When Athena Lieu, an effortlessly talented young writer passes away after a night of celebration, June Hayward is there as witness. Failing to get any of her own work published, Hayward immediately seizes this opportunity to sift through Lieu’s belongings. She finds a manuscript Athena covertly completed. A novel about World War 1’s Chinese laborers. Barely grieving, envious frenemy June Hayward steals the book as her own, making edits that lean towards white saviors. Desperate for notoriety June changes her last name to Song, to appear as though she has Chinese ancestry and skyrockets to literary It girl. Until the walls start closing in. Once the connection between Athena & June is revealed publicly, Asian Americans start questioning her. Who really wrote this and where in Juniper Song’s lineage is she Chinese?
Loved this novel. It deals with themes of identity, artistic license and racism. Jury’s still out on whether I inspired R.F Kuang with my constant complaints about being copied by trashy, insipid, talentless inbreds the Kardashian Jenner’s & co, but it struck a massive chord. Having the book narrated by a world class Karen who not only steals someone else’s work, but appropriates their culture, because they don’t have what it takes to make it own their own, is chef’s kiss. Allowing readers to see just how deranged these people are and the lengths they go through to justify their immoral actions. Any flack this novel has received is white fragility based. Making Caucasian readers uncomfortable with their problematic behavior. Face it and fix it. Via: NPR
