While re-writing a fairy tale would appear to be an attempt to bottle up nostalgia for childhood, Oyeyemi instead uses it to show the drawbacks of nostalgia. Wealth, race, immigration and relationships all appear in ways that maintain the other-ness of the novel while also keeping it timely and relevant. Four-pupiled talking dolls make an impression, as do even more fantastical creations, but as with all of Oyeyemi’s work the real world is consistently considered. The novel overflows with creepy and wonder-hued images. Oyeyemi’s specialties are language and imagery. The plot is compelling, but it occasionally feels secondary. When Perdita nearly dies trying to transport herself to Druhástrana using (what else?) gingerbread, the past returns to haunt Harriet and her family. While there, Harriet had a friend name Gretel. Harriet grew up in the far-off Germanic nation of Druhástrana, which may or may not exist. Gingerbread tells the story of three generations of women: British schoolgirl Perdita, her mother Harriet and Harriet’s mother, Margot. For “Hansel and Gretel,” these involve mothers, nostalgia, deception, places that may or may not exist and – of course – gingerbread.īy assembling her own dreamy but deceptively intricate plot, Oyeyemi takes ownership of the tale. Rather than emulate the original’s plot, Oyeyemi digs into the key feelings the tale conjured in childhood. Just as she did with her previous novel Boy, Snow, Bird (a loose retelling of “Snow White”), Oyeyemi offers an impressionistic take on her source material.

Oyeyemi’s new novel Gingerbread is, in very loose and not entirely accurate terms, the British author’s remix of the Brothers Grimm cannibal story. So no matter what the book jacket or press notes say, such adaptions are neither new nor bold. Even if you prefer to stick with literature, the remixed fairy tale has been used in literary fiction since Donald Barthelme’s 1967 take on Snow White and seemed to officially become its own genre with the success of Gregory Maguire’s Wicked in 1995.

Adapting old legends into new films and into experiences is essentially what Walt Disney based his empire on, and we’re currently living in the world he built. It could be argued that fairy tales form the backbone-or at least some vertebrae–of today’s pop culture.

Helen oyeyemi gingerbread review