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Peaces
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE'Intoxicating.' New York Magazine'Oyeyemi is a master.' New York Times'Welcome back to the magical, maddening milieu of Oyeyemi's singular fiction, in which trapdoors spring open and revelations emerge like Russian nesting dolls.' O, the Oprah MagazinePeaces is the story of Otto and Xavier Shin, a couple who embark on a mysterious train journey that takes them far beyond any destination they could have anticipated. As the carriages roll along they discover each is more curious and fascinating than the last, becoming embroiled in this strange train and its intrigue. Who is Ava Kapoor, the sole full-time inhabitant of the train, and what is her relationship to a man named Prem? Are they passengers or prisoners? We discover who orchestrated the journey, hurtling them all into their past for clues.
256 pages, Paperback
First published April 6, 2021
436 people are currently reading
14720 people want to read
About the author
Helen Oyeyemi
39 books5,380 followersHelen Oyeyemi is a British novelist. She lives in Prague, and has written eleven books so far, none of which involve ‘magical realism’. Can’t fiction sometimes get extra fictional without being called such names…?
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June 29, 2025
What does it mean to be seen by those you value, and what befalls you when you become invisible to them? Helen Oyeyemi’s Peaces is a skilful and unsettling fable that is difficult to pin down, slowly allowing the existential angst to seep into the reader. Known for brilliant fairy tale recreation that perfectly embodies the genre in a literary sense, here Oyeyemi slips comfortably into train-mystery aesthetic that feel like Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes meets surrealist horror that just so happened to collaborate with Wes Anderson. This is an elusive little tale of Otto and Xavier Shin (and their pet mongoose)on their ‘non-honeymoon honeymoon’ (they legally took the same last name but have declined from being married) in a former tea smuggling train run by a young woman who must prove her sanity on her 30th birthday or lose a vast inheritance as stipulation of a will. The enigmatic nature of her work is the engine driving Peaces, a novel where someone you can’t quite see might be lurking amongst the train passengers who are slowly realizing they have been brought together for nefarious purposes by a common element they can’t quite identify. While one of her more straightforward works, Peaces is a delightfully dark yet comical psychological drama that is still full of unexpected turns and occasionally abstruse misdirections to examine the very essence of enigmatism.
Early in the novel, narrator Otto details the ‘four different philosophies of enjoying’ a marionette show, all of which also make for succinct metaphors of the ways someone would read a novel. There are those ‘whose attention is reserved solely for the actions of the marionette;’ those who look at or for the puppet master; those who watch the faces of the other audience members; and, finally, ‘those who follow the strings and the strings alone.’ Now, as a metaphor for reading, all of these are valuable and it’s worth considering which you are. As a string watcher myself, I found the performance of Peaces highly enjoyable because the way she crafts sentences and sets them on a winding and chaotic path without ever tangling the strings is nearly miraculous to behold.
This description of attempting to understand the novel’s events also verbalize some of Oyeyemi’s narrative techniques. It is fascinating how she is able to orchestrate the elements of the novel and suddenly reorganize and re-juxtapose them to unveil a different impression of everything like a slight of hand trick. The slightest change in string pulling for the maximum effect.
Oyeyemi’s magic act on the strings makes this a novel that is tough to pin down. Oyeyemi as puppeteer seems to embody this as a major element in her ouveur. Novels like Mr. Fox weave and reinvent themselves metafictionality, her books are populated with shapeshifters, ghosts, and marionettes, her narratives have dual metaphors, etc. All of these nuances create a slippery and shifting landscape of meaning. Her work is often couched in the theories and traditions of fairy tales but set in modern day, such as the gingerbread house of Hansel and Gretel being a factory that makes gingerbread as part of a larger statement on slavery and Brexit in Gingerbread. Here, enigmatism seems to be the primary function of the novel, turning a mirror back onto itself as if attempting the improbable task of understanding something not meant to be fully understood.
‘What if this longing actually is him, and he was a living, breathing strategy for its fulfilment?’
This is a book where practically nothing is clear, and Oyeyemi is frequently refitting images. This is also elaborated in the mysterious passenger Otto can see but can’t focus on (like some weird cousin of the Silence from Doctor Who), or the artworks in the studio car that appear as a blank canvas but when talking about them aloud your words uncontrollably spew out to depict a vivid image the eyes can’t see. Central to this novel is a young man, Přem, whom the inheritress, Ava Kapoor, either cannot physically see or hear him or she has been playing a cruel trick on him for years. Přem is never present through the novel, or is he? Is he pulling the strings here, making the characters all his marionette in power move for the inheritance? Has he entered the lives of each character at some point, yet as a different person for each one, only to inevitably vanish? Is this meant literally or as a personality trope? Do people vanish from our lives or do they actually become unseen? Is this to be understood at face value or a metaphor for the ways we erase a person after a break-up? Pull all social media, lose their number, change your hangouts, extricate each other from your existence. Then there is the questions wheter Kapoor wrote ‘help’ or ‘hello’, and did the man in the burning house tell Otto to ‘save’ his son or ‘stop him?
These questions are the pulse of the novel, and they almost make a point. Which isn’t a failure as much as it is the only logical answer that there is no definite answer and the metaphysical space between the dualities is the essence of what Oyeyemi is trying to focus on. You can almost see it, you are aware it exists, but you can’t ever quite make out it’s features. This is akin to what Thomas Pynchon terms 'The Zone' in Gravity's Rainbow: the space between the binaries of 1 and 0. You can cover it in words and chart it with analysis but still only make out a vague sense of its outline and never the thing-in-and-of-itself if you want to get all Heideggerian about it. Or, like the music from the theremin Kapoor plays, you can hear it but you can’t see it. Without touching the instrument Kapoor makes it play, but still moves her hands like conducting a musical marionette on invisible strings.
This the realm of poetry, perhaps, the abstraction. Personally I find this all rather comforting as a reader, its rejection of ever coming completely together, like that old desktop screensaver where you waited for the bouncing pong ball to perfectly land in the corner of the screen--Oyeyemi refuses to let the ball ever land there like slowly turning the screw of tension and abstract angst. She makes you feel the itch you can’t scratch and live in that moment to explore and reflect on it.This probably sounds in no way appealing but the effortlessness of creating the effect and keeping you engaged is worthy of admiration.
There is a playfulness with the characters that is really charming. Oyeyemi often withholds details about characters until just the right moment where it will refocus your impression of them, such as how Xavier’s description late in the book about first meeting Otto gives you a few tiny details that make you really reexamine his personality. When Xavier mentions he is a frequent liar, you begin to question what you know of the entire novel since it is told to you from Otto’s point of view.
We begin to wonder how much we know of anyone and realize the iceberg theory of writing characters applies to what we know of everyone around us. How does this apply to giving in to love with another, then? Otto takes a stab at this considering his romantic journey with Xavier:
Heartbreak, it seems then, is when the other person ends up not existing, or exists as someone else than how you catalogued them in your head. Oyeyemi takes this one step further and asks what if it is you that doesn’t exist. What if the object of your affection cannot see you and you do not know if they chose this or--as is in the novel--quite literally cannot see you. This seems an unbearable burden, to exist in a reality where the stories we live out occur through the intersections and collisions with others but to be unseen and unknown to others. While this is meant as literal to one character, it also serves as a sharp social criticism as the cast are identities who are often unseen by society seeing as they are almost all BIPOC LGBTQIA characters living in Brexit-era Britain.
‘Art is made of other people.’
Peaces is a very funny and wild ride and really leans into the train-mystery aesthetics that texture cozy mysteries. This is a book where the little details have a great effect. It is also full of great asides, often diving into an adjacent story for pages, examining the story at large as one made up of as many stories are packed into the life stories of each person we meet. As one should expect with Oyeyemi, there is no stable ground and it is best to just let yourself be carried along. I could see this being a good introduction into her work, however, though I tend to recommend her short stories What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours as the best way to ease oneself into her unique an inimitable literary canon. This is a novel where watching the marionettes play out the story is fun, but the real experience is watching the strings pull the act along and discovering that our impressions and emotions are attached to Oyeyemi’s string, making us, the reader, another marionette in her surreal artistic creation.
4.5/5
‘But the people will not allow the instrument to exist. Not even as an idea.’
Early in the novel, narrator Otto details the ‘four different philosophies of enjoying’ a marionette show, all of which also make for succinct metaphors of the ways someone would read a novel. There are those ‘whose attention is reserved solely for the actions of the marionette;’ those who look at or for the puppet master; those who watch the faces of the other audience members; and, finally, ‘those who follow the strings and the strings alone.’ Now, as a metaphor for reading, all of these are valuable and it’s worth considering which you are. As a string watcher myself, I found the performance of Peaces highly enjoyable because the way she crafts sentences and sets them on a winding and chaotic path without ever tangling the strings is nearly miraculous to behold.
’[W]hen I look at matters in those light...as arrangements rather than relationships, the primary movers starts to look...familiar’
This description of attempting to understand the novel’s events also verbalize some of Oyeyemi’s narrative techniques. It is fascinating how she is able to orchestrate the elements of the novel and suddenly reorganize and re-juxtapose them to unveil a different impression of everything like a slight of hand trick. The slightest change in string pulling for the maximum effect.
Oyeyemi’s magic act on the strings makes this a novel that is tough to pin down. Oyeyemi as puppeteer seems to embody this as a major element in her ouveur. Novels like Mr. Fox weave and reinvent themselves metafictionality, her books are populated with shapeshifters, ghosts, and marionettes, her narratives have dual metaphors, etc. All of these nuances create a slippery and shifting landscape of meaning. Her work is often couched in the theories and traditions of fairy tales but set in modern day, such as the gingerbread house of Hansel and Gretel being a factory that makes gingerbread as part of a larger statement on slavery and Brexit in Gingerbread. Here, enigmatism seems to be the primary function of the novel, turning a mirror back onto itself as if attempting the improbable task of understanding something not meant to be fully understood.
‘What if this longing actually is him, and he was a living, breathing strategy for its fulfilment?’
This is a book where practically nothing is clear, and Oyeyemi is frequently refitting images. This is also elaborated in the mysterious passenger Otto can see but can’t focus on (like some weird cousin of the Silence from Doctor Who), or the artworks in the studio car that appear as a blank canvas but when talking about them aloud your words uncontrollably spew out to depict a vivid image the eyes can’t see. Central to this novel is a young man, Přem, whom the inheritress, Ava Kapoor, either cannot physically see or hear him or she has been playing a cruel trick on him for years. Přem is never present through the novel, or is he? Is he pulling the strings here, making the characters all his marionette in power move for the inheritance? Has he entered the lives of each character at some point, yet as a different person for each one, only to inevitably vanish? Is this meant literally or as a personality trope? Do people vanish from our lives or do they actually become unseen? Is this to be understood at face value or a metaphor for the ways we erase a person after a break-up? Pull all social media, lose their number, change your hangouts, extricate each other from your existence. Then there is the questions wheter Kapoor wrote ‘help’ or ‘hello’, and did the man in the burning house tell Otto to ‘save’ his son or ‘stop him?
These questions are the pulse of the novel, and they almost make a point. Which isn’t a failure as much as it is the only logical answer that there is no definite answer and the metaphysical space between the dualities is the essence of what Oyeyemi is trying to focus on. You can almost see it, you are aware it exists, but you can’t ever quite make out it’s features. This is akin to what Thomas Pynchon terms 'The Zone' in Gravity's Rainbow: the space between the binaries of 1 and 0. You can cover it in words and chart it with analysis but still only make out a vague sense of its outline and never the thing-in-and-of-itself if you want to get all Heideggerian about it. Or, like the music from the theremin Kapoor plays, you can hear it but you can’t see it. Without touching the instrument Kapoor makes it play, but still moves her hands like conducting a musical marionette on invisible strings.
This the realm of poetry, perhaps, the abstraction. Personally I find this all rather comforting as a reader, its rejection of ever coming completely together, like that old desktop screensaver where you waited for the bouncing pong ball to perfectly land in the corner of the screen--Oyeyemi refuses to let the ball ever land there like slowly turning the screw of tension and abstract angst. She makes you feel the itch you can’t scratch and live in that moment to explore and reflect on it.This probably sounds in no way appealing but the effortlessness of creating the effect and keeping you engaged is worthy of admiration.
There is a playfulness with the characters that is really charming. Oyeyemi often withholds details about characters until just the right moment where it will refocus your impression of them, such as how Xavier’s description late in the book about first meeting Otto gives you a few tiny details that make you really reexamine his personality. When Xavier mentions he is a frequent liar, you begin to question what you know of the entire novel since it is told to you from Otto’s point of view.
We begin to wonder how much we know of anyone and realize the iceberg theory of writing characters applies to what we know of everyone around us. How does this apply to giving in to love with another, then? Otto takes a stab at this considering his romantic journey with Xavier:
‘You run the romantic gauntlet for decades without knowing who exactly it is you're giving and taking such a battering in order to reach...and then, by some stroke of fortune, the gauntlet concludes, the person does exist after all.’
Heartbreak, it seems then, is when the other person ends up not existing, or exists as someone else than how you catalogued them in your head. Oyeyemi takes this one step further and asks what if it is you that doesn’t exist. What if the object of your affection cannot see you and you do not know if they chose this or--as is in the novel--quite literally cannot see you. This seems an unbearable burden, to exist in a reality where the stories we live out occur through the intersections and collisions with others but to be unseen and unknown to others. While this is meant as literal to one character, it also serves as a sharp social criticism as the cast are identities who are often unseen by society seeing as they are almost all BIPOC LGBTQIA characters living in Brexit-era Britain.
‘Art is made of other people.’
Peaces is a very funny and wild ride and really leans into the train-mystery aesthetics that texture cozy mysteries. This is a book where the little details have a great effect. It is also full of great asides, often diving into an adjacent story for pages, examining the story at large as one made up of as many stories are packed into the life stories of each person we meet. As one should expect with Oyeyemi, there is no stable ground and it is best to just let yourself be carried along. I could see this being a good introduction into her work, however, though I tend to recommend her short stories What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours as the best way to ease oneself into her unique an inimitable literary canon. This is a novel where watching the marionettes play out the story is fun, but the real experience is watching the strings pull the act along and discovering that our impressions and emotions are attached to Oyeyemi’s string, making us, the reader, another marionette in her surreal artistic creation.
4.5/5
‘But the people will not allow the instrument to exist. Not even as an idea.’
Want to read
January 8, 2021i fucking love mongooses
April 21, 2021
I listened to “Peaces” by Helen Oyeyemi and found it very odd. I can’t say I enjoyed it, although I finished it. It’s a strange story. I can’t say I’d recommend it.
November 10, 2022
Peaces is Helen Oyeyemi's latest novel and one of my favorite reading experiences this year. Early on, one of the characters alludes to a marionette show, a reference that serves as a metaphor for Oyeyemi's approach to the book's narrative. We see the characters move and react, but we are also on the lookout for the causes that set those reactions in motion - the puppeteer, as it were, and the strings that make the characters dance. The mysterious train setting calls to mind the Orient Express and Darjeeling Limited, works that notoriously traffic in orientalist tropes and white-centered stories. Peaces can be read as a reversal of those narratives, taking familiar thematic cues and toying with our expectations both overtly and in more nuanced ways. I'm not sure the story ultimately hangs together, at least in a conventional sense, or whether the mystery elements have sufficient payoff in the end, but it was a wild ride and a lot of fun.
April 11, 2021
Not every book is for every reader, and I was absolutely not the right reader for PEACES. I should just accept that my love for Helen Oyeyemi’s previous novel GINGERBREAD is a fluke, and also I’m not sure she ever apologized for the abhorrent transphobia of her novel BOY, SNOW, BIRD, so why am I even still reading her? I clearly deserve the vast unpleasantness that was this reading experience.
PEACES is framed as a whimsical train journey where bizarre and inexplicable things happen, so I thought it sounded entertaining. Honestly, every single page of this book was an absolute slog; I’m not sure I have enjoyed a book less in recent memory. It’s nonsensical in a way that is painfully dull; each “whimsical” character is dry as a bone. Sure, there’s mysterious things going on, but nothing about this narrative encourages the reader to care in any way. The ending does wrap up the plot but by that point, I truly could not be bothered to care.
I try not to give books that aren’t released yet negative ratings on Goodreads, but I’m making an exception because I truly hated this book so much. I read this e-copy via Edelweiss.
PEACES is framed as a whimsical train journey where bizarre and inexplicable things happen, so I thought it sounded entertaining. Honestly, every single page of this book was an absolute slog; I’m not sure I have enjoyed a book less in recent memory. It’s nonsensical in a way that is painfully dull; each “whimsical” character is dry as a bone. Sure, there’s mysterious things going on, but nothing about this narrative encourages the reader to care in any way. The ending does wrap up the plot but by that point, I truly could not be bothered to care.
I try not to give books that aren’t released yet negative ratings on Goodreads, but I’m making an exception because I truly hated this book so much. I read this e-copy via Edelweiss.
May 27, 2022
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3 ½ stars
Peaces is the type of freewheeling novel that fully embraces its own weirdness, taking its readers along a madcap sort of adventure, one that is guaranteed to be equal parts amusing and confounding. What drew me to this novel, zany premise aside, was that it would take place on a train. It just so happens that I am a sucker for works set on trains (they can be classic whodunnits—Murder on the Orient Express, The Mystery of the Blue Train—or animated series—Infinity Train—and films—The Polar Express—or anime—Baccano—or short stories—Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom—or genre-defying mindfucks such as Snowpiercer). I’m not sure why I find this setting so appealing (enclosed spaces? The idea of a journey?) but chances are if a story is set on a train, I will be checking it out. Oyeyemi makes the most of her setting and I absolutely loved the slight but present Wes Anderson-esque feel of ‘The Lucky Day’, the train boarded by Otto, our narrator, his partner, Xavier, and their pet mongoose. Once inside the train, Otto & co find themselves in increasingly perplexing scenarios (a woman named Ava may possibly be in need of help), as they come across some eccentric figures who seem to know all about them and each carriage they walk through seems more peculiar than its predecessor. Otto and Xavier become inevitably embroiled in The Lucky Day’s growingly peculiar goings-on.
Otto’s narration is delightfully sardonic and so very British. His wry and frequently mystifying inner monologue is deeply diverting. The characters’ nonplussed responses towards the many fantastic and outlandish things that happen on The Lucky Day added an extra layer of surreality to the overall story and brought to mind the kind of absurdist works penned by Lewis Carroll (or even Beckett). The puzzling conversations that populate this train journey are as entertaining as they are baffling.
Peaces was a fun if discombobulating read that bears the signs of a marvellously inventive and talented storyteller. In addition to a cast of wonderfully queer & quirky characters, Oyeyemi presents her readers with a unique take on love and heartbreak, on sanity and insanity, on being seen and unseen. The novel adopts this matryoshka doll-like structure so that with each chapter we come closer to the heart of this bizarro mystery. The last few chapters did come across as rushed and even somewhat bathetic.
Still, Peaces makes for a decidedly droll ride. Oyeyemi has crafted a nonsensical if strangely modern fairy-tale, one that I look forward to revisiting (and maybe a second read will make me understand more fully what went down in that final act.). Anyhow, if you are a fan of experimental and deeply surreal narratives (think Piranesi) Peaces may be the perfect read for you.
re-read:
The latter half of this novel still has me confused. This is certainly the desired effect but it does become a bit frustrating. While I liked the absurdists elements that dominate the narrative, towards the end I found all of the characters (especially the 'villains') to be much too much. The side characters did not remotely come across as actual human beings but the type of one-dimensional figures befitting cartoons aimed at small children. Despite this Peaces was certainly a fun ride.
3 ½ stars
“Talking to strangers can be riskier than it is rewarding; even people who know each other well talk at cross purposes and derange each other’s perceptions.”
Peaces is the type of freewheeling novel that fully embraces its own weirdness, taking its readers along a madcap sort of adventure, one that is guaranteed to be equal parts amusing and confounding. What drew me to this novel, zany premise aside, was that it would take place on a train. It just so happens that I am a sucker for works set on trains (they can be classic whodunnits—Murder on the Orient Express, The Mystery of the Blue Train—or animated series—Infinity Train—and films—The Polar Express—or anime—Baccano—or short stories—Mary Ventura and The Ninth Kingdom—or genre-defying mindfucks such as Snowpiercer). I’m not sure why I find this setting so appealing (enclosed spaces? The idea of a journey?) but chances are if a story is set on a train, I will be checking it out. Oyeyemi makes the most of her setting and I absolutely loved the slight but present Wes Anderson-esque feel of ‘The Lucky Day’, the train boarded by Otto, our narrator, his partner, Xavier, and their pet mongoose. Once inside the train, Otto & co find themselves in increasingly perplexing scenarios (a woman named Ava may possibly be in need of help), as they come across some eccentric figures who seem to know all about them and each carriage they walk through seems more peculiar than its predecessor. Otto and Xavier become inevitably embroiled in The Lucky Day’s growingly peculiar goings-on.
Otto’s narration is delightfully sardonic and so very British. His wry and frequently mystifying inner monologue is deeply diverting. The characters’ nonplussed responses towards the many fantastic and outlandish things that happen on The Lucky Day added an extra layer of surreality to the overall story and brought to mind the kind of absurdist works penned by Lewis Carroll (or even Beckett). The puzzling conversations that populate this train journey are as entertaining as they are baffling.
Peaces was a fun if discombobulating read that bears the signs of a marvellously inventive and talented storyteller. In addition to a cast of wonderfully queer & quirky characters, Oyeyemi presents her readers with a unique take on love and heartbreak, on sanity and insanity, on being seen and unseen. The novel adopts this matryoshka doll-like structure so that with each chapter we come closer to the heart of this bizarro mystery. The last few chapters did come across as rushed and even somewhat bathetic.
Still, Peaces makes for a decidedly droll ride. Oyeyemi has crafted a nonsensical if strangely modern fairy-tale, one that I look forward to revisiting (and maybe a second read will make me understand more fully what went down in that final act.). Anyhow, if you are a fan of experimental and deeply surreal narratives (think Piranesi) Peaces may be the perfect read for you.
re-read:
The latter half of this novel still has me confused. This is certainly the desired effect but it does become a bit frustrating. While I liked the absurdists elements that dominate the narrative, towards the end I found all of the characters (especially the 'villains') to be much too much. The side characters did not remotely come across as actual human beings but the type of one-dimensional figures befitting cartoons aimed at small children. Despite this Peaces was certainly a fun ride.
February 23, 2021
It would appear that Helen Oyeyemi has left me way behind. While I loved her early books, her most recent books, including this one, are just increasingly inaccessible to me. I keep hoping the next will be the one that pulls me back into her work, but I think I just need to move on.
This book just really made me think of an absurdist work, like something by Thomas Pynchon. There is so little to really grasp onto to keep the reader curious about the plot, and going from chapter to chapter feels continuously like one long non sequitur, with one "scene" having nothing to do with the next, meeting one random and strange "Alice in Wonderland" type character and then getting a kind of vignette of their backstory, then being propelled to some other section as if that never happened. I would have appreciated more coherent story line, and less artistic acrobatics, which is how this book ultimately felt, to me. Maybe I'm just not smart enough for the writing, but I just have no clue what I read.
This book just really made me think of an absurdist work, like something by Thomas Pynchon. There is so little to really grasp onto to keep the reader curious about the plot, and going from chapter to chapter feels continuously like one long non sequitur, with one "scene" having nothing to do with the next, meeting one random and strange "Alice in Wonderland" type character and then getting a kind of vignette of their backstory, then being propelled to some other section as if that never happened. I would have appreciated more coherent story line, and less artistic acrobatics, which is how this book ultimately felt, to me. Maybe I'm just not smart enough for the writing, but I just have no clue what I read.
April 17, 2021
totally incomprehensible, incoherent, absurdist (?) fiction. I cannot tell you with certainty about anything that happened in this book. I don't think I can even faithfully describe a single character.
I don't want to think about this book again.
I don't want to think about this book again.
October 23, 2022
Like I said, that was the plan. But I couldn't get a fix on Do Yeon-ssi's attention span at all. I felt her lose interest in our discussion. That happened fairly quickly. But--and here's the horror story--she lost interest without losing focus, continuing to respond to my inanities as if something was actually at stake. It's like this: At a marionette show you find four types of engaged audience - four different philosophies of enjoying the performance. There are those whose attention is reserved solely for the actions of the marionette: that's Arpad XXX, wishing to believe that the figure is alive in one way or another. Then there are the ones who can't and won't stop looking at the puppet master (or seeking signs of the puppet master, if that person is hidden): that's how Xavier is. There are those who watch the faces of their fellow audience members: my preference, obviously, since I'm the one here talking about the other types. And there are those who follow the strings and the strings alone. Do Yeon-ssi is a string watcher. She may not much care about the order of the strings – if they tangle, they tangle. Still, they express something to her, something about the nature of the illusion before her. That's enough of a reason for her to pursue the strings to their vanishing point.
I read this book due to its shortlisting for the 2022 Goldsmith Prize.
I had read the author’s previous novel “Gingerbread” about which I said “Oyeyemi is a master of what I can only call digressive description, never one to see a tangent and not want to go off on it, often building a fascinating side story … only to sate her imaginative appetite (if not always the readers interest) and return to the main narrative (if that can be even said to exist).” and “I was however reminded a little of the story of Hansel and Gretel’s second trip to the Gingerbread cottage: at times I would feel that I was starting to follow the trail of the narrative only to retrace my steps and see that those crumbs had been snatched away.”
Adopting the author’s clear invitation to adopt four different philosophies to examine the book.
MARIONETTES
These major (there are a whole host of side characters) on a series of characters who converge on a train journey (and one who may or may not be present – more later) – an ex-tea smuggling train called The Lucky Day which for me had strong Faraway Tree vibes with a series of carriages each with their own distinctive set up and world, as well as in its old-fashioned winding journey Orient Express links (and the twin solutions to Christie’s novel – a stranger boarding the train and then exiting at risk, and every one on the train being responsible for the erasure of a person are both I think relevant to the novel).
The owner and permanent member of the train is Ava Kapoor, a theremin player and potential heiress (if only she can pass a sanity test) and she is joined there by her girlfriend and composer Allegra Yu and more recently by Laura de Souza a released convict (after a series of incidents including one in which she stalked and threatened the ex-North American Go Champion – wanting him to acknowledge a past victory she achieved over him which was dismissed by onlookers) who is now acting on behalf of a money lender with whom Ava has taken out a punitive loan on the security of her conditional inheritance.
Two others join this particular journey – Otto Shin (nee Montague) now a hypnotist and the first party narrator of the story and Xavier Shin (a ghostwriter and inadvertent plagiarist novelist): Otto and Xavier have recently cemented their relationship by deed poll and are on a “non-honeymoon honeymoon” paid for Xavier’s Auntie Do Yeon-ssi.
The humans are accompanied by two mongooses Otto’s Arpad (technically Arpad XXX from a long line of family mongooeses) and Ava’s purloined Chela.
PUPPET MASTER(S)
As in Gingerbread Oyeyemi’s adopted home of Prague and her love of K-Drama infuse the book with Czech and Korean references. Another key theme to the book is the female recluse – the epigraph is from Emily Dickinson, one interpreted by Oyeyemi in titular form as referring to the illusory peace of apparently stable relationships – and Oyeyemi has talked in an interview of how she wanted to explore her own female reclusiveness through the novel and the lens of Dickinson’s writing and life.
But the book has its own puppet master – or possible puppet in the mysterious person of Prem who seems (as we guess as the book progresses but have confirmed in a series of letters) to have interacted with each person on the train – although whether he is using them or each has in some ways used him is unclear (including to the characters). Most crucially Ava is literally unable to see Prem and does not believe in his existence – and her sanity test (for the inheritance from Prem’s father) seems to hinge on her final views here as well as the actuality of Prem’s existence or non-existence.
AUDIENCE MEMBERS
I have to commend the four fellow audience members who invited me to this marionette show. The Goldsmith judges: Ali Smith (something of a champion of Oyeyemi and herself of course a wonderful writer not least in the Seasonal Quartet and recent “Companion Piece”, Natasha Brown (author of my Golden Reviewer Best Book of 2022 – “Assembly”, Tom Gatti (New Statesman literary/culture editor) and Tim Parnell (of the University and Literary Director of the Prize) have picked an excellent shortlist.
Ali Smith, on behalf of the judges said of the book: "In a blast of visionary life and energy, and with a kind of jovial panache that casually analyses narrative while simultaneously shaking itself free of all preconceived expectations of narrative, Peaces busts us out of isolation, drops us into a train carriage with a bunch of strangers who aren't strangers after all (plus a couple of mongooses), and sends us on a journey of the psyche that liberates its readers into a state of brilliant rich-and-strangeness. ‘Here’s to unseeing the world.’ This novel unfixes everything and sends us out renewed."
Views of other invited audience members will be interesting – I think, in keeping with the prizes aim, this is a book which will appeal (in meta fashion) to those interested in the strings far more so than those interested in marionettes (particularly character and plot coherence).
STRINGS
I guess a key here is – does the book express something?
There are many sub-themes and ideas which could be explored – for example the link (if any) between the younger Laura (witnessed by Xaiver as a child on a different train journey) stuffing her mouth with Go stones and a mysterious Sichuan affair (part of Ava’s family history) which ended with one of her family stuffing her mouth with emeralds.
For me one of the key themes of the book is relationships and what it means to be seen and validated through the eyes of another, and equally importantly the dissolution of relationships and what it means to be unseen (particularly if such breaks are absolute – the book opens with the question “Have you ever had an almost offensively easy breakup?” – Otto believes he is the victim of one such breakup but as the novel progresses we more come to believe that Otto and Xavier were perpetrators).
In one crucial part, the characters view a series of paintings gifted to Ava which are ostensibly pure white frames but on which seemingly each can vocalise a description of the same image despite being unable to “see” it. Otto’s move into hypnosis (and helping other people unsee ideas or obsessions) has its roots in an incident when he nearly died trying to save someone he had “seen” from a fire in what was it seems an empty flat.
The author herself places some of these ideas, as well as her digressive nested story approach in a wider context of her overall project:
I feel like the whole stories within stories approach is part of what I think of as my big project as a writer. Ultimately, what I want to do is to try and find out what stories are actually made of, why we believe them, why they take hold of us, and why no matter what we do to try and control the story, or even to create a story, there’s some element of it that is just wild and almost seems to make itself. And also, I guess, whether stories are our friends or our enemies. I just have a lot of questions about what stories are, and the only way to try and interrogate or possibly persuade stories to reveal something about themselves is to make all these provocations and assaults on them, and try and unpack them and unpick their seams and see if they react. Will the story bite you back? Sometimes it does, and then you do sort of run off, but then you come back and have another approach.
So I think that in Peaces, in particular, there was an interesting new angle in that you have a character who almost is a story, and is trying very hard to move out of storyhood and into personhood, and is somehow being prevented and limited by… well, mainly by Ava. I found Ava so inscrutable. I kept wanting to see if she would wink or something. I really couldn’t figure out what she was doing with this whole, There is no Přem. I honestly couldn’t tell you the answer to what is going on there. But at times I was like, Can you really see him? Like, what are you doing, Ava? What are you doing to this poor Přem? And then other times I just thought, I know whatever’s going on in this group dynamic is interesting. And it’s something to do with stories and stories about a story about a person, a kind of hall of mirrors type investigation.
Overall I am not sure I really fully understood any of the aspects of the novel – but I did remain engaged and appreciative throughout and willing to pursue the pages of the novel to the vanishing point of the last page of what was a fantastical (in various senses) train journey.
December 29, 2020
This book was such a wild (train) ride. I had trouble mentally squaring off with Oyeyemi’s last book Gingerbread but Peaces was just grounded enough, while still fully encapsulating her enviable imagination, to be accessible. We follow Otto and his partner Xavier and their pet mongoose on their non honeymoon honeymoon, a gift from Xavier’s aunt. They board a train headed to a destination unknown. The ticket divulges no clues and the compartments are symboled instead of numbered or lettered. There is another guest named Ava who they’re told may be aboard the train but not to plan on encountering her. When these characters along with Ava’s partner (and her own mongoose) and a woman named Laura who seems familiar to them somehow, collide, things are relatively slow going and foggy and mysterious at first. From the halfway point on, though, when they all must compare notes about what they each know about a certain individual who goes by many names, I could not stop reading. There’s a tumultuous father and son relationship, there’s an on-train market bazaar, there’s an art gallery that reveals different things to different people, there are saunas and mailroom compartments and unusual instruments. To say this story is layered would be an understatement and even by the end I couldn’t say I was precisely sure what happened and who knew what and who. I did know that the twists and pacing were mind blowing and unlike anything I’ve read before. I have no idea how Oyeyemi pulled this off. It has renewed my faith in her wonderful magical realistic world building and storytelling and is sure to be a highlight of Spring reading if not a favorite of 2021.
April 23, 2021
I had literally zero ideas about this book ahead of time. I am generally an Oyeyemi fan and requested it from the library.
On one hand, this is one of her more linear books, I think. (Not that that's saying much of anything at all.) On the other hand, it's very hard to pinpoint all that is going on here. There are many themes, some having to do with seeing or unseeing others (those we let into our life, those we cut out or ignore or try to erase all remembrances of), being seen or unseen ourselves. We also have unreliable narrators, liars, hypnotists, mongeese, and a mysterious train. And then there's art -- written, visual, musical -- and what do you see in it? How do you approach it?
Ultimately I think it may be a book about relationships -- with ourselves, with others from lovers to strangers, with the art that surrounds us, with the worlds we inhabit in reality and in our dreams, with the families we have or we create, with our outlook on the world and how we present ourselves to the world, whether we are seen or not seen by others and the world at large.
As usual, Oyeyemi's hypnotic storytelling pulls you into another world, a slightly sinister, slightly shining mirage of our world... but just a few paces off.
I enjoyed being mesmerized, even if I am not entirely certain of all the twists and turns, nor of the final outcome. It was still a hell of a trip until debarking on the last page.
Editing to add: Oyeyemi often makes clever references to other works in her stories, from folklore to fairy tales to novels. The most obvious reference here is to Kipling's Rikki Tikki Tavi and some more obscure/atmospheric references to (perhaps) Agatha Christie mysteries on a train.... I am sure there are plenty of other references and allusions that I missed.
On one hand, this is one of her more linear books, I think. (Not that that's saying much of anything at all.) On the other hand, it's very hard to pinpoint all that is going on here. There are many themes, some having to do with seeing or unseeing others (those we let into our life, those we cut out or ignore or try to erase all remembrances of), being seen or unseen ourselves. We also have unreliable narrators, liars, hypnotists, mongeese, and a mysterious train. And then there's art -- written, visual, musical -- and what do you see in it? How do you approach it?
Ultimately I think it may be a book about relationships -- with ourselves, with others from lovers to strangers, with the art that surrounds us, with the worlds we inhabit in reality and in our dreams, with the families we have or we create, with our outlook on the world and how we present ourselves to the world, whether we are seen or not seen by others and the world at large.
As usual, Oyeyemi's hypnotic storytelling pulls you into another world, a slightly sinister, slightly shining mirage of our world... but just a few paces off.
I enjoyed being mesmerized, even if I am not entirely certain of all the twists and turns, nor of the final outcome. It was still a hell of a trip until debarking on the last page.
Editing to add: Oyeyemi often makes clever references to other works in her stories, from folklore to fairy tales to novels. The most obvious reference here is to Kipling's Rikki Tikki Tavi and some more obscure/atmospheric references to (perhaps) Agatha Christie mysteries on a train.... I am sure there are plenty of other references and allusions that I missed.
October 26, 2022
Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize
Longlisted for the 2022 International Dylan Thomas Prize
I’ve kept you here. Well, really, you’ve kept yourself here, with your eagerness to form a clique of people something out of the ordinary is happening to. Mundane jobs and Instagrammable honeymoons? Oh no, not for us. We’re the passengers of The Lucky Day...
Helen Oyeyemi's Peaces is an interesting and worthy inclusion on the 2022 Goldsmiths list (and indeed one I'd expected for the 2021 list, as the original publication date would have qualified it then). Although its inventiveness comes not so much from the form of the narrative, but rather the way the story unends narrative, the book hailed by judge Ali Smith as:
The novel begins with a prelude from the first person narrator which sets the tone for the book, involving a break-up with a partner commemorated with day-of-the-week boxer shorts labelled in Czech.
All that remained of the relationship was a set of boxer shorts he’d given me. Tapestry-print days-of-the-week boxers with the crucial information embroidered in crimson thread across the waistband of each pair: Pondělí, Úterý, Středa…He claimed it made him sad that I always seem to think it’s Monday. And look-now I knew seven words of Czech! I’d be fluent in no time, he said.
The post-breakup days trooped by. I worked, I volunteered, I watched some shows, read some books, saw some friends, wore my set of tapestry-print underwear in the usual order. Pondělí, no wistful question or maudlin plea, Úterý, no by-the-way-you’re-full-of-shit essay, Středa, no saw-this-and-thought-of-you photo, Čvrtek, no offer of a chance to change my mind, Pátek, Sobota, Neděle, no nothing. A cycle repeated for months until the underwear had been washed and worn to rags. Binning that gift set seemed to conclude our conscious uncoupling process (the worst of it is I think I might be only half joking), though it wasn’t long before I missed the perfection of fit and invested in more of the same.
The story then takes us a few years forward, when our narrator Otto and his partner Xavier Francis Shin (also known by his Korean name 신재경), board a mysterious privately owned train, The Lucky Day, along with their pet mongoose, the 30th in his line, for a trip to celebrate their not-honeymoon, the two having not got married but Otto having taken 재경's family name.
The train was waiting on the London-bound track, looking more like a seafaring creature than a locomotive. Our companion at the time was a mongoose named Árpád, and he bristled at the sight of it. “See the dragon, see its mane,” I whispered to him. Sleek scrolls of silvered metal flickered and twisted their way all along its long, low body. The train bore its name like a diadem, scarlet letters dancing along a ruby red band set just above the window of the driver’s cabin.
T H E L U C K Y D A Y.
The train is populated with an eccentric cast of characters, who prove to be connected in ways they hadn't all known or even imagined, and there is an inheritance at stake. In parts it is reminscent of a Christie novel or Hitchcock movie and Oyeyemi has acknowledged the influence of Murder on the Orient Express, The Lady Vanishes and Strangers on a Train. But she has acknowledged other inspirations and has added many diverse elements to the mix including:
- the aesthetic and logic of K-drama ("there’s a kind of special protected status that lovers have");
- the stories of Can Xue;
- Olga Tokarczuk/Jennifer Croft's International Booker winning novel Flights;
- the mongoose from Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi;
- the novels of Barbara Cormyn;
- Czech absurdist literature as well as here, Otto's favourite book, A Czech Dreambook;
- the poems of Emily Dickinson, one of which gives the novel it's title (I many times thought peace had come, / When peace was far away);
- tea smuggling (and my favourite image in the book, the brilliant description of a couch the colour of Darjeeling tea in the fourth minute of brewing);
- Louis Bertrand Castel's ocular harpsichord; and more.
There are some wonderful set pieces, including another scene centred on a train which is taken over by a fanatical 바둑 player. It reminded me if anything of David Mitchell before he lost it and went Kid-A.
I've previously read the author's Gingerbread, which I'd wanted to love but which for me suffered from its rather random nature which, unlike K-drama (which can conjour a logically coherent plot out of a love affair between a movie star and an alien), rather lost any narrative tension.
Here the various reveals did add to a sense of page-turning drive for the (or this) reader, although the conclusion to the novel left me as bemused as many of the characters.
Fascinating and a great pick by the judges on a strong (if not totally adventerous or unexpected) list. 4 stars.
Longlisted for the 2022 International Dylan Thomas Prize
I’ve kept you here. Well, really, you’ve kept yourself here, with your eagerness to form a clique of people something out of the ordinary is happening to. Mundane jobs and Instagrammable honeymoons? Oh no, not for us. We’re the passengers of The Lucky Day...
Helen Oyeyemi's Peaces is an interesting and worthy inclusion on the 2022 Goldsmiths list (and indeed one I'd expected for the 2021 list, as the original publication date would have qualified it then). Although its inventiveness comes not so much from the form of the narrative, but rather the way the story unends narrative, the book hailed by judge Ali Smith as:
In a blast of visionary life and energy, and with a kind of jovial panache that casually analyses narrative while simultaneously shaking itself free of all preconceived expectations of narrative, Peaces busts us out of isolation, drops us into a train carriage with a bunch of strangers who aren't strangers after all (plus a couple of mongooses), and sends us on a journey of the psyche that liberates its readers into a state of brilliant rich-and-strangeness. ‘Here’s to unseeing the world.’ This novel unfixes everything and sends us out renewed.
The novel begins with a prelude from the first person narrator which sets the tone for the book, involving a break-up with a partner commemorated with day-of-the-week boxer shorts labelled in Czech.
All that remained of the relationship was a set of boxer shorts he’d given me. Tapestry-print days-of-the-week boxers with the crucial information embroidered in crimson thread across the waistband of each pair: Pondělí, Úterý, Středa…He claimed it made him sad that I always seem to think it’s Monday. And look-now I knew seven words of Czech! I’d be fluent in no time, he said.
The post-breakup days trooped by. I worked, I volunteered, I watched some shows, read some books, saw some friends, wore my set of tapestry-print underwear in the usual order. Pondělí, no wistful question or maudlin plea, Úterý, no by-the-way-you’re-full-of-shit essay, Středa, no saw-this-and-thought-of-you photo, Čvrtek, no offer of a chance to change my mind, Pátek, Sobota, Neděle, no nothing. A cycle repeated for months until the underwear had been washed and worn to rags. Binning that gift set seemed to conclude our conscious uncoupling process (the worst of it is I think I might be only half joking), though it wasn’t long before I missed the perfection of fit and invested in more of the same.
The story then takes us a few years forward, when our narrator Otto and his partner Xavier Francis Shin (also known by his Korean name 신재경), board a mysterious privately owned train, The Lucky Day, along with their pet mongoose, the 30th in his line, for a trip to celebrate their not-honeymoon, the two having not got married but Otto having taken 재경's family name.
The train was waiting on the London-bound track, looking more like a seafaring creature than a locomotive. Our companion at the time was a mongoose named Árpád, and he bristled at the sight of it. “See the dragon, see its mane,” I whispered to him. Sleek scrolls of silvered metal flickered and twisted their way all along its long, low body. The train bore its name like a diadem, scarlet letters dancing along a ruby red band set just above the window of the driver’s cabin.
T H E L U C K Y D A Y.
The train is populated with an eccentric cast of characters, who prove to be connected in ways they hadn't all known or even imagined, and there is an inheritance at stake. In parts it is reminscent of a Christie novel or Hitchcock movie and Oyeyemi has acknowledged the influence of Murder on the Orient Express, The Lady Vanishes and Strangers on a Train. But she has acknowledged other inspirations and has added many diverse elements to the mix including:
- the aesthetic and logic of K-drama ("there’s a kind of special protected status that lovers have");
- the stories of Can Xue;
- Olga Tokarczuk/Jennifer Croft's International Booker winning novel Flights;
- the mongoose from Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi;
- the novels of Barbara Cormyn;
- Czech absurdist literature as well as here, Otto's favourite book, A Czech Dreambook;
- the poems of Emily Dickinson, one of which gives the novel it's title (I many times thought peace had come, / When peace was far away);
- tea smuggling (and my favourite image in the book, the brilliant description of a couch the colour of Darjeeling tea in the fourth minute of brewing);
- Louis Bertrand Castel's ocular harpsichord; and more.
There are some wonderful set pieces, including another scene centred on a train which is taken over by a fanatical 바둑 player. It reminded me if anything of David Mitchell before he lost it and went Kid-A.
I've previously read the author's Gingerbread, which I'd wanted to love but which for me suffered from its rather random nature which, unlike K-drama (which can conjour a logically coherent plot out of a love affair between a movie star and an alien), rather lost any narrative tension.
Here the various reveals did add to a sense of page-turning drive for the (or this) reader, although the conclusion to the novel left me as bemused as many of the characters.
Fascinating and a great pick by the judges on a strong (if not totally adventerous or unexpected) list. 4 stars.
September 25, 2023
This story is about a couple of gay guys who are gifted a train trip by one's aunt. Each rail car is unique in its own right. Other than their pet mongoose they seem to be the only ones on board. Until one of them sees a woman who flashes him a message. Now it gets weird.
I wish I could tell you more but I only understood about half of this novel. Perhaps a literary scholar would care to explain to me what the hell I just read, because I just walked out of the twilight zone.
I'm going to grab another one of her books to see what kind of an experience I can get out of it.
3 stars because I can't stop trying to figure this thing out.
I wish I could tell you more but I only understood about half of this novel. Perhaps a literary scholar would care to explain to me what the hell I just read, because I just walked out of the twilight zone.
I'm going to grab another one of her books to see what kind of an experience I can get out of it.
3 stars because I can't stop trying to figure this thing out.
November 1, 2021
How does one review Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi?
I don't even know.
Peaces follows honeymoon un-honeymooners Otto and Xavier Shin (who have agreed to share their last name but they have not gotten married, and hence it is not a honeymoon) and their pet mongoose in a train ride. The first encounter with one of the fellow passengers of The Lucky Day happens when Ava Kapoor appears in front of Otto with a sign saying 'help' - or was it 'hello'? Hour after hour, as the unhoneymooners continue their trip in this strange locomotive, everything gets crazier and crazier.
Peaces is a ride - pun intended. It's surreal, ridiculous, and hilarious. I'd recommend this to anyone who is looking for something new, tricky, and just bizarre (really). I made the (great) mistake of picking this book without reading the summary when I was 20% in, I just kept wondering "what even is this thing?" and I loved it.
Something that I truly enjoyed was the diversity. You have POCs, you have LGBTQ, you have everything you want and need, and every character is truly and unapologetically happy and proud to be whatever they are. It was something fresh - we often talk about how the LGBTQ and POC experience is often tangled with 'ethnic' or 'trauma' porn because of gender, orientation, origin, and whatnot. Peaces offers characters that offer themselves with a 'take it or leave it' attitude.
Besides the diversity and the weirdness of it all - Peaces is a very well-crafted story. Every character is there for a reason and everything that happens has its explanation. Finding out the whys made me go all "dang." The only reason why I am not giving this 5 stars - and I have thought of this for about a week, is because of the one scene when a character we hear about often pops up and he is pretty violent. I do not understand why Oyeyemi chose to add such violence in the one thing (I did not feel it was needed story-wise and it sort of broke my 'this is fun' vibe for a minute).
So yeah, great book. I will be picking up other stuff by Oyeyemi soon!
I don't even know.
Peaces follows honeymoon un-honeymooners Otto and Xavier Shin (who have agreed to share their last name but they have not gotten married, and hence it is not a honeymoon) and their pet mongoose in a train ride. The first encounter with one of the fellow passengers of The Lucky Day happens when Ava Kapoor appears in front of Otto with a sign saying 'help' - or was it 'hello'? Hour after hour, as the unhoneymooners continue their trip in this strange locomotive, everything gets crazier and crazier.
Peaces is a ride - pun intended. It's surreal, ridiculous, and hilarious. I'd recommend this to anyone who is looking for something new, tricky, and just bizarre (really). I made the (great) mistake of picking this book without reading the summary when I was 20% in, I just kept wondering "what even is this thing?" and I loved it.
Something that I truly enjoyed was the diversity. You have POCs, you have LGBTQ, you have everything you want and need, and every character is truly and unapologetically happy and proud to be whatever they are. It was something fresh - we often talk about how the LGBTQ and POC experience is often tangled with 'ethnic' or 'trauma' porn because of gender, orientation, origin, and whatnot. Peaces offers characters that offer themselves with a 'take it or leave it' attitude.
Besides the diversity and the weirdness of it all - Peaces is a very well-crafted story. Every character is there for a reason and everything that happens has its explanation. Finding out the whys made me go all "dang." The only reason why I am not giving this 5 stars - and I have thought of this for about a week, is because of the one scene when a character we hear about often pops up and he is pretty violent. I do not understand why Oyeyemi chose to add such violence in the one thing (I did not feel it was needed story-wise and it sort of broke my 'this is fun' vibe for a minute).
So yeah, great book. I will be picking up other stuff by Oyeyemi soon!
April 20, 2021
What is it like to edit Helen Oyeyemi’s novels, I wonder...
November 10, 2022
Shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize 2022
I found this one a little disappointing, more of an extended surreal dream story than a coherent narrative, and I am not convinced this is particularly innovative.
I found this one a little disappointing, more of an extended surreal dream story than a coherent narrative, and I am not convinced this is particularly innovative.
June 8, 2021
How even to describe this book? It's as mysterious, addictive, and strange as most of Helen Oyeyemi's work but this time packed with even more queer characters than ever! Xavier and Otto Shin are given tickets to a train called The Lucky Day for their sort-of honeymoon. They step aboard with their pet mongoose, Arpad XXX, without knowing their route or destination and by a mishap leave half of their luggage behind on the station. The Lucky Day is the permanent residence of a reclusive musician, Ava Kapoor, and two others... all of whom have somewhat odd and seemingly coincidental connections to Xavier and Otto's pasts. As the couple explore the train's many exquisitely decorated carriages (including a library, kitchen, garden, sauna, post-office and many guest rooms) they begin to unravel pieces of the puzzle behind the presence of every being on the train, and the troubling consequences of staying on it for too long. I've now read seven of Oyeyemi's books and I think this one is my second favorite after the short story collection What Is Not Yours is Not Yours!
September 1, 2021
she hasn't beaten mr. fox as a technical achievement or white is for witching as a visceral one, and she may never, but this is far and away the most rewarding puzzle of helen oyeyemi's more recent work. a good oyeyemi leaves you confused at the end but in possession of a complete toolkit. mr police, she gives you all the clues.
the synopsis of this reads like a wes anderson film and in pretty much any other author's hands it would come off as twee and self-conscious but the oyeyemi hallmark is she can present almost any piece of information in an unselfconscious way. this is a fable about intimacy and memory and the constructed self and the mortifying ordeal; everything else is set dressing, but set dressing for an inhabited room, with people moving around in it. (also and crucially: full of minute intimacies that are genuinely very sexy.)
as always, i stan the queen of sprezzatura and the most surprising mind in the business, i look forward to reading and rereading and peeling apart the layers, and i really really want to go back to prague.
the synopsis of this reads like a wes anderson film and in pretty much any other author's hands it would come off as twee and self-conscious but the oyeyemi hallmark is she can present almost any piece of information in an unselfconscious way. this is a fable about intimacy and memory and the constructed self and the mortifying ordeal; everything else is set dressing, but set dressing for an inhabited room, with people moving around in it. (also and crucially: full of minute intimacies that are genuinely very sexy.)
as always, i stan the queen of sprezzatura and the most surprising mind in the business, i look forward to reading and rereading and peeling apart the layers, and i really really want to go back to prague.
October 21, 2022
For me, this was the sixth and final book from the 2022 Goldsmiths Shortlist.
There are lots of very strange things about this book. But it is huge fun to read. It tells the story of Otto and Xavier Shin, a couple on an unhoneymoon honeymoon after deciding to simply share their surname rather than get married. They get on board a train, The Lucky Day and go on a strange and wonderful journey. Likewise, we as readers go on a strange and wonderful journey.
First up, there’s the train. Like most trains, it’s made up of a series of carriages. But moving from one carriage to another on this particular train seems to take you from one world to another.
Second up, there’s Otto and Xavier’s travelling companion. It’s a mongoose called Arpad. Of course it is.
Third up, there’s Prem. Prem is a mysterious character who seems to somehow be involved in the lives of all the main characters in the book. Maybe. Whether Prem exists or not seems key but unexplained and that in turn seems related to the fact that the train’s owner, Ava Kapoor, cannot even see him.
And so the craziness continues.
This idea of seeing or not seeing, of being seen or not being seen, seems to be key to the novel.
But I guess you need to read it for yourself to see if you agree about that, because I definitely can’t tell you exactly what the book is all about.
I can tell you, though, that it is huge fun to read. In my book, that’s enough.
There are lots of very strange things about this book. But it is huge fun to read. It tells the story of Otto and Xavier Shin, a couple on an unhoneymoon honeymoon after deciding to simply share their surname rather than get married. They get on board a train, The Lucky Day and go on a strange and wonderful journey. Likewise, we as readers go on a strange and wonderful journey.
First up, there’s the train. Like most trains, it’s made up of a series of carriages. But moving from one carriage to another on this particular train seems to take you from one world to another.
Second up, there’s Otto and Xavier’s travelling companion. It’s a mongoose called Arpad. Of course it is.
Third up, there’s Prem. Prem is a mysterious character who seems to somehow be involved in the lives of all the main characters in the book. Maybe. Whether Prem exists or not seems key but unexplained and that in turn seems related to the fact that the train’s owner, Ava Kapoor, cannot even see him.
And so the craziness continues.
This idea of seeing or not seeing, of being seen or not being seen, seems to be key to the novel.
But I guess you need to read it for yourself to see if you agree about that, because I definitely can’t tell you exactly what the book is all about.
I can tell you, though, that it is huge fun to read. In my book, that’s enough.
May 14, 2021
Do you want to know about a mongoose, or why it must travel before middle age? I think it has something to do with becoming narrow minded. Well, I didn’t need to know that, but at least this book confirmed my belief that I can’t read this author. Abandoned.
April 14, 2021
Really 4.5, maybe?
I was so nervous after really bouncing out of Oyeyemi's prior book and having some difficult conversations about BOY SNOW BIRD that this wouldn't go well. Isn't that always the way, when you hope that the experience of a favorite author's new work will match up to the ones that made them a favorite in the first place? Wonderfully, PEACES is Oyeyemi in fine form -- with all the wonder and frustration that entails.
One thing that strikes me is how many of her novels rely (yes, fairy tale-like, I suppose -- or like Greek or even Shakespearean drama) on a sudden last minute rush of action and revelation. I was delighted by the dreamy twists and turns of this novel, the tangents, the ontological questions, and then I felt like the ending was a rush that left the reader confused and breathless. To use the train metaphor, as though the steady chug-chug-chug rhythm that'd been built up was completely disrupted and each wheel was turning at its own pace. But perhaps that's by design.
I was so nervous after really bouncing out of Oyeyemi's prior book and having some difficult conversations about BOY SNOW BIRD that this wouldn't go well. Isn't that always the way, when you hope that the experience of a favorite author's new work will match up to the ones that made them a favorite in the first place? Wonderfully, PEACES is Oyeyemi in fine form -- with all the wonder and frustration that entails.
One thing that strikes me is how many of her novels rely (yes, fairy tale-like, I suppose -- or like Greek or even Shakespearean drama) on a sudden last minute rush of action and revelation. I was delighted by the dreamy twists and turns of this novel, the tangents, the ontological questions, and then I felt like the ending was a rush that left the reader confused and breathless. To use the train metaphor, as though the steady chug-chug-chug rhythm that'd been built up was completely disrupted and each wheel was turning at its own pace. But perhaps that's by design.
October 21, 2021
Weird fiction is not for everyone. But, if you are not averse to the the slippery edges of allegorical concepts, you'll enjoy this story. Boiled down to its absolute essence, this entire fuzzy-edged narrative is about feeling seen and about feeling invisible. As often noted with Oyeyemi's work, the ending is not the point, and may feel downright anticlimactic. Everything the author wants to say is concentrated in the center of the story.
The writing is what earns this four star rating. The style is a fluid kind of delirium, but one with intelligence and witticisms, that quite frankly, I can't get enough of.
The writing is what earns this four star rating. The style is a fluid kind of delirium, but one with intelligence and witticisms, that quite frankly, I can't get enough of.
June 16, 2021
To do justice in describing this novel, you'd need Helen Oyeyemi's way with words, and I don't have that, so this review can't do justice. It is hilarious in a way that surprises, and before you can finish laughing it catches you with some deeply emotive passage that makes you want to hug anyone who is nearby. Buried inside of this whimsical tale of Otto and Xavier on their non-honeymoon honeymoon along with their mongoose Arpad XXX (that's the 30th) aboard a fantastical train called "Lucky Day" is a story of what happens when we don't see someone who wants to be seen by us.
May 29, 2021
3.5
this was weird
this was weird
September 6, 2021
2.5 stars
July 10, 2021
Deeply, intensely weird. I've never clicked with a book by Oyeyemi before, but this one I really liked. Despite the relentless bombardment of strangeness I never found myself frustrated. In fact I often felt somewhat drunk on the rich, gorgeous, clever sentences. Glad to have read this.
April 22, 2021
Oh I loved this so so much. Like ten pages in it already seemed to be Extremely My Shit and that turned out to be 100% the case. So so so so fun and funny and clever and creative and mongoose-centric and puzzling and just really whimsical in a way that is never cheesy in the slightest. I think Helen Oyeyemi just has like.....a much better brain than most other people. Truly can't say enough good here, just an absolute delight to read.
November 13, 2022
I have never really gelled with Helen Oyeyemi’s books. I tend to find them too forced. Sure her takes on fairy-tales are innovative and have this post-modern feel to them but I just get bored reading her work. There are exceptions though and Peaces is one. Now whether it is because it’s not based on a fairy-tale, I don’t know.
The plot itself is a bit difficult to describe, it’s two main protagonists are a couple, Otto and Shin who are on a non honeymoon, honeymoon and their aunt has book a train ride for them. The other people in this train consist of the owner, Ava Kapoor, her girlfriend Allegra Yu and the conductor, Laura. There’s also the mysterious Prem but more on him later. Oh and one must not forget the two mongooses, which have quite a role here.
As otto and Shin explore the train they discover that each compartment is a world unto itself. The more they explore, the more secrets are revealed about their past and the other three passengers, I guess, at this point it’s Snowpiercer meets Darjeeling Ltd. Coincidences entwine and, somehow all five protagonists are linked to each other through past events.
However, to use an Aristotelian term, the prime mover is Prem and through a series of letters that form testimonials, we see how important Prem is to the plot. All leads to a bizarro-type conclusion.
Peaces does have some themes, There LGBTQ+ is prominent, and , cemented by a little speech, the different manifestations of love but I saw this more as a book about technique: One chunk, as mentioned consists of five testimonials, another section is a chapter, which is more conventional, deals with a couple playing Go. Long descriptive passages dominate and sometimes characters converse with each other without really realizing who is talking. Then there’s the way all details, great and small have their significance in the narrative.
Most importantly this is a VERY FUN book to read. There are quite a few times I laughed but mostly the book moves at such a pace that one can’t help joining in the fun. The only other adventurous writer who manages this is Nicola Barker and Peaces does remind me of that carefree experimentalism that Barker has perfected.
I guess this means I should check out Helen Oyeyemi’s earlier works as I think I can consider myself a convert. We’ll see.
The plot itself is a bit difficult to describe, it’s two main protagonists are a couple, Otto and Shin who are on a non honeymoon, honeymoon and their aunt has book a train ride for them. The other people in this train consist of the owner, Ava Kapoor, her girlfriend Allegra Yu and the conductor, Laura. There’s also the mysterious Prem but more on him later. Oh and one must not forget the two mongooses, which have quite a role here.
As otto and Shin explore the train they discover that each compartment is a world unto itself. The more they explore, the more secrets are revealed about their past and the other three passengers, I guess, at this point it’s Snowpiercer meets Darjeeling Ltd. Coincidences entwine and, somehow all five protagonists are linked to each other through past events.
However, to use an Aristotelian term, the prime mover is Prem and through a series of letters that form testimonials, we see how important Prem is to the plot. All leads to a bizarro-type conclusion.
Peaces does have some themes, There LGBTQ+ is prominent, and , cemented by a little speech, the different manifestations of love but I saw this more as a book about technique: One chunk, as mentioned consists of five testimonials, another section is a chapter, which is more conventional, deals with a couple playing Go. Long descriptive passages dominate and sometimes characters converse with each other without really realizing who is talking. Then there’s the way all details, great and small have their significance in the narrative.
Most importantly this is a VERY FUN book to read. There are quite a few times I laughed but mostly the book moves at such a pace that one can’t help joining in the fun. The only other adventurous writer who manages this is Nicola Barker and Peaces does remind me of that carefree experimentalism that Barker has perfected.
I guess this means I should check out Helen Oyeyemi’s earlier works as I think I can consider myself a convert. We’ll see.
February 2, 2021
I think I'm done with Oyeyemi. No matter how much I appreciate the imagination and clever touches in her work, I never enjoy reading it and almost always walk away more frustrated and confused than satisfied.
March 26, 2022
(3.5)
I somehow managed to enjoy this book whilst also having no idea what was going on.
Oyeyemi’s writing style felt unique and shone throughout the book! It also made me want a mongoose lol. I found it relatively easy to connect with the main characters and particularly liked the way we discovered more about each character through the lens of the others.
My critique is that it does leave you feeling unsatisfied; there are so many unanswered questions and overall plot lines I didn’t really understand (After reading other reviews I see I am not the only one to think this haha). I thought the ending was rushed and a bit random; I almost feel like the character that shows up at the climax was unnecessary to the whole book lol (or maybe I just didn’t understand their purpose). But at the same time, I don’t really think perfectly wrapping everything up at the end would have suited this book, as it felt like the book was more about the journey rather than a final destination.. (or final answer to everything) 😎
Overall, this is not a must-read but was a playful, quirky, short book that left me thinking!
I somehow managed to enjoy this book whilst also having no idea what was going on.
Oyeyemi’s writing style felt unique and shone throughout the book! It also made me want a mongoose lol. I found it relatively easy to connect with the main characters and particularly liked the way we discovered more about each character through the lens of the others.
My critique is that it does leave you feeling unsatisfied; there are so many unanswered questions and overall plot lines I didn’t really understand (After reading other reviews I see I am not the only one to think this haha). I thought the ending was rushed and a bit random; I almost feel like the character that shows up at the climax was unnecessary to the whole book lol (or maybe I just didn’t understand their purpose). But at the same time, I don’t really think perfectly wrapping everything up at the end would have suited this book, as it felt like the book was more about the journey rather than a final destination.. (or final answer to everything) 😎
Overall, this is not a must-read but was a playful, quirky, short book that left me thinking!
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