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3.24 AVERAGE
3.24 AVERAGE
I very much enjoyed the story as it was happening, but now that it is over, I don't know what I just read. It is hard to follow, but absolutely delightful. A very confusing combination.
this book was kind of like one of those vampire weekend songs you really like but don't quite know why because it doesn't seem to make much sense. the fairytale elements were great, the way everyone talked to each other was awesome, and there was some good family juiciness here, but the way it meandered was really unsettling and a bit exhausting. the best and most grounded part of the story was gabriel and harriet's relationship but it lasted like two minutes and while everything was tied up in a way that was somewhat satisfying, it still defied too much sense for me. pretty, fun writing, but not a great sum of its parts.
This is the book I was reading when the coronavirus staying home/quarantine began, so, honestly, I’ve been a bit distracted and went many days between spurts of reading, and it’s hard to say how much of it I understood. Oyeyemi is someone who requires concentration for her complex stories, and I just didn’t have it in me, so this one I’ll need to come back to. I could read the descriptions of the effects of the family’s gingerbread forever though.
Magical realism which felt of kilter throughout. Had a beautiful cover - the reason I bought it. Couldn’t quite get or engage with the family dynamics and links. Felt like there was something clever or informative weaved through it but I couldn’t grasp it.
The most strangely beautiful and beautifully strange book I’ve ever read. To say more would ruin the sense of the ending and the feeling of the Ding an sich, so I’ll leave it at that.
Funky, and some of the initial plot points are left hanging for looonnnnnng stretches of the book, but I found it to be an overall enjoyable read and worth my time.
how much whimsy is too much whimsy?
previous to reading this i would have said NO SUCH THING with my characteristic (read: annoying) confidence and belief that i am always right, but...
now i think that wherever this falls on the whimsy scale is slightly in excess.
this was fun to read but i'm not going to remember much about it, because none of it settled into my brain comfortably.
i.e., none of it made sense.
bottom line: fun in the moment but no staying power. like a hard candy, or something.
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tbr review
the author says she "has written nine books so far, none of which contain ‘magical realism’. (Can’t fiction sometimes get extra fictional without being called such names?!)"
to which my response was ooh magical realism! time to add to my tbr
previous to reading this i would have said NO SUCH THING with my characteristic (read: annoying) confidence and belief that i am always right, but...
now i think that wherever this falls on the whimsy scale is slightly in excess.
this was fun to read but i'm not going to remember much about it, because none of it settled into my brain comfortably.
i.e., none of it made sense.
bottom line: fun in the moment but no staying power. like a hard candy, or something.
-----------------
tbr review
the author says she "has written nine books so far, none of which contain ‘magical realism’. (Can’t fiction sometimes get extra fictional without being called such names?!)"
to which my response was ooh magical realism! time to add to my tbr
I feel as if Helen Oyeyemi snatched me away, put me under a spell, and just as suddenly dropped me out of my trance into the middle of my life that I have been somehow still living this whole time.
There were times where I snapped out of it thinking, "What. Is. Happening. Right now in this book? What? Huh? Lemme rewind," but the more I struggled to make sense of everything and to try to orient myself in her world, the less it made sense.
Then I figured it out.
Oyeyemi (the narrator) has a great a voice that does absolute justice to Oyeyemi (the writer). A unique style, with a dreamy and abrupt quality.
You simply must just let her take you on this journey without struggling. In this way she really reminds me of Haruki Murakami, deeply entrenched in this magical realism. Where Murakami battles in stark and simple prose, Oyeyemi dreams in fantastical and lyrical (to me) worlds.
If you let Oyeyemi take you on this journey, maybe you'll come up with something meaningful, maybe not. But you'll find you enjoyed yourself and something will nag at you in the inside. As if someone has just tickled a part of you and left you a small, parting gift.
There were times where I snapped out of it thinking, "What. Is. Happening. Right now in this book? What? Huh? Lemme rewind," but the more I struggled to make sense of everything and to try to orient myself in her world, the less it made sense.
Then I figured it out.
Oyeyemi (the narrator) has a great a voice that does absolute justice to Oyeyemi (the writer). A unique style, with a dreamy and abrupt quality.
You simply must just let her take you on this journey without struggling. In this way she really reminds me of Haruki Murakami, deeply entrenched in this magical realism. Where Murakami battles in stark and simple prose, Oyeyemi dreams in fantastical and lyrical (to me) worlds.
If you let Oyeyemi take you on this journey, maybe you'll come up with something meaningful, maybe not. But you'll find you enjoyed yourself and something will nag at you in the inside. As if someone has just tickled a part of you and left you a small, parting gift.