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Jun. 18th, 2014 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsMan, I'm sitting here tearing out my hair over Boy, Snow, Bird. HELEN OYEYEMI. I don't know what to do with this.
Okay, so as has been previously established in these here parts, Helen Oyeyemi is a bona fide genius. This cannot be argued with. And for the first, say, 90% of Boy, Snow, Bird, it was probably my favorite thing she'd ever written? I read the first chapter on the subway yesterday, and then sat on a bench on the way home and read four more, even though I hadn't eaten in about ten hours and was starving, because I couldn't stop; the voices and prose were too much, I couldn't put it down.
Boy is a girl, born in New York in the 1930s. A quote, from Boy: "Where does character come into it? Just this: I've always been pretty sure I could kill someone if I had to. Myself, or my father -- whichever option proved most practical. I wouldn't kill for hatred's sake; I'd only do it to solve a problem." But instead of killing herself or her father, Boy takes a midnight bus out of town, and finds herself in a small artisan's town in Massachusetts, which is where the story takes place, and where she meets Snow.
Snow is also a girl, an extraordinarily beautiful girl, the beloved daughter of a widower. Snow is lovely, she's sweet, she has no temper; she always knows exactly the right thing to say, even at the age of six. Nobody can believe she's quite real, not even Snow herself. A quote, from Snow (not at the age of six): "It's a relief to be able to forget about what I might or might not be mistaken for. My reflection can't be counted on, she's not always there but I am, so maybe she's not really me ... well, what is she then? I guess we'll find out someday, but I'm not holding my breath."
And Bird is yet another girl; she's the girl who comes along after Boy and Snow meet, and changes everything around, for everybody. A quote, from Bird: "Do I feel bad for blowing Aunt Viv's cover? Not really. I accidentally brought truth to light, and bringing truth to light is the right thing to do." Bird is not the daughter her family expected, or wanted; she's not white enough for that. Maybe that's why she doesn't always show up in mirrors.
Boy, Snow, Bird is a book that takes place in a very real place, a very real time -- the Northeast in the 1950s and 60s -- with jagged edges of fairy tales new and old running through it; Boy's father the rat-catcher, shoes that don't fit, spiders that talk; a story about a woman and a wizard that two women make up between them, while pretending that they read it once before, in a book, and are just retelling it to each other now; two more stories passed between sisters, as a kind of proof of identity and belief.
And of course mothers and daughters and sisters everywhere, and of course mirrors everywhere, and of course always, everywhere Snow, as the Snow White story at the heart of the novel twists into an examination of race and beauty and identity.
And it's so good! IT'S SO GOOD. It's meaty and gorgeous and full of amazingly strong character voices and complicated, painful dynamics and beautiful prose, and then you start nearing the end and you're like, 'wow, everything is so fascinating and complex! I wonder how Oyeyemi is going to wrap all this up!'
And the answer is .... with a left-turn DRAMATIC BACKSTORY SHIFT that involves the reveal that Boy's incredibly abusive father is secretly! a brilliant, talented gay woman! who was raped and thereafter became a broken abusive transman out of trauma?!?!?! Like, I want to believe this is not as bad as it sounds, because the rest of the book is SO GOOD and Helen Oyeyemi IS A GENIUS and obviously doing something dazzling with identity etc., but ... I can't talk myself over this, because it's CLEARLY TERRIBLE. Followed by a gesture towards hope and change and catharsis about to play out in a potentially fascinating way, followed by ... A FULL STOP.
AND THAT'S WHY I'M BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST A WALL RIGHT NOW, please help.
Okay, so as has been previously established in these here parts, Helen Oyeyemi is a bona fide genius. This cannot be argued with. And for the first, say, 90% of Boy, Snow, Bird, it was probably my favorite thing she'd ever written? I read the first chapter on the subway yesterday, and then sat on a bench on the way home and read four more, even though I hadn't eaten in about ten hours and was starving, because I couldn't stop; the voices and prose were too much, I couldn't put it down.
Boy is a girl, born in New York in the 1930s. A quote, from Boy: "Where does character come into it? Just this: I've always been pretty sure I could kill someone if I had to. Myself, or my father -- whichever option proved most practical. I wouldn't kill for hatred's sake; I'd only do it to solve a problem." But instead of killing herself or her father, Boy takes a midnight bus out of town, and finds herself in a small artisan's town in Massachusetts, which is where the story takes place, and where she meets Snow.
Snow is also a girl, an extraordinarily beautiful girl, the beloved daughter of a widower. Snow is lovely, she's sweet, she has no temper; she always knows exactly the right thing to say, even at the age of six. Nobody can believe she's quite real, not even Snow herself. A quote, from Snow (not at the age of six): "It's a relief to be able to forget about what I might or might not be mistaken for. My reflection can't be counted on, she's not always there but I am, so maybe she's not really me ... well, what is she then? I guess we'll find out someday, but I'm not holding my breath."
And Bird is yet another girl; she's the girl who comes along after Boy and Snow meet, and changes everything around, for everybody. A quote, from Bird: "Do I feel bad for blowing Aunt Viv's cover? Not really. I accidentally brought truth to light, and bringing truth to light is the right thing to do." Bird is not the daughter her family expected, or wanted; she's not white enough for that. Maybe that's why she doesn't always show up in mirrors.
Boy, Snow, Bird is a book that takes place in a very real place, a very real time -- the Northeast in the 1950s and 60s -- with jagged edges of fairy tales new and old running through it; Boy's father the rat-catcher, shoes that don't fit, spiders that talk; a story about a woman and a wizard that two women make up between them, while pretending that they read it once before, in a book, and are just retelling it to each other now; two more stories passed between sisters, as a kind of proof of identity and belief.
And of course mothers and daughters and sisters everywhere, and of course mirrors everywhere, and of course always, everywhere Snow, as the Snow White story at the heart of the novel twists into an examination of race and beauty and identity.
And it's so good! IT'S SO GOOD. It's meaty and gorgeous and full of amazingly strong character voices and complicated, painful dynamics and beautiful prose, and then you start nearing the end and you're like, 'wow, everything is so fascinating and complex! I wonder how Oyeyemi is going to wrap all this up!'
And the answer is .... with a left-turn DRAMATIC BACKSTORY SHIFT that involves the reveal that Boy's incredibly abusive father is secretly! a brilliant, talented gay woman! who was raped and thereafter became a broken abusive transman out of trauma?!?!?! Like, I want to believe this is not as bad as it sounds, because the rest of the book is SO GOOD and Helen Oyeyemi IS A GENIUS and obviously doing something dazzling with identity etc., but ... I can't talk myself over this, because it's CLEARLY TERRIBLE. Followed by a gesture towards hope and change and catharsis about to play out in a potentially fascinating way, followed by ... A FULL STOP.
AND THAT'S WHY I'M BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST A WALL RIGHT NOW, please help.
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Date: 2014-06-18 06:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-18 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-18 07:06 pm (UTC)like, that a mediocre or terrible book would have that plot twist? sure. but an otherwise awesome book???
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Date: 2014-06-18 07:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-18 08:29 pm (UTC)Yeah!! That seems a little like the Brooklyn Nine-Nine effect to me, where there are multiple examples of black masculinity and Latina femininity so that each one can be explored unapologetically without its looking like the writers are saying "this is what ALL X PEOPLE are like."
Like. Maybe, maybe if there were three trans characters in a novel and only one had that backstory, it would be okay? But even then why go there?? Rape-as-character-arc-inducing-cathartic-event is like the LOWEST FORM of character motivation.*
*Not to say we shouldn't talk about rape. Or that people can't ever undergo major personal journeys resulting from rape. But ;slfks;lakda why won't my brain.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-18 08:51 pm (UTC)And not to mention rape turning people into abusive monsters, EVEN WITHOUT the inexplicable trans stuff -- like, absolutely rape victims taking their anger out on the kids that result is a thing that happens, but ... and then when you combo it with "cool lady becomes ABUSIVE MAN CONVINCED HIS DAUGHTER IS EVIL" and then it's just a whole hotbed of a mess.
And it's like, ok, then the whole sense of the reveal is "surprise! the abusive father you hate USED TO BE this super cool lady," and then the ending is "let's all go on a roadtrip and see if we can find the awesome person who might still be in there somewhere???" Which, low as the whole 'rape as traumatic backstory turning someone into a monster' thing is, I would find more forgivable if the trans issue was not mixed in there too being INEXPLICABLE because I'm pretty sure that's NOT HOW TRANS WORKS.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-19 12:54 am (UTC)Wait, what?
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Date: 2014-06-19 03:07 am (UTC)"Magic spells only work until the person under the spell is really and honestly tired of it. It ends when continuing becomes simply too ghastly a prospect."
"I'm not sure I ..."
"Pester your subject, Boy. Pester the person, whoever it is. Make the enchantment inconvenient for them, find myriad ways to expose their contentment as false, show them that the contentment is part of the spell, engineered to make it last longer. Do you see?"
So then they literally all cram into a car and start off on a road trip to, I guess, pester Boy's father -- whom she ran away from in the middle of the night, because it was that or kill one of them, let's point out, and has spent a subsequent ten years hiding from in terror -- into realizing that his entire life as horribly abusive Frank the rat catcher is just a false enchantment, which, when dissipated, MAY YET REVEAL awesome Frances, I guess.
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Date: 2014-06-19 04:11 am (UTC)That's hugely problematic!
[edit] It also feels completely inexcusable from a book one of whose female protagonists is named "Boy."
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Date: 2014-06-19 12:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-19 04:15 pm (UTC)A quick survey of the internet suggests that while other reviewers have noted the problem, Oyeyemi herself has said nothing about it. Someone should maybe ask.
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Date: 2014-06-19 11:27 am (UTC)WHAT ON TOP OF MORE WHAT.
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Date: 2014-06-19 12:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-18 06:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-18 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-18 07:25 pm (UTC)Yeah.
Goddammit.
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Date: 2014-06-18 07:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-20 07:27 pm (UTC)I mean, I guess in theory, that could happen in reality but. BUT. (I sent you another book rec that might make it better? I DON'T KNOW. I'm making you read it first. Because I love you.)
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Date: 2014-06-22 07:52 pm (UTC)