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A review by jhd016
Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi
3.0
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.