BOOK TIP

Yellowface

R.F. Kuang

These are tough times to read novels — at least if you plan on reviewing or discussing them. First of all, you have to remember who you are. In my case, I’m an old white guy. Second, consider what you’re reading. “Yellowface” is a highly praised satire by an acclaimed Asian-American female that skewers the publishing industry and also confronts racism and cultural appropriation. The first-person narrator is a mediocre white fiction writer who comes into possession of a previously unknown manuscript written by a suddenly deceased, A-list female acquaintance/author of Chinese ancestry. The narrator passes the book off as her own and becomes famous before it all starts to unravel. This basic manuscript-theft premise is not remotely a new idea. But while the lunacies of the book biz are painfully funny, the characterization of our anti-hero is wince-inducing in efforts to make her a clueless idiot. In fact, the novel as a whole — to ME — is poorly written and telegraphs its punches clumsily and viciously. WAIT! Is this a test? Did I fail because I behaved precisely at Kuang thinks (and hopes) I will? The truth is, marginalized writers HAVE historically been, ah, marginalized to an extreme extent. But I think, with “Yellowface,” Kuang is trying too hard to make a point and her book suffers. To an old white guy, anyway.

— Rick Koster

BOOK TIP

Tom Lake

Ann Patchett

“Tom Lake” is a comfortable, comforting book from “Dutch House” author Ann Patchett. You’ll find yourself happily sinking into it and its two strands of stories. One is set during the pandemic, when three grown daughters are back living with their parents on the family farm in Michigan. At the daughters’ behest, as they all pick cherries from the farm’s trees, the mother, Lara, tells them about her fleeting relationship with an actor who has gone onto Hollywood stardom. Lara had a brief career as an actress in her young years, and she finds herself in a summer stock idyll. She falls immediately for the roguish Peter Duke when they are co-starring in “Our Town.” While some characters behave badly (we’re looking at you, Peter Duke), Patchett treats every character with grace and generosity.

– Kristina Dorsey

RADIO TIP

The Jones & Meggo Show with Arcand

WEEI

Specifically, I’m talking about Adam Jones, the first-billed afternoon drive-time radio host for Boston’s WEEI sports talk station. I can’t tell whether Jones is a meth head or a former high school debater. I’d have to see him live, at which time any spittle rocketing out of the side of his mouth during his delivery — which replicates the muzzle velocity of an AK15 — would suggest crank rather than forensics coaching. No spittle? Maybe he WAS a high school debater, one of those guys who lugged around five Anvil road cases of evidence and confused rapid-fire smugness with any ability to be intellectually provocative. Jones is also the sort who might work as a voice talent recording audio books, speed-reading them so a listener could get through “Bleak House” in 23 minutes — not knowing Jones changed the ending because he thinks his version is better than Dickens’. The dude’s a must-listen radio irritant.

— Rick Koster