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A review by surelyinthefountain
Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I rated this a bit more optimistically than I felt while reading, which was maybe half a star lower. Usually I love this sort of novel, but I just wasn't in quite the right mood to enjoy it as much as I might have. Maybe I'll revisit it in the future.
You can really approach "Mr. Fox" very much like you would a book of short stories. While there's an overarching story, a lot of what's going on with the main characters is shrouded in metaphor, and you have to read between the lines somewhat on some of the things that are going on there. There's a lot of interesting stuff happening thematically with how this plays with the Bluebeard story and other fairy tales/folklore, esp. with regards to gender; I also really like the queer subtext that builds up throughout the novel, both in terms of narrative structure and story happenings.The obvious reading is that St. John is gay or bisexual, based on the story of the two boys in school who were in love but later married women, hid themselves behind masks and never spoke to one another again. He's shown to be pretty uncomfortable in the company of other men, and when he thinks Daphne is having an affair, he just...massively overestimates how attractive the other guy is, to the point that Daphne finds it kind of ludicrous. Personally, though, I kind of find a trans reading of St. John more interesting and convincing. While you can read Mary to be his "muse" and idealized woman, I think you can also interpret her as much more a part of him and who he is than anything, especially from some of the stuff in that closing story. "Please change me. Change me, change me, change me...not fox anymore" is pretty blatant. But I dunno; my thoughts are not super developed on this!
That's not super necessary to get into, though, to enjoy yourself. Book is fun; light in tone, though often more in the vein of dark humor. The short stories themselves are fun and interesting enough on their own that you can kind of also just go along for the ride.
You can really approach "Mr. Fox" very much like you would a book of short stories. While there's an overarching story, a lot of what's going on with the main characters is shrouded in metaphor, and you have to read between the lines somewhat on some of the things that are going on there. There's a lot of interesting stuff happening thematically with how this plays with the Bluebeard story and other fairy tales/folklore, esp. with regards to gender; I also really like the queer subtext that builds up throughout the novel, both in terms of narrative structure and story happenings.
That's not super necessary to get into, though, to enjoy yourself. Book is fun; light in tone, though often more in the vein of dark humor. The short stories themselves are fun and interesting enough on their own that you can kind of also just go along for the ride.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Misogyny, and Murder