by Jessie Tu

reviewed by  Wendy Tucker

Jessie Tu is a book critic at The Age and Sydney Morning Herald and a journalist for Woman’s Agenda. Her debut novel, A lonely girl is a dangerous thing won the Australian Book Industry Awards for 2020 Literary Fiction Book of the Year.

The honeyeater is her eagerly awaited second novel. The protagonist of her first novel was an adult but emotionally stunted former music prodigy. In this novel we meet Fay, an aspiring academic in the competitive field of translation. And, again, this character seems to be not fully adult, too eager to please, reluctant to assert herself and disabled by self doubt. Fay has disengaged from her feelings and the writing is detached, cool and precise, yet intense and full of scathing undercurrents. Tu has stated in interviews that she is exploring the stereotypes of the young Asian-Australian woman: the musical prodigy, the academically promising.

Tu’s work examines skewed power dynamics and their impacts. Fay has a cloying relationship with her secretive and superstitious Taiwanese mother. She still lives with her and continues to be the child in this two-person household. Can Fay leave her widowed mother? Who needs who the most?

Fay lectures at a prestigious university in Sydney and is the assistant to a female professor and translator who mixes offers of advice and help with belittling demands, pressure, gaslighting and subtle blackmail. Who will be chosen to attend, to speak even, at the next conference?

Fay has been having an affaire with an older, established academic and rock-star translator, entirely on his terms. She has recently ended things but her references to his skills and her obsession with him continue.

The world of the professional translator is fascinating. It’s cutthroat, bitchy and open to abuses of power. The competition to be the chosen translator for the latest Booker winner or best-seller is extreme. It’s a world I hadn’t known existed.

Tu also examines the nature of translation. What is lost and what is gained?

What happens when you move between languages and cultures?

In the same way Fay examines her relationships and her place. Someone dies. Things change.