You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
ielerol 's review for:
Gingerbread
by Helen Oyeyemi
Reading a Helen Oyeyemi book is a little more like reading poetry than the way I normally read novels. I usually want internal consistency, a clear understanding of the rules behind what's going on. Oyeyemi's writing is more dreamlike, shifting between scenes and times and places without a lot of warning or signposts. But the emotional tone is very carefully crafted, and the underlying emotional logic is more important than questions like, if Druhastrana is really a physical place how is it possible it's not on maps (Google Earth?) Can anyone besides Harriet hear the talking dolls? What is going on with the Kerchevals' house? Questions whose ambiguity would bother me in a different sort of book are completely irrelevant to this one.
The writing style is very much typical Oyeyemi, beautiful and dense and experimental. But while plenty of dark things happen in this book, it feels less bleak than her others that I've read. Maybe the centrality of Gretel as a force for change in Harriet's life is what makes the difference, as most of her previous works focused on fundamentally much darker themes.
The writing style is very much typical Oyeyemi, beautiful and dense and experimental. But while plenty of dark things happen in this book, it feels less bleak than her others that I've read. Maybe the centrality of Gretel as a force for change in Harriet's life is what makes the difference, as most of her previous works focused on fundamentally much darker themes.