Adam
I hated reading this almost as much as I loved it and that is exactly where this book’s greatness lies in. All of the characters are unbearable, starting by the narrator: June is a racist who excuses her behaviour by reminding herself that she’s a liberal, although she takes her hype from conservatives without a care in the world. She’s a jealous, troubled and two-faced woman who truly believes that she has done no wrong and that the only reason she hasn’t succeeded yet is that she is a white woman. What other solution is there than to steal her dead Chinese-American frenemy’s story and make it her own?
It is absolutely unbearable: how could someone be so deluded and ignorant? We are plunged into her perspective and keep reading more and more of the twisted lies she tells and ends up believing. To add insult to injury, June is surrounded by people who comfort her in her problematic views and defend her against those who dare question her authorship and allyship. Though maybe defend is too strong of a word, because they are all quick to abandon June once she is well and truly cancelled.
This is a callout of the publishing industry’s racism and misogyny, but also of its hypocrisy. No one is good, everyone is a shark who would throw a « friend » under a train to get a book-deal. Of course, we can’t forget about the book community and its hunger to find things that are wrong, to dissect a person or their work until it is nothing more than a grotesque imitation which they can nitpick and cut into pieces.
Truly, this was a wonderful book with a compelling story and complex, layered characters which offers a necessary criticism of the literary world.
My main issue is that we were spoon-fed every piece of information. The thinking was pre-chewed for us readers and we only had to open our mouths and swallow R. F. Kuang’s opinions. That is not to say that I don’t agree with them, simply that I believe some things should be left for readers to mull over and form their own beliefs about.
I hated reading this almost as much as I loved it and that is exactly where this book’s greatness lies in. All of the characters are unbearable, starting by the narrator: June is a racist who excuses her behaviour by reminding herself that she’s a liberal, although she takes her hype from conservatives without a care in the world. She’s a jealous, troubled and two-faced woman who truly believes that she has done no wrong and that the only reason she hasn’t succeeded yet is that she is a white woman. What other solution is there than to steal her dead Chinese-American frenemy’s story and make it her own?
It is absolutely unbearable: how could someone be so deluded and ignorant? We are plunged into her perspective and keep reading more and more of the twisted lies she tells and ends up believing. To add insult to injury, June is surrounded by people who comfort her in her problematic views and defend her against those who dare question her authorship and allyship. Though maybe defend is too strong of a word, because they are all quick to abandon June once she is well and truly cancelled.
This is a callout of the publishing industry’s racism and misogyny, but also of its hypocrisy. No one is good, everyone is a shark who would throw a « friend » under a train to get a book-deal. Of course, we can’t forget about the book community and its hunger to find things that are wrong, to dissect a person or their work until it is nothing more than a grotesque imitation which they can nitpick and cut into pieces.
Truly, this was a wonderful book with a compelling story and complex, layered characters which offers a necessary criticism of the literary world.
My main issue is that we were spoon-fed every piece of information. The thinking was pre-chewed for us readers and we only had to open our mouths and swallow R. F. Kuang’s opinions. That is not to say that I don’t agree with them, simply that I believe some things should be left for readers to mull over and form their own beliefs about.