Yellowface
Read review (contains spoilers)
Quite good! Read it in one go. It's funny, has a vivacious and sharp voice, and does some extremely clever and amusing things. It's stuck with me since I read it (which was admittedly only two days ago - it came out quite recently) and I find myself desperately wanting someone to talk to about it.
Some of the prose sings and a lot of it doesn't, which is the main demerit I have. I thought it was interesting, enjoyed the 'meta' quality of it, and thought it was finely sketched, but one of the challenges of writing from within the perspective of a limited author is that your prose doesn't have the space to sprout wings. With the space of a couple of days, I can say that _Yellowface_ is very good, but not quite as good as _Babel_ (for me). Still, I'll be eagerly awaiting the next book by Kuang.
Some spoilers:
One bit I thought was especially clever has to do with the status of _Yellowface_, the novel, within the world of the novel. We hear that Juniper is going to write this first-person novel that's going to tell-all, a confession, and we're led to believe that this is the book we're holding. All very nice, but the kicker comes when we meet Juniper's mother, who talks with awhat feels an awful lot like a Russian Jewish dialect. This, coupled with the namecheck to _Lolita_, which this novel more than passingly resembles, _and_ the thematic similarities to _Pale Fire_, another Nabokov novel, make me think that we're meant to understand _Yellowface_ itself as another, second 'plagiarism', albeit one that's a lot less loyal. To be clear, I thought this was good and funny.
Some of the prose sings and a lot of it doesn't, which is the main demerit I have. I thought it was interesting, enjoyed the 'meta' quality of it, and thought it was finely sketched, but one of the challenges of writing from within the perspective of a limited author is that your prose doesn't have the space to sprout wings. With the space of a couple of days, I can say that _Yellowface_ is very good, but not quite as good as _Babel_ (for me). Still, I'll be eagerly awaiting the next book by Kuang.
Some spoilers:
One bit I thought was especially clever has to do with the status of _Yellowface_, the novel, within the world of the novel. We hear that Juniper is going to write this first-person novel that's going to tell-all, a confession, and we're led to believe that this is the book we're holding. All very nice, but the kicker comes when we meet Juniper's mother, who talks with awhat feels an awful lot like a Russian Jewish dialect. This, coupled with the namecheck to _Lolita_, which this novel more than passingly resembles, _and_ the thematic similarities to _Pale Fire_, another Nabokov novel, make me think that we're meant to understand _Yellowface_ itself as another, second 'plagiarism', albeit one that's a lot less loyal. To be clear, I thought this was good and funny.
Original source versions
Read review (contains spoilers)
Quite good! Read it in one go. It's funny, has a vivacious and sharp voice, and does some extremely clever and amusing things. It's stuck with me since I read it (which was admittedly only two days ago - it came out quite recently) and I find myself desperately wanting someone to talk to about it.
Some of the prose sings and a lot of it doesn't, which is the main demerit I have. I thought it was interesting, enjoyed the 'meta' quality of it, and thought it was finely sketched, but one of the challenges of writing from within the perspective of a limited author is that your prose doesn't have the space to sprout wings. With the space of a couple of days, I can say that _Yellowface_ is very good, but not quite as good as _Babel_ (for me). Still, I'll be eagerly awaiting the next book by Kuang.
Some spoilers:
One bit I thought was especially clever has to do with the status of _Yellowface_, the novel, within the world of the novel. We hear that Juniper is going to write this first-person novel that's going to tell-all, a confession, and we're led to believe that this is the book we're holding. All very nice, but the kicker comes when we meet Juniper's mother, who talks with awhat feels an awful lot like a Russian Jewish dialect. This, coupled with the namecheck to _Lolita_, which this novel more than passingly resembles, _and_ the thematic similarities to _Pale Fire_, another Nabokov novel, make me think that we're meant to understand _Yellowface_ itself as another, second 'plagiarism', albeit one that's a lot less loyal. To be clear, I thought this was good and funny.
Some of the prose sings and a lot of it doesn't, which is the main demerit I have. I thought it was interesting, enjoyed the 'meta' quality of it, and thought it was finely sketched, but one of the challenges of writing from within the perspective of a limited author is that your prose doesn't have the space to sprout wings. With the space of a couple of days, I can say that _Yellowface_ is very good, but not quite as good as _Babel_ (for me). Still, I'll be eagerly awaiting the next book by Kuang.
Some spoilers:
One bit I thought was especially clever has to do with the status of _Yellowface_, the novel, within the world of the novel. We hear that Juniper is going to write this first-person novel that's going to tell-all, a confession, and we're led to believe that this is the book we're holding. All very nice, but the kicker comes when we meet Juniper's mother, who talks with awhat feels an awful lot like a Russian Jewish dialect. This, coupled with the namecheck to _Lolita_, which this novel more than passingly resembles, _and_ the thematic similarities to _Pale Fire_, another Nabokov novel, make me think that we're meant to understand _Yellowface_ itself as another, second 'plagiarism', albeit one that's a lot less loyal. To be clear, I thought this was good and funny.
Read review (contains spoilers)
Quite good! Read it in one go. It's funny, has a vivacious and sharp voice, and does some extremely clever and amusing things. It's stuck with me since I read it (which was admittedly only two days ago - it came out quite recently) and I find myself desperately wanting someone to talk to about it.
Some of the prose sings and a lot of it doesn't, which is the main demerit I have. I thought it was interesting, enjoyed the 'meta' quality of it, and thought it was finely sketched, but one of the challenges of writing from within the perspective of a limited author is that your prose doesn't have the space to sprout wings. With the space of a couple of days, I can say that _Yellowface_ is very good, but not quite as good as _Babel_ (for me). Still, I'll be eagerly awaiting the next book by Kuang.
Some spoilers:
One bit I thought was especially clever has to do with the status of _Yellowface_, the novel, within the world of the novel. We hear that Juniper is going to write this first-person novel that's going to tell-all, a confession, and we're led to believe that this is the book we're holding. All very nice, but the kicker comes when we meet Juniper's mother, who talks with awhat feels an awful lot like a Russian Jewish dialect. This, coupled with the namecheck to _Lolita_, which this novel more than passingly resembles, _and_ the thematic similarities to _Pale Fire_, another Nabokov novel, make me think that we're meant to understand _Yellowface_ itself as another, second 'plagiarism', albeit one that's a lot less loyal. To be clear, I thought this was good and funny.
Some of the prose sings and a lot of it doesn't, which is the main demerit I have. I thought it was interesting, enjoyed the 'meta' quality of it, and thought it was finely sketched, but one of the challenges of writing from within the perspective of a limited author is that your prose doesn't have the space to sprout wings. With the space of a couple of days, I can say that _Yellowface_ is very good, but not quite as good as _Babel_ (for me). Still, I'll be eagerly awaiting the next book by Kuang.
Some spoilers:
One bit I thought was especially clever has to do with the status of _Yellowface_, the novel, within the world of the novel. We hear that Juniper is going to write this first-person novel that's going to tell-all, a confession, and we're led to believe that this is the book we're holding. All very nice, but the kicker comes when we meet Juniper's mother, who talks with awhat feels an awful lot like a Russian Jewish dialect. This, coupled with the namecheck to _Lolita_, which this novel more than passingly resembles, _and_ the thematic similarities to _Pale Fire_, another Nabokov novel, make me think that we're meant to understand _Yellowface_ itself as another, second 'plagiarism', albeit one that's a lot less loyal. To be clear, I thought this was good and funny.