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I continue to wrestle with Oyeyemi, whom I admire but who leaves me confused as often as she leaves me delighted. I think this is the one I like best (of whose I’ve read), alongside or just below Gingerbread. It definitely had its more challenging stories, but finished strong, and maybe that’s the win: leave me on a high note.

What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is, first of all, a great title; it is also a short story collection whose contents I thought unconnected until rather late in the game. There are a few recurring characters, actually, but their relationships across stories are limited. It’s mostly disconnected. There is a linking subject or theme: keys, and locks. In some stories they are literal and physical, in some more metaphoric, and in a few the reader has to think a bit to make the concept fit (like an ill-fitting key, ha), but it will. I like that as a through-line.

“books and roses” introduces a couple who are lost to each other, whose keys open doors to a garden of books and a library of roses. “‘sorry’ doesn’t sweeten her tea” contains many fascinating ideas and sub-stories, but it’s mercurial in its focus, quickly shifting which character we seem to be watching; I was actually charmed throughout, but left pretty baffled, too… unlike some stories, it at least left me in a place that felt like an ending. “is your blood as red as this?”, the longest story in the collection, left me less satisfied – like, what just happened? I can handle feeling this way occasionally, but if it gets too frequent I’ll become frustrated or lose interest.

But soon came “presence,” which also put its reader through some fast switches, but left me again in a place I felt a little surer footing. “a brief history of the homely wench society” and “dornička and the st. martin’s day goose” were both downright delightful, leaving me giggling and tickled and thought-provoked. The first sets out the history of two gender-based rival clubs at Cambridge, and the latter offers a twist on Little Red Riding Hood. After one odder one, we finish with “if a book is locked there’s probably a good reason for that don’t you think,” which felt like the perfect note to end on: a little shape-shifting as its setting moves from a realistically boring workplace drama to something decidedly metaphysical, with a neat fable built in, and a magical flourish of an ending. With that taste in my mouth, I feel good about this collection. My overall impression remains that Oyeyemi may be much smarter than I am.

I confess I’m a little comforted that a Guardian reviewer found these stories somewhat uneven; that makes me feel better, like maybe I missed some things because the stories weren’t quite perfect? But I always doubt myself, because Oyeyemi seems to have so much going on. I’m afraid it’s me. I don’t always relish an author making me feel not so smart, but I don’t think that’s what she’s out to do here, and so I don’t hold it against her. I think her imagination may be a bit wider and more flexible than mine. She’s pretty special, and I’ve just ordered the rest of her books that aren’t yet on my shelf, so you can stay tuned and expect that we’ll use the Oyeyemi tag some more.

Filed under: book reviews | Tagged: Oyeyemi, short stories, speculative fiction |