A Short Review of Nina Revoyr’s The Necessary Hunger and A Student of History (Akashic, 2019).

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A Short Review of Nina Revoyr’s The Necessary Hunger (Akashic, Paperback Reprint, 2019) and Nina Revoyr’s A Student of History (Akashic, 2019).

By Stephen Hong Sohn

I’ll start first with the fact that Akashic made the no-brainer decision to re-publish Nina Revoyr’s The Necessary Hunger (Akashic, Paperback Reprint, 2019), which had fallen out of print for some time. I’ll give myself a shoutout to note that I did write briefly on this novel in my book Inscrutable Belongings: Queer Asian North American Fiction (Stanford University Press, 2018) as a set up to my longer reading of Wingshooters. Revoyr’s The Necessary Hunger is absolutely pioneering: it may be the first work by an out, queer Asian American writer to be published out of a major press AND for that work to include a major queer Asian American lesbian courtship plot. The interracial dynamics and high school sporting plot all make for an engaging work, one well worthy of retaining in print forever! But the main event of this review of Nina Revoyr’s A Student of History (Akashic, 2019). I believe A Student of History is Revoyr’s sixth publication! WOW (after The Necessary Hunger, Southland, The Age of Dreaming, Wingshooters, and Lost Canyon). I’ve always preferred Revoyr’s use of the first person. I still remember which novels that she uses first person in and which she does not. I wasn’t as big of a fan of Lost Canyon, her previous publication, just because it was in the third person, HAHA. In any case, A Student of History moves back into the first person. What I love about Revoyr’s use of the first person is that she makes the most of the subjective myopia (for lack of a better term) that comes with this kind of narrative perspective. There’s only so much one can know, and the limits to this knowledge are often what move the narrative forward. In any case, so let’s give some background information as per B&N:

“Rick Nagano is a graduate student in the history department at USC, struggling to make rent on his South Los Angeles apartment near the neighborhood where his family once lived. When he lands a job as a research assistant for the elderly Mrs. W--, the heir to an oil fortune, he sees it at first simply as a source of extra cash. But as he grows closer to the iconoclastic, charming, and feisty Mrs. W--, he gets drawn into a world of privilege and wealth far different from his racially mixed, blue-collar beginnings. Putting aside his half-finished dissertation, Rick sets up office in Mrs. W--'s grand Bel Air mansion and begins to transcribe her journals--which document an old Los Angeles not described in his history books. He also accompanies Mrs. W-- to venues frequented by the descendants of the land and oil barons who built the city. One evening, at an event, he meets Fiona Morgan--the elegant scion of an old steel family--who takes an interest in his studies. Irresistibly drawn to Fiona, he agrees to help her with a project of questionable merit in the hopes he'll win her favor. A Student of History explores both the beginnings of Los Angeles and the present-day dynamics of race and class. It offers a window into the usually hidden world of high society, and the influence of historic families on current events. Like Great Expectations and The Great Gatsby, it features, in Rick Nagano, a young man of modest means who is navigating a world where he doesn't belong.”

It’s interesting because I didn’t really see The Great Gatsby intertext as much as The Great Expectations one. For instance, Fiona Morgan is obviously the Estella figure. If only Rick knew that, he’d know to stay away, but that’s probably offering too many spoilers. By way of a quick digression: I actually wrote only half of this review after reading the novel, so I’m now returning to it after a two-month layoff, so my impressions have faded a bit. In any case, The Great Gatsby references also makes some sense because Rick’s work with Mrs. W-- moves him into the world of Los Angeles’s rich and powerful. In some sense, he is the outsider, so he observes from a positionality that is reminiscent of Nick Carraway in that novel. Still, I’d position Rick as the clear protagonist of this work. Revoyr also weaves in an interesting subplot/ issue related to Rick’s doctoral work. As he gets further enmeshed in the rarefied world of Mrs. W-- and her elite counterparts, Rick realizes that Mrs. W--’s private past might be the subject of some unique archival work. He doesn’t let Mrs. W-- into these intentions, though Rick’s dissertation advisor seems well on board with it. My biggest critique, an obviously minor one, was the depiction of this dissertation advisor, who seemed rather overly enthusiastic about this kind of research, and I wondered about the ethics of some of her advice. In any case, Revoyr’s use of the first person is always on point; you’re immediately aligned with Rick’s perspective, and you want to know how things will turn out. You want him to somehow triumph in this world of the elite, even as you know things are hurtling toward some ignominious finish. Finally, I’d just like to commend Revoyr as being one of the best “regional” writers in Los Angeles. Every single work of hers has either been set or partially set in Los Angeles, and yet each novel has taken the city from a different angle and plumbs those depths.

Buy the Books Here:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-student-of-history-nina-revoyr/1128402260#/

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-necessary-hunger-nina-revoyr/1002110495?type=eBook#/

Review Author: Stephen Hong Sohn
Review Editor: Nicholas Clark

If you have any questions or want us to consider your book for review, please don't hesitate to contact us via email!
Prof. Stephen Hong Sohn at sohnucr@gmail.com
Nicholas Clark, PhD Student in English, at nclar004@ucr.edu

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