Publishing is a competitive industry, and only a limited number of novelists can make it big. So it's not surprising that a struggling author would be envious of a friend's wild success. This is certainly the case with June Hayward and Athena Liu. The women, now in their late-twenties, met as freshman at Yale University, and maintained a casual friendship ever since.
After Yale, June struggled to publish her first book, which didn't do very well. Now June is having trouble penning a second novel, and she's doing other jobs on the side.
Meanwhile, Athena's debut novel got a six-figure-advance, and her publishing career took off from there. Now June is just getting by while Athena is very well off and in negotiations with Netflix.
June is a white woman, and in her mind, at least......
......part of Athena's success is because Athena is a beautiful, elegant, sophisticated Chinese-American female.
June observes, "So of course Athena gets every good thing, because that's how the industry works. Publishing picks a winner - someone attractive enough, someone cool and young and, oh, we're all thinking it, let's just say it, "diverse" enough - and lavishes all its money and resources on them."
June feels vicious jealousy, and looking at Athena thinks, "What is it like to be you? What is it like to be so impossibly perfect, to have every good thing in the world?" And because of a freak accident, June gets to find out.
June and Athena are in Athena's apartment, celebrating Athena's Netflix coup, when they get drunk and decide to have a pancake eating contest. Athena chokes to death on a soggy flapjack, leaving behind THE ONLY COPY (a typed one) of a just finished manuscript that no one else has ever seen. (This plot point requires a massive suspension of disbelief in my opinion.)
In any case, Athena's new tome is about the Chinese Labour Corps in World War I: poor Chinese laborers who left their villages to do unskilled labor for Britain, freeing British men to fight in the war.
June steals Athena's manuscript, does some editing, and publishes the book as her own. June uses the pen name Juniper Song, and commissions an author photo that makes her look tan and a bit ethnic. The published novel, called 'The Last Front', is a huge success, and June glories in the accolades, doing all kinds of mental gymnastics to justify putting her name on the book as sole author.
For instance, June thinks to herself, "Athena died before anyone knew the manuscript existed. It would never have been published, or if it had, in its current state, it would always have been known as Athena's half-finished manuscript.....I gave it a chance to go out into the world without the judgment that multiple authorship always entails.....And maybe Athena would have wanted this.....She was always into trippy literary hoaxes like this....So perhaps we can view this as Athena's great literary prank," etc. etc. June's thoughts go around and around in an attempt to assuage her guilt.
Of course Athena's fans get suspicious of June's sudden brilliance, and note that the writing style of 'The Last Front' matches that of Athena's other books. Soon enough the shit hits the fan, social media blows up, and June has a tough time fending off the attackers.
The pressure gets to June, and she gets a little unhinged thinking she'll lose her fame and good reputation. June recalls, "I burst into wails, loud and ugly, wanton like a toddler's. My own volume frightens me; I'm scared my neighbors will hear, so I turn my face into my pillow, and that's how I stay, muffled and hysterical, for hours." Things escalate as June's guilt eats away at her, exacerbated by the scathing remarks of her critics.
To some extent this feels like an 'insiders' book, with issues that would be especially familiar to people in the publishing industry. Still, the topics of diversity and theft are easily comprehensible, and the book is well-written and engaging. Highly recommended.
Rating: 4 stars
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