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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
This was... something.
It's beautifully written, but the story is just so convoluted and confusing.
And a little bit too misogonistic at some places for my personal taste. But I confess, I hold female authors to a higher standard here.
It's beautifully written, but the story is just so convoluted and confusing.
And a little bit too misogonistic at some places for my personal taste. But I confess, I hold female authors to a higher standard here.
I love the flow of her language, but I was not a fan of her telling the story through other stories and found it hard to keep up with what was even going on. Not my favorite from her
I have read half of one Oyeyemi and all of this one, and I have to say that she is a fantastic writer. Everyone needs to jump into something she's written. I am not sure that it matters what because they all seem to be amazing?
this one dealt, I suppose, mostly with themes about violence against women in storytelling, fiction and reality, love and violence. also very postmodern in formatting, where the stories flow into each other and reality. it's very dreamy with the occasional startlingly quite true observation.
OH RIGHT and somehow it is the story of Bluebeard the wife murderer which is maybe something to know going in, and also why I marked this under "fairy tales." there is an explicit retelling in there but I think the whole book picks up on the themes of the story.
everyone go read an Oyeyemi!
this one dealt, I suppose, mostly with themes about violence against women in storytelling, fiction and reality, love and violence. also very postmodern in formatting, where the stories flow into each other and reality. it's very dreamy with the occasional startlingly quite true observation.
OH RIGHT and somehow it is the story of Bluebeard the wife murderer which is maybe something to know going in, and also why I marked this under "fairy tales." there is an explicit retelling in there but I think the whole book picks up on the themes of the story.
everyone go read an Oyeyemi!
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Five stars for being extremely interesting, minus one star for the fact that I didn't understand it at all.
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not going to lie, this is a book that largely went over my head in meaning. I understood going in that it was supposed to be some re-imagining on the fairytale of Bluebeard, about a man who murders wives when they violate his trust by looking in a room that he explicitly tells them not to enter. That influence is evident enough as Mr. Fox is some sort of jumbled tale about an author who keeps killing his own female characters (who you meet in short story form throughout the book) and struggles with delusions of one of his characters becoming real and competing with his wife for his attentions.
Honestly, the PoV, timeline, and setting keep flipping so fast that it is hard to keep track of the who, what, where, and when of the story. My guess is that you aren't really supposed to worry about that as a reader, which feels counter-intuitive and had me constantly on edge, worried that I was not understanding. Even more frustrating, I'm not sure I grasped the wider point Oyeyemi was trying to make while I was reading if there was one at all. I had to resort to reading other reviews after I finished to even piece together meaning. Overall, I felt disoriented.
With all that said, I truly do love the style of Oyeyemi's writing. She has very fluid, natural prose and dialogue that feels light and deceptively simple to read with everything put into place. If I had to place an aesthetic to it, I would compare her writing to a Wes Anderson narrator.
I don't know, decide for yourself on this one.
Honestly, the PoV, timeline, and setting keep flipping so fast that it is hard to keep track of the who, what, where, and when of the story. My guess is that you aren't really supposed to worry about that as a reader, which feels counter-intuitive and had me constantly on edge, worried that I was not understanding. Even more frustrating, I'm not sure I grasped the wider point Oyeyemi was trying to make while I was reading if there was one at all. I had to resort to reading other reviews after I finished to even piece together meaning. Overall, I felt disoriented.
With all that said, I truly do love the style of Oyeyemi's writing. She has very fluid, natural prose and dialogue that feels light and deceptively simple to read with everything put into place. If I had to place an aesthetic to it, I would compare her writing to a Wes Anderson narrator.
I don't know, decide for yourself on this one.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Normally I enjoy Oyeyemi's writing, but the non-linear, fragmented structure of this book was more than I could cope with.