Yellowface

This is really well written; I went through it in two long sessions. And couldn't wait for it to finish. All the time I was reading, caught up in the narrative, I kept hoping for it all to be over so I could put it down and move on to something more enjoyable. It wasn’t a pleasant experience.

Rebecca Kuang says in her acknowledgements at the end of the book that it’s in large part about the loneliness of being a writer. Which is odd. Because what I took from it is a blistering satire of today’s publishing industry and an all-guns-blazing attack on the savagery of social media.

With one or two exceptions, nobody in it is anybody you’d want to meet. They’re either greedy for fame at all costs, or vengeful, mean-spirited almost-rans, or people so self-absorbed they probably wouldn’t notice you if they ran you over in a car. They reminded me of Anne Lamott’s comment that ‘the most degraded and sometimes nearly evil men I have known were all writers who’d had bestsellers’.

It’s a world of stolen manuscripts, savage reviews designed to make a name for the reviewer, online assaults, vicious rumours, blackmail and instant hatreds. Everything bad about social media and human behaviour all rolled up into a story so well told you just can’t stop reading.

But boy, was I glad when I reached the last page.