Provocative new novel tackles the issue of race head-on

“Your Face in Mine: A Novel” by Jess Row (Riverhead Hardcover, 384 pages, $27.95)

Jess Row’s provocative new novel arrives at a time when the talk we once heard about a post-racial America has sputtered (Google “Ferguson, Missouri” if you’re unsure why). Race is the impossible subject, the incendiary issue that conquers and divides. And yet in his first novel Row drives into this inflammatory subject head-on with thought-provoking bravado and the sort of guts that make you fall in love with the versatility and power of fiction all over again.

“Your Face in Mine” opens with an audacious idea that verges on science fiction. Kelly Thorndike, a Baltimore native back in his hometown after a tragedy, runs into a man on the street whom he can’t quite place. The man, who is black, greets him. “Kelly,” he says. “It’s Martin.”

Martin Lipkin was a high school friend. White like Kelly, but not anymore. He’s the recipient of voluntary racial-reassignment surgery.

But of course, willingly, eagerly changing your race – and hoping to monetize the process internationally by publicizing your deeply personal act – is not only a big thing; it’s the biggest thing, a potent cultural hand grenade.

What happens to the world when altering our race becomes possible? Martin compares it to gender surgery, calling himself a modern-day Christine Jorgensen. But as Kelly delves deeper into Martin’s past, a troubling secret agenda emerges.

Row fumbles a bit when Kelly finally unburdens himself of his own secret, which eventually turns out to be relevant to the story but is maybe less necessary than the author imagines. But the depiction of cultural dissonance is incisive.

The givens, though, are shifting. As one of Martin’s colleagues tells Kelly: “The future of whiteness is colors.” She may be right. Either way, as we head toward a multihued future, Row has provided us with stimulating fuel for the ride.

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald

This story was originally published September 13, 2014 at 7:00 PM with the headline "Provocative new novel tackles the issue of race head-on."