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Title: White is for Witching
Author: Helen Oyeyemi
Published: New York: Nan A. Talese, 2009
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 227
Total Page Count: 94,228
Text Number: 271
Read Because: intrigued by this review from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rushthatspeaks, borrowed from the library
Review: Miranda has pica, a disorder which makes her consume non-edibles; her mother's death and strangely sinister family home encourage her ongoing mental deterioration—but however accurate, such a summary does little to introduce this story of a narrating home, unhealthy family, and fragile mental health. White is for Witching is a short, strange, wonderful little book—and that combination is not without fault. The narrative is stylized and apparently fragmented, which makes for an intriguing but difficult beginning; it takes some time to adapt to the narrative and for the story to gain momentum. Much of the book's joy lies in subtle characterization and carefully crafted atmosphere, and these aspects also take time to reach fruition. As a result, it isn't until its midpoint that the book really gets going, and that's a drawback in such a short volume. The first half doesn't feel wasted, but it does feel underutilized—and White is the sort of deceptively simple book whose apparent lightness and sparsity belies poetic complexity; it begs for the best possible use of every page.
But in that second half, once things are truly underway, is mesmerizing. Just as apparent sparsity belies complexity, the fragmented narrative belies surprisingly cogent plot and themes. White is a marriage of style and substance: an unusual, sometimes-challenging, shifting voice, original (if occasionally tortured) formatting, and light, haunted, poetic prose; nuanced and compelling characters and interactions, the sort of mysterious, multifaceted plot which forms a solid whole but still begs immediate reread in order to identify those final few aspects, and beautiful themes which straddle mythology and allegory to explore family, alienation, and xenophobia. The book didn't hit me as hard as it did some readers—while haunting, I found some aspects of the book a little too unrealistic to be precisely menacing, and the deadened horror somewhat deadened the overall impact. But White is for Witching has stuck in my thoughts, and the more I read and write about it the more I want to revisit the text, dig in deeper and explore its mysteries a second time. This strange little book has flaws, but it is both intriguing and intelligent, a book to captivating and to inspire thought and dread. I recommend it to those with a taste for horror and the postmodern, and hope that I may reread it myself some day.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Helen Oyeyemi
Published: New York: Nan A. Talese, 2009
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 227
Total Page Count: 94,228
Text Number: 271
Read Because: intrigued by this review from
rushthatspeaks, borrowed from the libraryReview: Miranda has pica, a disorder which makes her consume non-edibles; her mother's death and strangely sinister family home encourage her ongoing mental deterioration—but however accurate, such a summary does little to introduce this story of a narrating home, unhealthy family, and fragile mental health. White is for Witching is a short, strange, wonderful little book—and that combination is not without fault. The narrative is stylized and apparently fragmented, which makes for an intriguing but difficult beginning; it takes some time to adapt to the narrative and for the story to gain momentum. Much of the book's joy lies in subtle characterization and carefully crafted atmosphere, and these aspects also take time to reach fruition. As a result, it isn't until its midpoint that the book really gets going, and that's a drawback in such a short volume. The first half doesn't feel wasted, but it does feel underutilized—and White is the sort of deceptively simple book whose apparent lightness and sparsity belies poetic complexity; it begs for the best possible use of every page.
But in that second half, once things are truly underway, is mesmerizing. Just as apparent sparsity belies complexity, the fragmented narrative belies surprisingly cogent plot and themes. White is a marriage of style and substance: an unusual, sometimes-challenging, shifting voice, original (if occasionally tortured) formatting, and light, haunted, poetic prose; nuanced and compelling characters and interactions, the sort of mysterious, multifaceted plot which forms a solid whole but still begs immediate reread in order to identify those final few aspects, and beautiful themes which straddle mythology and allegory to explore family, alienation, and xenophobia. The book didn't hit me as hard as it did some readers—while haunting, I found some aspects of the book a little too unrealistic to be precisely menacing, and the deadened horror somewhat deadened the overall impact. But White is for Witching has stuck in my thoughts, and the more I read and write about it the more I want to revisit the text, dig in deeper and explore its mysteries a second time. This strange little book has flaws, but it is both intriguing and intelligent, a book to captivating and to inspire thought and dread. I recommend it to those with a taste for horror and the postmodern, and hope that I may reread it myself some day.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
