Reviewed by Janet Bayliss
R. F. Kuang (The Borough Press: 2023)
This is a book by a young and very clever American author (27 at the time of the novel’s publication). She is of Chinese-American background, with a formidable education including spells at Magdalene College, Cambridge and University College, Oxford. She has previously published a number of novels (mainly in the science-fiction/fantasy type category). This all informs the book.
June (Juniper), the narrator and main character, is not a pleasant person. But she has had a difficult life and a lot of disappointment in her rather truncated writing career. She is a friend of Athena, a young but much feted writer, who dies in unexpected circumstances when June is present. As Athena has just shown her a draft of her latest book, June feels justified in taking the manuscript and publishing it in her own name. Unfortunately, the ramifications of this results in the situation spiralling out of control; as June is white, whilst Athena was Chinese-American in origin. If you add in a lot of messages and discussion via social media; this is a gripping book packed full of ideas and themes.
Some readers may not be sure if this book is a thriller, and might also find the many themes almost too much to swallow. It includes racism, a satire on publishing, social media, issues around lies and truth, secrets being kept and revealed, ethics in writing, the list goes on. Everything is filtered through the point of view of June, who is not a reliable narrator; so none of the characters come across as very likeable, although some of them are probably decent people. This can make the book a bit hard-going, but the quality of the writing shines through. I personally was not keen on the ending, feeling that the plot rather lost its focus, but it did provoke some very interesting thoughts and discussion on the problems of social media.
Comments