Reviews

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

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I used to consider myself of above average intelligence, a voracious reader. Sadly I no longer have as much time to read any more as I used to, or as I would like. Each book therefore counts in a way perhaps they never used to.
Lately, however, I have been committing what I would once have considered the cardinal sin of not finishing books. When you don't have time to read there is little point in struggling through something for the sake of it.

All that is a long and convoluted way of saying that I struggled with this book. It started off so promisingly. I loved the premise, and there is no doubt the author has a beautiful way with words.

Halfway through, however, the books within book became confusing and irritating.

Read the reviews, however, and everyone else seems to love it.

I've decided I'm not intelligent enough for clever books. I should probably just stick to trash.

*sigh*

cseibs's review

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5.0

The most interesting and refreshing book I've read in a long time. Oyeyemi is a marvelous storyteller and her great gift made the fragmented stories a beautifully cohesive whole. I loved the Mr. Fox, Mary, and Daphne all had equal parts reality and invention to them, but that the question of whether each was real or not became unimportant in light of the very real relationships built among them.

terroreesa's review against another edition

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3.0

honestly i think i stopped paying attention to what i was reading about 75% of the way through, but that is certainly a reflection on me and not oyeyemi's prose.

tiffanywang29's review against another edition

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5.0

Most intriguing.

dnr69's review

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dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

bluestarfish's review

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4.0

Mary Foxe would quite like St John Fox to stop murdering all his heroines in his books. There is some self-interest to this as she is his muse, not real, made-up. And yet...they manage to enter a game of wits and imagination and a sort of contest. Meanwhile Daphne is all to real and more than a little perturbed by what is happening. This book is a lot of things (almost all at once) and plays around with genres and ideas and retellings. It manages to be funny and shocking and was a very gripping read.

emmaginethat's review

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adventurous challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

the author jumps between the story of mr. fox, an author who’s muse manifests physically, to his short stories. the muse, mary, pushes mr. fox, challenging him to create stories where his female characters actually survive — not something he knows how to do. one of my favorite characters in this was daphne, mr. fox’s wife, who first sees mary as her competition, but slowly you see the similarities between the women and how they can liberate each other.

mary eventually becomes a person of her own, leaving the fox’s, which is what all creators should hope from their works. daphne learns to complain and have expectations for her treatment, not just bending to mr. fox’s whim as he had “fixed her” to early on.

my favorite part of this book was the seamless jumps between the overarching story and the short stories. the short stories varied so much in their setting and the lives of the people being told but always in a consistent and caretaking voice. the author explores stories from egypt, nigeria, etc., tying in themes and magical realism consistent with each of them.