Your Face in Mine

Starred review from April 21, 2014
This furiously smart first novel from Row (who wrote the short story collection The Train to Lo Wu) opens up difficult conversations about race and identity. The narrator, Kelly Thorndike, is back in his hometown, Baltimore, after his wife and daughter die in an accident. Now in his mid-30s, Kelly reconnects with Martin, a friend from his high school days. Back then, Martin was a white Jewish kid known as Martin Lipkin, but he suffered from racial dysphoria and later underwent “racial reassignment surgery.” Now Martin is a black man named Martin Wilkinson, and he recruits Kelly to tell his story. Martin’s relationship to the truth is flexible, and there’s potentially a lot of money to be made. Not every plot twist is believable, but that seems appropriate—although set in the present day, the book is also a foray to the edge of possibility. Martin’s goal of spinning racial reassignment into a global enterprise is half business plan and half pipe dream, but for Martin and his partners, the future is now. Your Face in Mine (note the slipperiness of the title: who’s who here?) takes readers on a zesty, twisty, sometimes uncomfortable ride.

July 1, 2014
A white guy has himself turned black through a total physical makeover in this disjointed first novel about racial identity, which follows Row's two story collections (Nobody Ever Gets Lost, 2011, etc.).Two men, out of touch since they graduated from high school 20 years earlier, have a chance reunion on a Baltimore street. It's Martin Wilkinson who stops Kelly Thorndike, because while Kelly doesn't look that different, Martin is now unrecognizable. He tells Kelly he's had "racial reassignment surgery" and is eager to go public about it. Kelly, who's the narrator, is hollowed out by the loss of his wife (who was Chinese) and daughter in a car accident; he's recently lost his job at a public radio station and agrees to help Martin tell his story. He visits Martin's home and meets his wife, Robin. She's African-American, a high-powered child psychologist at Johns Hopkins; the couple has two adopted children, but Robin doesn't know her husband's secret. Martin is less forthcoming about his black-market electronics business. So, why did he do it? The answer is elusive. The son of a gay, nonobservant Jew, he spent his 20s distributing pot on the college circuit. His momentous decision came after a weed and peyote blowout, making it seem an elaborate lark. That Martin is one slick operator becomes even clearer in the concluding section in Bangkok, where he had his surgery. He introduces Kelly to Silpa, his Thai surgeon, and talks about expanding the racial reconstruction business, projecting brands and franchises, patents and payoffs. This is full-blown speculative fiction, a drastic change from the previously realistic framework; then, just as disorienting, Kelly dislodges Martin with his own identity crisis.For all its considerable pretension, Row's debut novel offers few insights into the formation of racial consciousness.

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March 15, 2014
One of "Granta"'s Best Young American Novelists and a Pushcart and PEN/O. Henry Prize winner, Row should draw attention with a discussion-worthy premise. Home in Baltimore, Kelly Thorndike is greeted by an African American man he doesn't recognize--since friend Martin was a skinny Jewish kid in high school who's had "racial reassignment surgery." Now he wants to spill his identity.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2014
In Row's (The Train to Lo Wu, 2005) disquieting near-future medical tale, 38-year-old Kelly Thorndike learns that all things are fungible after he has a chance encounter with a former high-school classmate. The guy who once was Martin Lipkin, Jewish bassist in a rock band with Kelly, is now Martin Wilkinson, a wealthy African American international entrepreneur, complete with a gorgeous African American wife and two African American daughters. They are adopted, of course, because Martin has had racial reassignment surgery, or RRS. Turns out there's a physician in Bangkok who's added RRS to his repertoire of gender-reassignment surgeries, perfecting the processes of changing skin color, hair texture, facial structurethe whole nine yards. Now Martin wants public-radio-station manager Kelly to document his story to help him come out, as it were, for purposes of, well, no spoilers here. Row has outdone himself in a first novel that offers great quantities of food for thought and discussion involving, for starters, questions of race and identity. Plunging deeper than common notions of the self and racial distinctions, Row presents wholly credible, if not thoroughly trustworthy, characters and complicated circumstances that will inspire serious reflection.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

Starred review from July 1, 2014

In this debut novel from a Pushcart and PEN/O. Henry Prize winner, Kelly Thorndike moves back to his hometown of Baltimore and is shortly thereafter introduced to an African American man named Martin who claims to be a friend from high school. But the Martin whom Kelly knew was a white, Jewish teenager. Martin eventually reveals that he had "racial reassignment surgery," which included the alteration of his hair, skin, and general physiognomy to allow him to pass as black. He wants Kelly to cowrite a book with him about his experience, which is only the beginning of a journey of discovery. The narrative ponders the right to choose one's identity--and it does so immaculately and in a forthcoming manner. VERDICT In this imaginative novel, the author deftly ponders why anyone would choose to usurp his or her past. There are a number of twists along the way, with the ending a particular surprise. This will appeal especially to those who love literary fiction with a thriller's edge. [See Prepub Alert, 3/15/14.]--Ashanti White, Yelm, WA

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.