Jess rows debut novel, your face in mine, stars kelly thorndike, a thirtysomething white baltimorean. Hes working on a new novel and a collection of essays about race and american fiction, white flights. Despite its outlandish plot, your face in mine makes many spoton observations about cultural and racial alienation in our contemporary times. Its also a tag line of the shady enterprise in bangkok where the book s central character, martin wilkinson ne lipkin, has paid a hefty sum to undergo something called racial reassignment surgery, to transform from a white jewish man to an. Illustration by sam alden twentyfour pages into jess row s debut novel your face in mine, the narrator, kelly thorndike, catches sight of his reflection in a storefront window, and pauses to. Kiese laymon, author of heavy and long division jess rows fierce, tender, wondering voice is the exact sound of fictionstillmattering, if we allow it.
Fiftyfive years later, jess rows debut novel your face in mine imagines a world where such transformations are on the cusp of becoming commonplace. Its also a tag line of the shady enterprise in bangkok where the book s central. Nov 23, 2016 jess rows most recent book is the novel your face in mine. Aug 17, 2014 race change surgery is reality in your face in mine what if you could undergo racial reassignment surgery and switch races. Your face in mine, a novel about changing race the new. Early in the novel, the narrator, kelly thorndike, an overeducated white. Twentyfour pages into jess rows debut novel your face in mine, the narrator, kelly thorndike, catches sight of his reflection in a storefront window, and pauses to remark upon this face of his. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Anchored by a swiftian fantasy of racial reassignment surgery, which takes its questing hero from the housing projects of baltimore to the back streets of bangkok, jess rows your face in mine is one of the most slyly penetrating novels on race and identity politics ive ever had the pleasure of reading. Kelly, a white man, is walking across the parking lot of a grocery store, when he sees a black man walking toward him.
Author interview jess row, author of your face in mine. Interview with jess row youre guaranteed to get some response from saying racial reassignment surgery, says jess row, author of the debut novel on the subject, your face in mine. For jess row, a long read is time well spent the boston. Signin to download and listen to this audiobook today. Jess row has written a fearless, ambitious, unforgettable novel that reads like a postcard from the nearfuture to our present moment. Your face in mine is a great novel for those interested in thinking more about racial identity. Late in his novel your face in mine, jess row cites a parable attributed to zhuangzi, a chinese philosopher from the fourth century bc. Get this book free when you sign up for a 30day trial. Stream and download audiobooks to your computer, tablet or mobile phone.
Elissa schappell in vanity fair furiously smarttakes readers on a zesty, twisty, sometimes uncomfortable ride. Not superficially, with makeup and a wig, but by cosmetic surgery. On one hand, it is the story of growing up and moving away from childhood connections, while still being pulled back into those adolescent roots. Aug 31, 2014 this is the central question of jess rows provocative and intriguing first novel, your face in mine. One afternoon, not long after kelly thorndike has moved back to his hometown of. Jess row author of white flights and your face in mine. Jess rows comments and thoughts about the similarities of his book to rachel dolezals case show that row is astute, thoughtful, and careful. For someone who has been complimented for being well spoken, learned the useful art of shifting for the comfort of myself and others, and have heard that my cries of inequality have been attributed to race instead of the gender politics i baltimore, maryland seems to. Like other good works of fiction, your face in mine is not merely a report on what the author knows from experience but an imaginative act.
Complete, permanent racial reassignment surgery has been secretly perfected, and is about to be revealed to the public. The concept, which was snapped up by riverhead books before the manuscript was finished, remains the ultimate conversation starter at cocktail parties. False equivalencies mar this bold face jess rows provocative your face in mine uses the rhetoric of transgender experience to imagine a world where race can be changed. Race change surgery is reality in your face in mine. Thats the premise of a new novel, your face in mine. Aug 15, 2014 false equivalencies mar this bold face jess rows provocative your face in mine uses the rhetoric of transgender experience to imagine a world where race can be changed. Your face in mine a bold take on race, identity by. Race, fiction, and the american imagination, appearing from graywolf press in august 2019. Aug 14, 2014 kelly, still recovering from the death of his wife and child and looking for a way to begin anew, agrees, and things quickly begin to spiral out of control. Your face in mine, jess rows fictional examination of racial difference, is one of the most quietly unsettling novels of 2014and not by accident. Martins goal of spinning racial reassignment into a global enterprise is half. Jess row a widely praised young writer delivers a daring, ambitious novel about identity and race in the age of globalization. Aug 15, 2014 the title of jess rows first novel, your face in mine, sounds like but isnt a selection from the great american songbook, something composed by rodgers and hart and sung by johnny. Jess row is the author of the novel your face in mine and the story collections the train to lo wu and nobody ever gets lost.
Jess rows fiction your face in mine is a work about many thingsperhaps far too many things. One of grantas best of young american novelists of 2007, he lives in new york and teaches at the college of new jersey. Nov 28, 2014 your face in mine, jess rows fictional examination of racial difference, is one of the most quietly unsettling novels of 2014and not by accident. Race, fiction, and the american imagination, as well as the novel your face in mine and the story collections the train to lo wu and nobody ever gets lost. Which is a large part of what makes jess rows uninhibited debut, your face in mine, so daring and refreshing. Aug 14, 2014 your face in mine by jess row an awardwinning writer delivers a poignant and provocative novel of identity, race and the search for belonging in the age of globalization. Aug 04, 2015 jess row sees the future in your face in minea provocative and exhilaratingly bold examination of race in america, where a white jewish guy who feels black can undergo racial reassignment surgery. The trouble the jewish caucasian i feel that jess rows your face in mine might be one of those books that ill have to be a little older to appreciate it. This is the central question of jess row s provocative and intriguing first novel, your face in mine. Race change surgery is reality in your face in mine what if you could undergo racial reassignment surgery and switch races.
Your face in mine is a thriller with a human core, powered. Aug 14, 2014 the new york times jess row sees the future in your face in mine a provocative and exhilaratingly bold examination of race in america, where a white jewish guy who feels black can undergo racial reassignment surgery. Superficially, your face in mine is about a man named kelly thorndike who encounters an old high school friend of his named martin. White flights will change my work, and my life, and for that im grateful. Jess rows most recent book is the novel your face in mine. Aug 14, 2014 late in his novel your face in mine, jess row cites a parable attributed to zhuangzi, a chinese philosopher from the fourth century bc. Not long ago he lost his chinese wife and their young biracial daughter in a tragic car. Row first heard of dolezal last thursday night after reading a tweet from daily show alum wyatt cenac. Jess row is american, but as a white man writing about what it is to be black, as he does in his debut novel, hes a kind of insideroutsider. Your face in mine a provocative novel that challenges.
The title of jess rows first novel, your face in mine, sounds like but isnt a selection from the great american songbook, something composed by rodgers and hart and sung by johnny. This book feels fresh not only because it inverts and biologizes racial passing, but also because it takes seriously the last few decades of identity politics. Inventive and thoughtprovoking, your face in mine is a brilliant novel about cultural and racial alienation and the nature of belonging in a world where identity can be a stigma or a. Jess row is the author of a novel, your face in mine riverhead, 2014, and two collections of short stories, nobody ever gets lost fivechapters books, 2011 and the train to lo wu dial pressrandom house, 2005. Aug 25, 2014 rows brilliant new novel, your face in mine, pursues a bold and roomy premise. This is the central question of jess rows provocative and intriguing first novel, your face in mine. Jess rows book can make you fall in love with the versatility and power of fiction. One wishes that black like me author john howard griffin, who died in 1980, could be around to weigh in on jess rows debut novel, your face in mine, in which a white man also.
Jess row is the author of two collections of short stories, the train to lo wu and nobody ever gets lost, a novel, your face in mine, and a new collection of essays, white flights. Aug 08, 2014 jess rows debut novel, your face in mine, stars kelly thorndike, a thirtysomething white baltimorean. A white person engaging with black culture is a very, very tricky business, row admits. Anchored by a swiftian fantasy of racial reassignment surgery, which takes its questing hero from the housing projects of baltimore to the back streets of bangkok, jess row s your face in mine is one of the most slyly penetrating novels on race and identity politics ive ever had the pleasure of reading. Written by jess row, audiobook narrated by zach villa.
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