecurities of the complex world of publishing plagued by incessant social media. The dread of being caught and losing it all, is what haunts her day and night.

Drenched in the swirling maze of duplicity, fear, and anguish, the publishing industry has been laid open in detail, giving a peep into how all works. The insecurities of the creative and the material, i.e. the publishing world are stark on Page 259: “I need to write the next best thing. Otherwise … everyone will forget me.”

It must be strange to write so honestly about the world you belong.

The ruthlessness. The hype. The abandoned. The devoured. The maligned. But Rebecca claims the book was easy: “I was doing this dance cardio pop sugar workout. And I was seven minutes in, and the whole thing just plopped fully formed.. ” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joywWvgJmRo )

I have not read a book that portrays the characters of writers so starkly: the frenzy of triumph, the insecurities of being accepted, the dismays of the left-behinds, and the feverish ambition to make it. “It takes inhuman drive to hack in the world of publishing.” (page 214)

Both the characters, Athena and June, are shades of grey personified, crafted to perfection by the author.

The book is gripping, but what I felt missing was a lack of positivity. There is nothing upbeat or feel-good about any of the characters, or the milieu in which the book is set.

However, when one finishes the book, what comes across in this book is the author’s deep love of writing and the creative.

“Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic. Writing is creating something out of nothing, is opening doors to other lands. Writing gives you power to shape your own world when the real one hurts too much.“