Mr. Fox

Even without certain campaigns, Helen Oyeyemi's Boy, Snow, Bird never stood a chance of getting a Hugo Award or even a nomination. Nonetheless, I nominated it because I loved it so, so much and that's what the Hugos are all about! After reading that book, I bought everything else I could find by Oyeyemi. This wasn't as up my alley as Boy, Snow, Bird but Oyeyemi is still an author I want to follow very closely.

MR. FOX
by Helen Oyeyemi

Published by: Riverhead Books, 2011
Ebook: 336 pages
Standalone
My rating: 7/10

First sentence: Mary Foxe came by the other day - the last person on earth I was expecting to see.

Fairytale romances end with a wedding. The fairytales that don't get more complicated. In this book, celebrated writer Mr. Fox can't stop himself from killing off the heroines of his novels, and neither can his wife, Daphne. It's not until Mary, his muse, comes to life and transforms him from author into subject that his story begins to unfold differently. Meanwhile, Daphne becomes convinced that her husband is having an affair, and finds her way into Mary and Mr. Fox's game. And so Mr. Fox is offered a choice: Will it be a life with the girl of his dreams, or a life with an all-too-real woman who delights him more than he cares to admit?

Mr. Fox is a writer whose imaginary muse Mary Foxe has qualms about the way he tends to kill off his female characters. In a game of story-telling, the two of them weave fairy tales, play with Bluebeard, and explore their relationship. Then Mr. Fox' wife Daphne joins in and the relationships become more and more complicated.

You can read this book as a short story collection or a fix-up-novel but either way, it's never quite clear which parts are reality, which are stories, if Mary is real or just a figment of Mr. Fox' imagination. Some stories are clearly told by one of the protagonists, others could be attributed to any (or none) of them. This mosaic novel is fairly complex - it needed full concentration to follow the plot, if indeed you can call it plot. I enjoy a novel that challenges me but Mr. Fox gave me headaches. Despite the fixed points of St. John Fox, Mary, and Daphne, it was difficult to find a red thread to follow. This did in no way diminish the pleasure gained from reading each short story on its own merits.

Oyeyemi's language did not disappoint. I knew I'd discovered a new favorite after reading Boy, Snow, Bird. A writer who can weave such beautiful sentences just couldn't have written a bad book! The style is lyrical, yet on a sentence level not overly drawn out. The complexity of these stories stems more from my attempt to ground them in reality somehow, which I probably shouldn't even have tried. There is a fairy tale feel to each story, whether it's the more obviously fantastical ones in which foxes dress in human clothes, or the more realistic ones (without talking animals).

The most interesting aspect for me was Daphne's involvement in the strange relationship between writer and muse. At first, she feels threatened by Mary's presence (who cares if she's real or imaginary?), and she worries about her marriage to Mr. Fox. Daphne was an intriguing character who didn't shy away from examining her own motives for marrying Mr. Fox, the way their marriage has gone so far, and the way she sees other women. When Mary and Daphne meet, I expected what TV taught me to expect - namely that the two would fight or bitch or put each other down. What Helen Oyeyemi did instead was pure, refreshing amazingness! In fact, all relationships between the three protagonists take interesting turns and subvert tropes. Especially the ending was delicious.

What I was missing a bit was the exploration of Mr. Fox' tendency to kill his female characters. Mary wants him to question his own motives but I didn't really see this idea developed much further. The problem is that I'm not sure if I simply misunderstood some of the stories, if my language skills let me down and I missed some subtle nuances, or if Oyeyemi really didn't want to pursue the topic any further. It took me quite a while to read the novel so it's probably I who is to blame.

All things considered, I still enjoyed the read and will definitely pick up the rest of Oyeyemi's books. If the next novel is just slightly more straight forward, I'll be one happy kitten.

MY RATING: 7/10 - Very good