21st Century Literature discussion

This thread is for discussing Parts Two & Three, and the book as a whole. Spoilers welcome.

Part Two introduces us to Bird and her perspective of Snow. We also eventually hear from, and then meet Snow. There is a bit more information about Boy's father, Frank Novak, who appears at the end.

In Part Three, we return to Boy's perspective. We learn more information about Frank Novak.

What are your impressions of the book now that you've heard from more characters? Has your view of Boy changed now that you've learned more about her from Bird, Snow, and Frank? Do you like the fairy tale theme? To me, the use of mirrors in this section made me think of some of Haruki Murakami's work.

What do you think of the exchange between Bird and Snow? What do you think of the stories they tell one another, such as the Story of La Belle Capuchine?

Please feel free to add any questions or comments about any aspect of the book you'd like - there are many topics I haven't touched!

I am about 70% of the way through the book now, at the part where Bird and Snow are exchanging letters. Mike's comment in the part one thread about dichotomies is meaning a lot more to me now. I still don't know why Snow was sent away to live with Aunt Clara, but it is beginning to look like Snow was sent away because she was "too white," and Aunt Clara was sent away for not being white enough. I'm still puzzled about the mirrors. Not always showing up in a mirror clearly means something, but what?

I was wondering about the nature of stories, and in particular fairy tales as it appears in the second part. I like the use of the Brer Anansi story. Wikipedia had this to say about Anansi:

"In the Caribbean Anansi is often celebrated as a symbol of slave resistance and survival. Anansi is able to turn the table on his powerful oppressors using his cunning and trickery, a model of behaviour utilised by slaves to gain the upper-hand within the confines of the plantation power structure. Anansi is also believed to have played a multi-functional role in slaves’ lives, as well as inspiring strategies of resistance the tales enabled slaves to establish a sense of continuity with their African past and offered them the means to transform and assert their identity within the boundaries of captivity."

I get the sense that, perhaps, Oyeyemi is saying that it is easy to lose your identity in the attempt to overcome the prejudice against that identity. The Whitman's aims are noble. They want a better life for themselves and their children, and, yet, in their endeavoring for a better life, they end sacrificing their own kin who hurt them in their endeavor. Like Anansi, the Whitman's use trickery to achieve their ends but what are the results and are they worth it?

Even Snow says she is a deceiver. What does that mean exactly, and how does that impact how we see her?

I just finished. I am uncertain who to read Part 3, only that identity can be a difficult thing especially when your identity clashes with social/racial/gender expectations.

I wonder why the rat catcher refers to Boy as evil. I feel I am missing something there.

Overall, I found the book really well done. I particularly liked how it avoided the well-traveled road of discussing race and gender in simple, black-and-white terms, but explored it with the depth a conversation involving those themes required. I think the complex nature of those themes was more noticeable under through the use of the fairy tale imagery. While we were looking for the evil queen and snow white, we come to understand nothing is that simple.

I'm not sure why the rat-catcher called Boy evil. I wondered about that as well. Having gotten to the end, I suppose the rat-catcher might hold Boy's conception against her. Or perhaps the rat-catcher saw aspects of himself/herself in Boy that he did not like.

I wondered why Snow and Bird and Clara all went to see the rat-catcher, and how that meeting went.

I got the impression that Boy wanted to meet her mom as that person existed in the rat catcher, maybe to forgive her? I too wondered how that meeting went.

I think you may have a point on the conception of Boy being the reason why she is called evil. It is odd to me that any woman would view their child regardless of the means of conception with love. The book, Room, comes to mind.

However, I can see how that conception after rape can lead to conflicted feelings about the child.

The narrative seems to continually remind us that both Boy and Snow are not to be trusted, that there is something inherently bad or distrustful about them. And yet neither seems to act cruelly (Boy harbors a secret love for Charlie and is a bit distant in all her human relationships, and Snow seems to be playing a "part" that's expected of her as well as hiding her real job, but this hardly seems to warrant the repeated warnings/distrust--I guess it's really only Boy that distrusts Snow... ).

It feels a bit like a moebius strip (might just be the cover subliminally suggesting that twisting in on itself) as we have a father that's really the mother, a Boy that's a girl, a Snow that appears white but is racially "black", and a Bird that mimics the voice and song of others. I kept wondering if the characters who couldn't see themselves in the mirror couldn't do so because they looked nothing like what others thought they did (or should) look like... kind of a fascinating blend between magical realism and fairy tale almost...

The Anansi and La Belle Capuchine stories felt like central analogies for how Bird and Snow viewed things. Was it just me, or did Bird and Snow feel like characters almost caught up in someone else's story (or caught up in the same "spell"/distortion)?

Great insight Marc. I didn't consider the mobius strip angle, but that puts an interesting trust on things, namely a thing that appears to have two sides but is really one, somewhat like a reflection in a mirror.

I also missed the whole Bird and imitation of voices angle.

I like the idea of the two sisters being under a spell of some sort but can't quite see how that might work. A spell might suggest that they are affected in ways not normal. For example, Boy suggests that her mother is under a spell and has transformed into the rat catcher and that all that is needed to bring her back is to break the spell.

What kind of spell would the sisters be under?

Thanks, Mike. I was reading parts 2 and 3 carefully with your questions in mind (especially the one about what does appear in the mirror). The spell thing was more a feeling to me than something concrete... Kind of like Dorothy being in Oz and waiting to get home--it's like Snow and Bird are caught up in this familial web of deception (maybe less a spell and more a family curse--self-inflicted but as you said, "in the attempt to overcome the prejudice against [their] identity").

I disappeared for a couple days there but I'm happy to come back and see some great comments. This book felt simultaneously easy, meaning that it was quick to get through, yet complicated because of all the themes and possible interpretations we could make of the story.

Mike, those are some great questions re Snow's deceptiveness and the ratcatcher's comment on Boy being evil. I really like your take on how the story of La Belle Capuchine fits into the main story. The Ratcatcher's comments on Boy being evil seemed in one way to be a way for that character to regain some control (as we see him, he's only a character of the past) and in another to shift our perception of Boy's identity. It's easy to initially dismiss his comments as those of an angry, abusive parent who doesn't have any right to comment on someone else's character (and as Mike said, Boy was not born under happy circumstances). But then his stories about Boy bullying other children, or taking advantage of their vulnerabilities, brings out another side to her that may ring a bit truer to how we see her in light of how she has expelled Snow from her life. I don't trust the ratcatcher but perhaps I shouldn't completely trust Boy either.

Marc, I like your comments too and hadn't thought of them as being under a spell before, but it works quite well. It feels as though both characters know they're under a spell but either don't know how or want to get out of it. Boy understands that the world views Bird differently from Snow because of her skin color but she doesn't want to accept that so removes Snow from the picture so she can avoid the problem.

I really appreciated how this book not only captures complex issues, such as gender, identity, and race, but also how it captures emotion. For example, I loved Bird's description of Boy's heartbreak when she tells Charlie that she loves him and he responds with "Why?" It doesn't add much to the plot but it makes Boy seem more human while also giving us insight into how Bird sees her mother. I felt both sorry for Boy in experiencing such pain and for Bird in learning that her mother is longing to be with someone other than her father.

Very much agree with you, Caroline, that the book is a fast read but handles many things with subtlety and complexity. I shared Casceil's confusion over why Snow was sent away--does Boy ever voice a specific reason for this? And do we get the feeling at the end of the story that Snow's the exhile is over?

I don't think we were ever given a reason for Snow's exile. I think initially she was sent away for what was supposed to be a week, and then Boy kept extending the time. By the end of the book, Snow is grown-up. Whether or not she is "exiled," she has her own life and would not be likely to "move home" again. She can come and go as she pleases. Maybe Boy's way of dealing with things she doesn't know how to deal with is "out of sight, out of mind."

Just finished the book, and found the final section quite dizzying, with expectations continually changing. Impressive but quite difficult to take in - Oyeyemi makes you question everything.

I'm still struggling to make sense of what is under the surface or come of with anything very insightful, but Marc's comment #7 certainly helps - it would be far too banal just to say caricatures are never quite what they seem. As others have said, the narrative is always a pleasure to read - I particularly enjoyed the letters.

I just picked up Grimm's fairy tale of Snow White, which I'm hoping to read today. And hoping it will shed some light on some of our questions.