“Yellowface” tackles the question of appropriation

Nothing could have prepared June Hayward for what would happen next after she agreed to continue late-night drunken celebrations with her casual friend, Athena Liu. After watching Athena choke to death on a pancake, June brought her friend’s secret new novel manuscript home and worked on it herself—a fateful choice that eventually brought her both great glory and shame. Artfully interspersed with funny moments as well as daunting ethical dilemmas, R.F. Kuang’s 2023 novel, “Yellowface,” tackles questions about cultural appropriation and diversity while shedding light on the dark inner workings of the publishing industry.

As discussed in a 2023 NPR interview, there is a wry irony in how Kuang, an Asian American author, wrote “Yellowface” from the perspective of June, a white woman, who is herself criticized for writing about Asian people under a Chinese-sounding name. Both June and Athena are deeply flawed characters, something Kuang does an incredible job portraying. Yet Athena’s character dies almost immediately in the story, while June serves as the unreliable narrator, portraying herself as a victim of jealousy as she watched her former classmate and fellow author gain fame and fortune.

After taking Athena’s manuscript and rewriting parts of it, sometimes with uncomfortably racist undertones, June decides to publish it as her own, under her Asian-passing middle name, Song. Her book takes off publication, but she is soon forced to grapple with accusations of plagiarism and cultural appropriation, and their accompanying emotional consequences.

Unlike Kuang’s previous novel, “Babel,” “Yellowface” is set in the modern day and age. Communications in the book often happen through emails, tweets, and text messages, which are occasionally handled awkwardly but generally help immerse the reader in the world of a contemporary author. Throughout the novel, the pacing sometimes felt off, with incredibly fast-paced sections followed by longer lulls. Still, I appreciated how the underlying dark and urgent tone helped propel the plot forward even during its slower moments and portray June’s unraveling sanity and paranoia.

Another aspect of “Yellowface” that deeply intrigued me was its dissection of the process of getting a book published. The novel critiques and exposes the profit-driven nature of the industry and the many complex steps it takes to get a book onto the shelves—from agents to editors to publicists, “Yellowface” highlights the dependence that authors, especially burgeoning ones, have on their team for success.

I highly recommend “Yellowface” for those interested in a fictional story centered around real and present ideas, like what exactly constitutes cultural appropriation and the nuanced challenges faced by minority writers. The story is often deliberately uncomfortable to read, or painfully sharp in its commentary, but it leaves the reader considering the harms brought by cultural and creative exploitation in a rapidly evolving industry.