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Title: What is Not Yours is Not Yours
Author: Helen Oyeyemi
Published: Riverhead Books, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 300
Total Page Count: 233,235
Text Number: 743
Read Because: reading more from the author, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Nine short stories. Oyeyemi's voice and style is well-suited to short fiction; these stories are playful, whimsical, absurdist, magical—an amorphous, strange magic but the characters take for granted but still find profound. Many stories are big concept (a memory device à la The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; an autocratic dystopia), but perhaps because of the distinctive voice they still feel samey. The overlapping cast contributes to this without providing much value—characters are too numerous and indistinct to be memorable when they make cameos. It's the nested narratives which succeed: stories within stories which play well with the tone and the magical realism. "Books and Roses," a queer, engaging fantasy of manners, is the only story I love; "Is Your Blood As Red As This" makes a valiant effort, but is overlong and overambitious, and "Dornička and the St. Martin's Day Goose" has visceral fairytale imagery but an abrupt end. Yet neither are there any failures; this is a solidly enjoyable collection. It feels accomplished, and exhibits Oyeyemi's themes and skills: successful in all its pieces if not greater than the sum of its parts.
—"Books and Roses"
Title: The Uninvited
Author: Cat Winters
Narrator: Emily Woo Zeller
Published: HarperAudio, 2015
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 355
Total Page Count: 233,590
Text Number: 744
Read Because: reading more from the author, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: 1918, at the height of World War I and influenza, Ivy's brother and father murder a German, compelling her to flee her family home and seek his brother's forgiveness. On paper, this is fantastic. There's a number of compelling, overlapping influences: the war, the flu, Dickinson's poems, jazz music, anti-German sentiment, ghosts—the sources of and expressions of and escapes from the grief of the era. But at its best this is just easy reading (despite the apparent grimness), a self-actualization slash romance narrative with active pacing and big twists; I wish it had a more haunting atmosphere—that would have been a nice touch. All of the above influences are present, but they're workmanlike, transparent, even amateurish, all the way down to the too-neat ending. Winters has obvious love for the era, but I don't seem to have especially good experiences with her novels; I want something more expertly crafted, with more subtle characterization and less obvious themes.
Title: The Island of Dr. Moreau
Author: H.G. Wells
Published: Gutenberg, 2012 (1896)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 160
Total Page Count: 233,750
Text Number: 745
Read Because: refresher prior to reading The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd, ebook from Gutenberg
Review: A gentleman stranded at sea ends up on an island peopled by scientists and uncannily inhuman men. This reminds me of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: the premise has become such an established part of the public consciousness that the reader can't but be impatient with red herrings, even when they're integral to the pacing. This is a horror/action adventure, with a surprising number of chase sequences (and as many quiet moments viewing on the secluded landscape; it's probably evocative, if tropical islands appeal). The philosophical/existential horror is more scattered, and realistically inconsistent—the protagonist has changing, personal responses (the final chapter is a flawless end note); Dr. Moreau is abhorrent, but his arguments compelling. Given the subject matter, I appreciate this complex response: it's aged surprisingly well, and isn't simply a screed against miscegenation; the mad scientist doesn't have the retroactively-cliché feel that occurs in many early examples of a trope. I never fell in love with this (too much island and action), but it's swift and engaging, with fulfilling themes.
Number metrics are useless! This is like a 3.5, 2.5, and 3 respectively; but what constitutes success has so much to do with expectation/genre—I expect the Winters novel to be a different experience than Oyeyemi's fiction, perhaps of a different intrinsic value; but within their categories each is a sort of "achieves but does not excel" which is exactly what a middle of the road 3 is. This is why I loved the switch Netflix made to thumbs up/thumbs down; it doesn't ask me to weigh fun trashy movie against award-winning classic, it just asks if the film was worth it or not, and that's an easier question to answer.
That said, I would like a break from 3-star tedium.
Author: Helen Oyeyemi
Published: Riverhead Books, 2016
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 300
Total Page Count: 233,235
Text Number: 743
Read Because: reading more from the author, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Nine short stories. Oyeyemi's voice and style is well-suited to short fiction; these stories are playful, whimsical, absurdist, magical—an amorphous, strange magic but the characters take for granted but still find profound. Many stories are big concept (a memory device à la The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; an autocratic dystopia), but perhaps because of the distinctive voice they still feel samey. The overlapping cast contributes to this without providing much value—characters are too numerous and indistinct to be memorable when they make cameos. It's the nested narratives which succeed: stories within stories which play well with the tone and the magical realism. "Books and Roses," a queer, engaging fantasy of manners, is the only story I love; "Is Your Blood As Red As This" makes a valiant effort, but is overlong and overambitious, and "Dornička and the St. Martin's Day Goose" has visceral fairytale imagery but an abrupt end. Yet neither are there any failures; this is a solidly enjoyable collection. It feels accomplished, and exhibits Oyeyemi's themes and skills: successful in all its pieces if not greater than the sum of its parts.
When I blew out my birthday candles I wished for a million books. I think I wished this because at that time I was having to force my smiles, and I wanted to stop that and to really be happier.
—"Books and Roses"
Title: The Uninvited
Author: Cat Winters
Narrator: Emily Woo Zeller
Published: HarperAudio, 2015
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 355
Total Page Count: 233,590
Text Number: 744
Read Because: reading more from the author, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: 1918, at the height of World War I and influenza, Ivy's brother and father murder a German, compelling her to flee her family home and seek his brother's forgiveness. On paper, this is fantastic. There's a number of compelling, overlapping influences: the war, the flu, Dickinson's poems, jazz music, anti-German sentiment, ghosts—the sources of and expressions of and escapes from the grief of the era. But at its best this is just easy reading (despite the apparent grimness), a self-actualization slash romance narrative with active pacing and big twists; I wish it had a more haunting atmosphere—that would have been a nice touch. All of the above influences are present, but they're workmanlike, transparent, even amateurish, all the way down to the too-neat ending. Winters has obvious love for the era, but I don't seem to have especially good experiences with her novels; I want something more expertly crafted, with more subtle characterization and less obvious themes.
Title: The Island of Dr. Moreau
Author: H.G. Wells
Published: Gutenberg, 2012 (1896)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 160
Total Page Count: 233,750
Text Number: 745
Read Because: refresher prior to reading The Madman's Daughter by Megan Shepherd, ebook from Gutenberg
Review: A gentleman stranded at sea ends up on an island peopled by scientists and uncannily inhuman men. This reminds me of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: the premise has become such an established part of the public consciousness that the reader can't but be impatient with red herrings, even when they're integral to the pacing. This is a horror/action adventure, with a surprising number of chase sequences (and as many quiet moments viewing on the secluded landscape; it's probably evocative, if tropical islands appeal). The philosophical/existential horror is more scattered, and realistically inconsistent—the protagonist has changing, personal responses (the final chapter is a flawless end note); Dr. Moreau is abhorrent, but his arguments compelling. Given the subject matter, I appreciate this complex response: it's aged surprisingly well, and isn't simply a screed against miscegenation; the mad scientist doesn't have the retroactively-cliché feel that occurs in many early examples of a trope. I never fell in love with this (too much island and action), but it's swift and engaging, with fulfilling themes.
Number metrics are useless! This is like a 3.5, 2.5, and 3 respectively; but what constitutes success has so much to do with expectation/genre—I expect the Winters novel to be a different experience than Oyeyemi's fiction, perhaps of a different intrinsic value; but within their categories each is a sort of "achieves but does not excel" which is exactly what a middle of the road 3 is. This is why I loved the switch Netflix made to thumbs up/thumbs down; it doesn't ask me to weigh fun trashy movie against award-winning classic, it just asks if the film was worth it or not, and that's an easier question to answer.
That said, I would like a break from 3-star tedium.
