Experiencing America Book Club: Yellowface

What does it mean to live in America now?

What does America look like?

How did we get to be who and where we are?

Let's talk about our lives in America today.

Our book selections, provided by the CT State Library, will be from the Experiencing America collection, made up of books offering perspectives and voices that are intentionally human-centered explorations of identities and systems impacting contemporary America.

In May the group will discuss Yellowface by R.F. Kuang.

"Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. Who wants stories about basic white girls, June thinks.

So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts on impulse: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I.

So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her own work? So what if she lets her new publisher rebrand her as Juniper Song—complete with an ambiguously ethnic author photo? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree.

But June can’t get away from Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves.

With its totally immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media. R.F. Kuang’s novel is timely, razor-sharp, and eminently readable."—harpercollins.com

Join us to engage in this monthly book discussion presented in collaboration with the Clinton Human Rights Committee.