This proves more difficult than expected, despite her generous gift of home-made gingerbread. It begins with Harriet Lee, mother of Perdita Lee, trying to get into the social circle of the other parents of her daughter’s classmates. This book felt like several stories wrapped into one.

Endlessly surprising and satisfying, written with Helen Oyeyemi’s inimitable style and imagination, it is a true feast for the reader. As the book follows the Lees through encounters with jealousy, ambition, family grudges, work, wealth, and real estate, gingerbread seems to be the one thing that reliably holds a constant value. In fact, the world’s truest lover of the Lee family gingerbread is Harriet’s charismatic childhood friend, Gretel Kercheval–a figure who seems to have had a hand in everything (good or bad) that has happened to Harriet since they met.ĭecades later, when teenaged Perdita sets out to find her mother’s long-lost friend, it prompts a new telling of Harriet’s story. Londoners may find themselves able to take or leave it, but it’s very popular in Druhástrana, the far-away (and, according to Wikipedia, non-existent) land of Harriet Lee’s early youth. And then there’s the gingerbread they make. For one thing, they share a gold-painted, seventh-floor walk-up apartment with some surprisingly verbal vegetation.

Perdita Lee may appear to be your average British schoolgirl Harriet Lee may seem just a working mother trying to penetrate the school social hierarchy but there are signs that they might not be as normal as they think they are. Influenced by the mysterious place gingerbread holds in classic children’s stories–equal parts wholesome and uncanny, from the tantalizing witch’s house in “Hansel and Gretel” to the man-shaped confection who one day decides to run as fast as he can–beloved novelist Helen Oyeyemi invites readers into a delightful tale of a surprising family legacy, in which the inheritance is a recipe. Not as amazing as Boy, Snow, Bird maybe, but an interesting story that combines fairy tale elements with magical realism.įirst sentence: Harriet Lee’s gingerbread is not comfort food. Fox was a bit too experimental for my taste, her latest novel was a good one again. I’ve been in love with Helen Oyeyemi’s writing ever since I read Boy, Snow, Bird and although Mr.

Helen oyeyemi gingerbread review