Gingerbread
2019 • 258 pages
Ratings11
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings11
Average rating3.8
‘A writer of sentences so elegant that they gleam’ – Ali Smith, author of How to be Both Influenced by the mysterious place gingerbread holds in classic children's stories - equal parts wholesome and uncanny - beloved novelist Helen Oyeyemi invites readers into a delightful tale of a surprising family legacy, in which the inheritance is a recipe. Perdita Lee and her mother Harriet may appear your average schoolgirl and working mother but they are anything but. For one thing, their home is a gold-painted seventh-floor flat with some surprisingly verbal vegetation. And then there's the gingerbread. As we follow the Lees through encounters with jealousy, ambition, family grudges, work and wealth, gingerbread seems to be the one thing that holds a constant value . . . Endlessly surprising and satisfying, written with Helen Oyeyemi's inimitable style and imagination, Gingerbread is a true feast for the reader.
Reviews with the most likes.
I could not follow this book. There were layers of something I just did not get.
This book was an absolute treat. At the reading I attended for this book, Oyeyemi cautioned against using the f-word (fairytale) to describe the work, and I can see why. The characters in this book have so much more depth than any fairytale creatures, though the book is built on a familiar skeleton. It's a tale of pairs and parallels: Harriet and Gretel, Harriet and Perdita, London and Druhastrana, Ari and Ambrose, Gabriel and Rémy. Her prose sparkles (or shines, whichever is more complimentary) and it's the cleverest, funniest novel I've read in a long time. As with all great books, I'm inspired to dive into the author's back catalogue.
Moving, cathartic, and hilarious novel of nested fairy tales, ghost stories, gothic romances, and changelings that left me wanting to reread it the moment it was over.
