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Mar. 3rd, 2010 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsIt seems like a large number of the creepiest ghost stories involve some sort of creepy small child. (Most often, a creepy little girl.)
Helen Oyeyemi's The Icarus Girl is a little different from the usual, in that the story is actually told from the perspective of the aforementioned creepy little girl. Jessamy Harrison is eight years old, the solitary and precocious child of a Nigerian author and her English husband; she's prone to writing poetry, curling up in closets with books above her reading level, throwing sudden and inexplicable panic attack-related tantrums and falling equally inexplicably ill. At the beginning of the book, Jessamy's family takes her to her first visit to Nigeria to meet her mother's family, where she bonds with her grandfather and with a strange girl named Titiola, whom Jessamy calls TillyTilly. TillyTilly apparently lives in an abandoned outpost of the family house, has no visible parents, speaks in broken Nigerian-accented English when they meet but is soon discussing poetry and English literature with Jessamy as if she's been doing it her whole life. She's the best (possibly only) friend Jessamy has ever had - and shortly after Jessamy returns to England, TillyTilly mysteriously shows up on her street and promises to be her friend forever! WHAT COULD BE AWESOMER.
I'm sure everyone can guess where this is going.
There are a lot of interesting things going on in this book. Oyeyemi is writing a lot of play with doubles and identity and naming and belonging; the connection between Jessamy and TillyTilly is kind of fascinating and has a lot of room for interpretation. (Including the obvious "is TillyTilly real or is this kid JUST CRAZY?" one, but I find that less interesting than the other options.) I really like that the book is from Jessamy's perspective - and it's really interesting to see the way the adults react to this haunted and sometimes frightening child through Jessamy's own eyes - but at the same time I get the feeling that Oyeyemi sometimes found it frustrating to be limited to the viewpoint of a bright but not-necessarily-sane child. There are one or two points where she suddenly jumps to someone else's viewpoint to explain what's going on, which I found somewhat jarring. And there are a couple places, especially towards the end, where the narrative flies somewhat out of control; I left the story feeling like all the strands of metaphor hadn't quite come together enough. On the other hand, Oyeyemi is a freaking genius who wrote this book when she was eighteen, so I think this is forgivable.
Helen Oyeyemi's The Icarus Girl is a little different from the usual, in that the story is actually told from the perspective of the aforementioned creepy little girl. Jessamy Harrison is eight years old, the solitary and precocious child of a Nigerian author and her English husband; she's prone to writing poetry, curling up in closets with books above her reading level, throwing sudden and inexplicable panic attack-related tantrums and falling equally inexplicably ill. At the beginning of the book, Jessamy's family takes her to her first visit to Nigeria to meet her mother's family, where she bonds with her grandfather and with a strange girl named Titiola, whom Jessamy calls TillyTilly. TillyTilly apparently lives in an abandoned outpost of the family house, has no visible parents, speaks in broken Nigerian-accented English when they meet but is soon discussing poetry and English literature with Jessamy as if she's been doing it her whole life. She's the best (possibly only) friend Jessamy has ever had - and shortly after Jessamy returns to England, TillyTilly mysteriously shows up on her street and promises to be her friend forever! WHAT COULD BE AWESOMER.
I'm sure everyone can guess where this is going.
There are a lot of interesting things going on in this book. Oyeyemi is writing a lot of play with doubles and identity and naming and belonging; the connection between Jessamy and TillyTilly is kind of fascinating and has a lot of room for interpretation. (Including the obvious "is TillyTilly real or is this kid JUST CRAZY?" one, but I find that less interesting than the other options.) I really like that the book is from Jessamy's perspective - and it's really interesting to see the way the adults react to this haunted and sometimes frightening child through Jessamy's own eyes - but at the same time I get the feeling that Oyeyemi sometimes found it frustrating to be limited to the viewpoint of a bright but not-necessarily-sane child. There are one or two points where she suddenly jumps to someone else's viewpoint to explain what's going on, which I found somewhat jarring. And there are a couple places, especially towards the end, where the narrative flies somewhat out of control; I left the story feeling like all the strands of metaphor hadn't quite come together enough. On the other hand, Oyeyemi is a freaking genius who wrote this book when she was eighteen, so I think this is forgivable.
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Date: 2010-03-03 05:52 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2010-03-03 09:16 pm (UTC)(I need a Hawkeye/Mustang icon.)
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Date: 2010-03-03 09:19 pm (UTC)(I, uh, suspect there may be a massive FMA icons post somewhere in my near future - it's been my main procrastination measure to date.)
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Date: 2010-03-04 12:29 am (UTC)You're so, so bad for my wallet and bookcases, Becca.
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Date: 2010-03-04 02:31 am (UTC)I do my best! >:D