Peaces by Helen Oyeyemi: How I never knew I could love a mongoose this much.

A newer version of this post can be found on my Substack

I mean! 

Look, this book floored me. Everyone is always like, have you read Helen Oyeyemi - And I was like, have I? But now I know, of course I had not, because I would have remembered.

In praise of world creation

I don’t know if you noticed yet from my previous post about Library Of Brothel but I love me a bit of parallel world creation. I like it when I can be transported kind of adjacently to a slightly different version of a recognizable world. I love it because you can immediately suspend your disbelief - the same rules apply; everything must check out in context but you are learning the logic of the world as you go. Delicious.

I knew almost immediately that’s where I had landed with Peaces - so exciting and delightful when you don’t expect it! And - oh! the humour! Xavier and Otto are funny and in love and charming. And of course there is a mysterious woman who plays the theramin on their “honeymoon” train trip, with a bizarre and mysterious story that they must unpack. And the villain! Is he a shape-shifter? Is he a ghost? Does he even exist? I frequently had to reread passages in order to kind of, sort of know what was happening. 

Everyone’s backstory is mind-bendingly complex and binds you to them instantly.

Which brings me to…

Arguably the most interesting and charming characters in the novel, are Árpád XXVII and Chela, the mongooses. Chela belongs to Ava Lapoor (the mysterious woman on the train trying to prove her sanity) - or does Chela belong to her? Well, I won’t get into that now, but when we meet her she does.  Árpád belongs to Otto Montague, the narrator of the story and unraveller of the mystery, some would say of his own making. The mongooses are treated like the intelligent and important creatures they are with tempers and senses of humour and problem-solving skills. And when Chela and Árpád meet, let’s just say, they barely part again. It’s so romantic.

The structure of the book is meeting characters, then their backstory which invariably introduces a plot twist and another mystery and/or reveal including letters written to Ava by each character to explain their connection to her story. The language is hyper modern ( with an old-fashioned slant (a postal-sorting train car!). The references are pop-culture (soju milkshakes, Ted Talks, Instagram!) and old timey (pinhole cameras) or magical technology (a slate water wheel for sale in the bazaar that sings alongside you, and highly rare and perfect scrying balls), but funny. As you can see from this awkward sentence, it all is a little bit indescribable. 

Peaces/Pieces

You see the story itself is in pieces being woven together by the characters as it transpires, are they creating the plot with their actions as they move through the story? Well, yes, maybe! But still, you believe and are transported and above all can’t wait to see what happens.

Reading glasses rating of of 5: 👓👓👓👓👓 A genre all to itself: enchanting

A newer edit of this review can be found on my Substack 

Library of Brothel by Anakana Schofield: Please come in

I used to come upon Anakana at my old place of work, she always had found an interesting book I had never seen before in her hand, and we would chat and commiserate and bond over books and the treachery and oppression of capitalism and the wonder and beauty of words and books and nature: a normal beautiful kinship. Throughout this time my workplace had been gradually crumbling around me and I was clinging to it and resistant to its demise, until on July 1st of last year my grasp was loosened for me and I was forcefully evicted, with a thoughtful 8 week (“wrap-it-up”) waiting period,. 

I didn’t know what Library of Brothel was about when I heard about it, but I had read and loved Malarky, Martin John and Bina, not in the order they were written, but in my favourite way for interconnected books: as they found me. 

I was unprepared for Library of Brothel in the best way possible. It surprised and delighted me! It made expel a high musical laugh alone in my home many times. The wordssmithing so clever and odd, and the rooms! The rooms aka the people! I loved them all, even the annoyingly odd ones that all the other rooms shunned, like Forgotten Poets Called John Room. #Bless.

Of course, I connected deeply with the dysfunction of the Library and its Rooms and the extreme silliness of it’s Noble Leader. I was hooked immediately.

Mostly, as I was reading (slowly, like navigating an unfamiliar building), I was wondering which Room I am. Of course everyone wants to be Scrabble Room aka Scrabble Woman, don’t they? She is the hero. But I also am Anti-protein Powder but Pro-smoothie Room and NYT Word Games First Thing Room*. I am making a list.

The book is divided like a building into its rooms but also into cantos explaining the narrative. It’s musical writing. Opera, Tragedy, Comedy, Satire, Allegory; with the Rooms as the chorus. I’m not smart enough to dissect it all on my first read but it’s wonderful to peel back the layers. 

It’s about people and connection and capitalism and destruction and violence and work culture and the right to work and lovely old buildings and the housing crisis in Vancouver and sex and poverty and love and sadness. And more! No really, if I could make this into some sort of click bait and sell you the book by having you click here, I would.

In this weird and shocking time of anti-intellectualism, I love to read hard to try and counter the vibe and Anakana’s work helps me do that by letting me get a little glimpse of what is inside her wonderful brain. I love to see it.

👓👓👓👓👓 outta sight

Micro Review: Endling by Maria Reva

  

Endling by Maria Reva

Transformative. Riveting. Absurdities of war, Complexities of relationships, Reinvention of narrative.  

Reading glasses rating of of 5: 👓👓👓👓👓