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deeper into Kuang's world
I enjoyed reading the Globe's interview with R.F. Kuang, author of about Babel, Yellowface and more! I am reading her book #Babel right now and am excited by her research, intelligence and use of language, although I was stopped by the redundancies in her use of the phrase "cloyingly sticky sweet". Other than that phrase and the fact that Babel is a bit long, I feel that it's another masterpiece!
Link to interview:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/article-rf-kuangs-yellowface-skewers-the-publishing-world-and-becomes-a/
Razor sharp does not even begin to describe the rip-off-the-bandaid racism attacked in this addictive read by R.F. Kuang, which is narrated beautifully by Helen Laser. I loved the directness, no holds barred approach.
I agree with the notion that the best advice is to start with what you know, whether writing or business. I feel empathy and sympathy for whatever R.F. experienced in her career and life, which probably still does, thanks to her amazing storytelling. Which is EXACTLY what reading is meant to do.
Kuang, the author of Babel, Yellowface, and the Poppy Trilogy is also an accomplished academic and has more to come!
You should try her novels in your own Shelf Portrait now
Here is an excerpt from the Globe and Mail interview:
It’s all a bit meta: A bestselling novel about a bestselling novel, profiled in a column about bestsellers.
This self-referential tangle comes to us courtesy of Rebecca F. Kuang, author of Yellowface, the psychological thriller that’s spent weeks on The Globe and Mail’s fiction charts, with similar success around the world. But she isn’t too fussed by the Inception-y circularity of it all.
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Rebecca F. Kuang.JOHN PACKMAN/HANDOUT
“The kind of bestseller that is described in the text is not the book that I wrote, or ever hope to write,” says Kuang, nodding to the historical epic that kicks off the action in her own novel. “There haven’t been too many moments where I feel like life is just recreating art.”