Layne Fargo with The Favorites is trying to do what Barbara Kingsolver did with Demon Copperhead: take a literary classic and update it for a 21st-century audience. Some readers dislike Demon Copperhead for what they see as its forays into trauma porn and its sadistic treatment of the main character. For the record, I love DC. But no matter what you think of Kingsolver’s novel, it’s a work of genius compared to The Favorites.
Admittedly, the scope is a bit different. While Demon Copperhead uses Dickens’ David Copperfield as a framework to explore the impact of the opioid crisis on rural Appalachia, The Favorites uses Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights to write about the unquenchable passion of two ice dancers for each other. I’m admittedly not the biggest fan of romance novels, but I still felt my eyes rolling just a bit because ICE DANCING. The stakes just don’t seem super high.
And then there is the shameless shoehorning of Wuthering Heights references. I get that Fargo’s main characters need to be Katarina Shaw (Catherine Earnshaw) and Heath Rocha (Heathcliff), evoking these great avatars of destructive obsession. However, nearly EVERY CHARACTER is written to remind us that Fargo has read Bronte. We get Lee Shaw (Hindley Earnshaw), Isabella Lin (Isabella Linton), and Garrett Lin (Edgar Linton). But just in case the reader doesn’t get the point, we get side characters like Jane Currer, Ellis Dean, and Inez Acton. These “characters,” among others, serve as voices in a documentary about Kat and Heath; they come off as ways that Fargo can wink wink to readers. Ooh, did you know that the Brontes used Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell as pseudonyms when they published their novels? Well, Fargo does! I’m not sure how to balance her constant Wuthering Heights references with her disregard for the themes of Bronte’s novel. Obsession in Wuthering Heights is a destructive, demonic force, while Fargo’s main characters are only rewarded for their disregard of everyone else. Fargo pays lip service to Bronte’s ideas, but they never pay the price for their self-absorption. The other characters are as obsessed with Katarina and Heath as they are with each other.
Fargo and her characters tell us a lot that Katarina and Heath are in passionate love with each other and are soulmates, but she doesn’t really show us. In fact, Katarina is obsessed with ice dancing, and Heath is too because that’s what she’s into. And everyone is obsessed with them. That’s about it.
My biggest issue with the book is its use of cultural stereotypes. Are the Russian skaters cold and devious? Of course! Is there a Chinese-American former ice dancer who is a tiger mom to her children? You betcha! While Heathcliff’s racial identity is a crucial part of what makes that character such a cruel misanthrope (believe me, if you want to be disabused of the romantic notion of the Byronic hero, read Wuthering Heights; Heathcliff is a terrible person warped by his upbringing), we get scant mention of Heath’s racial identity beyond the first few pages of The Favorites. Maybe he has some rough experiences in the ice dancing world as a person of color? I don’t know, because Fargo never mentions it beyond references to Katarina running her hands through his dark curls.
Okay. So despite all of my problems with The Favorites, I still finished it in two days. Maybe I hate-read it, I don’t know. But I have had Kate Bush’s “Wuthering Heights” running through my head since beginning the book! (Fargo does mention Kate a couple of times….)