YELLOWFACE by R.F. Kuang

My favorite novel involving plagiarism is Old School by Tobias Wolff, which took place long before social media became a thing.  This book has a lot in common with The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz, which did involve online harassment, and in both cases the character being harassed is guilty of plagiarism.  The Korelitz book is more of a mystery, but I think I would have appreciated this book more if it were not so similar.  In this book, June, a mediocre writer, steals the book draft of her dead friend, Athena, who is a celebrated Asian-American author.  June is vilified not only because she is suspected of plagiarism but also because, as a white woman, the resulting book about the Chinese Labour Corps in WWI is considered “inauthentic.”  Kuang gives a nod here to American Dirt, which was similarly criticized.  How much of June’s novel is her own work is not really clear, but the fact that she stole the idea and the plot causes her to vacillate between mind-numbing guilt and brazen indignation toward her accusers.  June rationalizes her actions in every way possible, even viewing the stolen novel as payback to Athena for stealing June’s personal story about a possible rape.  I enjoyed this book very much for the most part, but June’s constant hand-wringing and obsession with public perception of her book became tedious at times.  She occasionally falls into a state of deep depression but cannot stop herself from reading the online allegations and negative reviews.  Rarely, though, does she consider coming clean about the origins of the book.  Once the lie is out there, she can’t unsay it and chooses instead to dig in her heels.