Yellow Face by R.F. Kuang
This was a really hard post to write, probably because the book covers some controversial issues and I left like my opinion may fall on the wrong side of the controversy. But it is my opinion, and I’m going to try and share it.
This book was excellent, not for its plot or topic matter but for the immersive and sympathetic way it is written.
Talking to my local librarian when I returned this book she described the protagonist as the most evil character ever written, which I had to argue with. That this the thing with this book, June is not an evil person. She is a messed-up person making bad decisions in pursuit of a poisonous dream.
The racism, for me, is explored in the sense of how we all have unexamined biases. June, like lots of people, considers herself a liberal minded and good person. This attitude means that she never examines some of the attitudes she has inherited from her place in the world and the people around her. I thought the author did an incredibly good job of capturing the bewildered anger of many white people when they are pushed to look at their prejudices and privileges. And also how so often when the accusation of racism is levelled those people retreat into poor-me-dom, instead of asking themselves if there might be any truth in it. In that sense I think this book is a warning to readers that this could just as easily be you. The fact is I live in South Africa. Racism is a real thing, everybody has felt it, or experienced it at some point. The sin isn’t in having had a racist thought, it is in not examining what you were thinking and why you were thinking it. The problem is in not trying to change the way you think.
The emotional kick for me in this story, was less rooted in racism than in June’s self-destructive pursuit of a toxic dream. All of her decisions are rooted in that need to be a big-deal author and there is nothing she won’t do to service that goal. Even while recognising the unhealthiness of her actions and how little happiness it is bringing her. Pressed against the irony that she already has a publishing deal, and is working nearly full time as a writer which is a success that many authors would kill for. It’s not enough for her. Place all this in the context of a deeply cynical and manipulative industry, who are happy to feed off her insecurity, to line her up to fail, and to throw her to the wolves when she does. It filters from the top down so that even Candice at the end, who should be appearing as a hero character is shown to consider herself victimised and as maliciously self serving as June herself.
June never gets a redemption. Instead we see her ending the story not just doubling down on the lies she has already told, but using the accusations of racism – which even to the end she never acknowledges might have some truth – to draw a mantle of victim-hood around herself. I felt sorry for her, which I think is the genius of this book’s writing, that ultimately June is a character you can feel empathy towards even while she is being an a-hole.
