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What Members Thought
Slips back and forth between pretty straightforward stories of fictional characters and interludes with the author, Mr. Fox, his muse, and his wife. Fairy tale inspirations and beautiful writing. If you're a male writer, what does it mean when your female characters meet violent, unhappy ends?
Two fragments:
1. A fox steals a dictionary.
2. "How can I be a better husband?" a character asks, and his wife gives him a mask to wear:
Two fragments:
1. A fox steals a dictionary.
2. "How can I be a better husband?" a character asks, and his wife gives him a mask to wear:
"A white mask. Not flat white; rather, a colour suggestive of earth,...more
This novel dovetailed so perfectly with my interests: fairy tales and ballads (and modern interpretations thereof), intertextuality, hauntings, magic, symbolism, feminist responses to the death and the maiden trope, female monsters, female cameraderie, DEFLATING love triangles (how I loathe a love triangle).
And at the end Helen Oyeyemi cited Marina Warner and Barbara Comyns as influences! (my two favourite writers at the moment) and Lydia Gwilt was mentioned in the text! (fantastic flame-haired ...more
And at the end Helen Oyeyemi cited Marina Warner and Barbara Comyns as influences! (my two favourite writers at the moment) and Lydia Gwilt was mentioned in the text! (fantastic flame-haired ...more
I feel like I have yet to read my favorite Oyeyemi, but this one comes damn close! Fairy tale-like, if fairy tales were dark feminist magical realist tales that reflect upon the objectification and endless murdering of women characters by male novelists. Delightfully strange.
This could have been a really wonderful collection of weird and oddly wonderful short stories. Instead, as a novel it's a sort of confusing, jumbled mix of delightful moments, weird dream-like snippets, and baffling plot turns that just don't tie together very well.
...more
Somewhere between 3.5 and 4. Needs another edit/revision.
Jul 07, 2011
Connie
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Zoe
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May 09, 2014
Allison
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Jul 17, 2014
Siobhan
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Sep 01, 2014
jas
marked it as to-read-to-find
Oct 26, 2014
LaTarsha
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Mar 02, 2015
Joana
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