Read’s Comments (group member since Apr 11, 2016)

Read’s comments from the Weird Book Club group.

Point of view and narration seem especially slippery in Duplex. There is a first-person narrator, but she is rarely present on the page. The narrator also seems to enjoy near-omniscience, slipping between multiple timelines and many different characters' points of view. What effect does this have on the story, and how does Davis accomplish this?

Post your thoughts about point of view and narration of Duplex here!

DuplexAnother aspect that thrilled us about Duplex was the way stories and storytelling shape the novel. For instance, Janice tells stories about what seems to be ancient history (i.e., the Rain of Beads) and also about recent history (i.e., Mary and Eddie). The novel is also infused with fairy tale influences, such as the resonance between the sorcerer Body-without-Soul and Koschei the Deathless of Russian fairy tales. What role do you see the stories Janice tells playing in the novel as a whole? How do fairy tales inform this novel?

Post your thoughts about storytelling and folklore of Duplex here!

One of the aspects we found most fascinating -- and challenging -- about Kathryn Davis's Duplex was the way time works in this book. How do the different timelines in this novel interact? When does the present moment with Janice and the girls occur, relative to the sections about Mary and Eddie? Does this take place in the timeline of our real world, and if so, how??? If not, how do you make sense of the timeline of this world?

Post your thoughts about time and chronology of Duplex here!

Hi there, we're going to jump into our discussion of What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours now!

First of all, we wanted to frame this discussion in terms of weirdness. What makes this collection weird, or not? Why is it weird, and how does Helen Oyeyemi achieve weirdness in What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours?

To start this conversation off, we had a few questions or observations about the particular weirdness of this book. Feel free to respond to these questions, or jump in with your own questions or comments about What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours.

1. Many of the stories in this collection don’t have conventional endings--they end without clear resolution, or in a moment of anti-climax. What effect does this have, either for you as a reader or on the collection as a whole?

2. There are several recurring characters in these stories. How do you feel about these interconnected stories? Does this change how you look at the collection as a whole?

3. In a lot of the interviews Helen Oyeyemi’s done for this book, she’s been asked about the way keys are functioning as a symbol in these stories. What do you make of the role of keys? What other recurring themes do you notice?

4. Most of these stories are fairly linear in terms of their progression, but a couple are not. How is Oyeyemi handling structure? We were thinking especially of “is your blood as red as this?”, but “books and roses” is also structured in a non-linear way, to some extent.

5. We were interested in the way Oyeyemi is playing with form in this story--including epistolary elements (like in “books and roses” and “a brief history of the homely wench society”) or the bullet pointed list that end “sorry doesn’t sweeten her tea”. Did you notice other elements of formal experimentation here? What do you make of these instances?

We'll be starting our Weird Book Club discussion of Helen Oyeyemi's What Is Not Your Is Not Yours right here in about 45 minutes!

Join us here on Saturday, May 7th at 1 PM EDT for our inaugural Weird Book Club! We'll discuss Helen Oyeyemi's short story collection What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours!

Come prepared to discuss with your thoughts, questions, and critiques. Have a topic you'd like to see covered in our discussion? Tweet it to us @readingweird using the hashtag #weirdbookclub.