Gingerbread

Book Title: Gingerbread

Author: Helen Oyeyemi

Date Started: August 2nd 2020

Date Completed: August 9th 2020

Genres: Magical Realism, Contemporary

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

I don't pretend to always fully understand what the author is trying to say with magical realism, but I do enjoy reading it. I would probably need to write a dissertation to fully work out what's actually going on in Gingerbread (which I would actually be up for) but, in this review, I'm instead going to focus on the experience of just reading it for pleasure because I feel like that should be praised too.

Gingerbread is a very dreamy book, as you would expect from magical realism, but it had a narrative that I could follow. Often magical realist stories sometimes leave this out in favour of making their point, but I personally find it harder to follow (and/or care about) something that isn't rooted in a character's experience. As it is, Oyeyemi perfectly balances the narrative with her speculative observations and creations. As a retelling, this book perfectly understands the wicked and clever tone of the original fairytale and adapts it into something bittersweet and thoughtful when combined with contemporary perspectives and issues to explore.

I also absolutely love the directions Oyeyemi has taken the Hansel and Gretel story. Some are more explicit (literal (well, magical realist) gingerbread houses, characters called Gretel, or with fake names relating to the story) than others. Magical realism is, of course, the perfect place to play around with themes and metaphors, and Gingerbread has a field day with it. The book looks at the supposed 'sweetness' of gingerbread with links it to sexuality as being alluring/wickedly seductive; parents being (emotionally) dependent on children vs. abandoning them in the world to fend for themselves; the female-female relationships between different generations (be it mother/daughter, aunt/niece, mentor/student) which is derived from the relationship Gretel has with the witch that she has to use to escape. And so much more - as I said, I could fill a dissertation with it - and it's all fascinating even on the surface level I was noticing it without trying to analyse.

And I'm sure there is a lot that has gone over my head. I would imagine there's a lot to say about Black heritage and dismissed cultural belonging that I'm excited to look into now that I've finished the book. Side note that it was also wonderfully refreshing to have such a diversity of characters - even before you get to Black protagonists, having diversely named parents at the school was noticeably different to a lot of things I read, and damn great.

I've been meaning to get around to reading a Helen Oyeyemi book for years now, ever since Boy Snow Bird started being talked about, and I really should've started earlier. The themes Oyeyemi explores, the beauty with which she explores them, and all within the framework of reimagining fairytales is exactly the kind of thing that I love.