The epigraph to Helen Oyeyemi’s absorbingly seductive and
strange new story collection, What is Not
Yours is Not Yours, reads: “open me carefully.” These words are intended on
multiple levels. The stories contained in this book are all about things locked
and opened—from doors to hearts to secrets. These are also interlocking
stories, making this more technically a story cycle rather than a collection.
And, finally, these stories should also be read with care. Oyeyemi’s prose is gorgeous
but often there are barbs hidden within this loveliness.
The opening story, “Books and Roses,” was a twisting story
within a story: both about love and both entwined with the other. The main
story follows Montserrat, a baby left in a chapel, and the secondary narrative
is that of the story told to Montse by Senora Lucy. I’ll admit that this story
left me feeling a little cold. Something about it, especially on first read,
felt less full and alive than some of Oyeyemi’s previous work (especially my
two favorite of her works: Icarus Girl
and White is for Witching.) However,
this story becomes more meaningful as one reads through the rest of the pieces.
Its themes of love and loss and hopeful waiting become more sharply defined
when juxtaposed with the other tales.
One of my favorite stories is “‘Sorry’ Doesn’t Sweeten Her
Tea,” (and not only because of that perfection of a title), which centers
around a house of locks. Here, again, we are given physical locks as stand-ins
for the things we can’t lock ourselves away from (or the things we too
willingly do lock ourselves away from).
One of Oyeyemi’s most amazing tricks throughout the
collection is the ease with which she switches between voices and storytelling
styles. While all of these pieces feel thematically linked, I never felt like I
was reading the same piece over and over. A piece like “Sorry” feels much more
contemporary than one like “Books and Roses” or a later story “Dornicka and the
St. Martin’s Day Goose.” (And, again, let us pause to savor the titles
throughout this collection, including my absolute favorite title, that of the
gloriously creepy story, “If a Book is Locked There’s Probably a Good Reason
for that Don’t You Think.”)
The other trick that Oyeyemi consistently proves she can do
extremely well is that of beginning and ending her stories (something that I
haven’t always found true of her novels—it goes against most people’s opinions,
but I found both Boy, Snow, Bird and Mr. Fox to be ultimately disappointing
because of their weak endings). Take the opening of “Drowning” for example: “This
happened and it didn’t happen: A man threw a key into a fire. Yes, there are
people who do such things.” Or that of “Dornicka” which begins: “Well, Dornicka
met a wolf on Mount Radhost.” What each of these openings also shows is how
intrinsic storytelling and a folkloric feel is to this collection. In each
story, I felt like someone was telling me the story, versus that I was reading
it. This is a hard feat to pull off well, but Oyeyemi has perfected it.
Ultimately the flaws of the book seem more to be flaws of
labeling rather than anything else. As a story collection, some of these pieces
don’t hold up as well. They feel not quite completed or slightly less full of
life. However, reading the whole book as a, well, whole is a different
experience entirely. The stories speak to one another and gain deeper resonance
through the act of reading them together. So, if you’re looking for a book to
pick up and just haphazardly read a story or two then this might not be the
collection for you. If, however, you’re looking for an unsettling, lyrical,
trip into a world of hauntingly beautiful stories, then certainly pick this one up!
The Math
Baseline Assessment: 8/10
Bonuses: +1 for story titles that made me jealous, +1 for there being a puppetry school in one of the stories
Penalties: -1 for not every story being able to completely stand on its own (but, honestly, I’m being unfair here)
Nerd Coefficient: 9/10 “very high quality/standout in its category”
Baseline Assessment: 8/10
Bonuses: +1 for story titles that made me jealous, +1 for there being a puppetry school in one of the stories
Penalties: -1 for not every story being able to completely stand on its own (but, honestly, I’m being unfair here)
Nerd Coefficient: 9/10 “very high quality/standout in its category”
***
POSTED BY: Chloe, speculative fiction fan in all forms, monster theorist, and Nerds of a Feather blogger since 2016.
POSTED BY: Chloe, speculative fiction fan in all forms, monster theorist, and Nerds of a Feather blogger since 2016.
Reference: Oyeyemi, Helen What is Not Yours is Not Yours [Riverhead, 2016]
