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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.
