Reviews

I’ve only read Helen Oyeyemi’s story out of this collection (so far).

“When someone mentions that matters of the heart conclude in a kind of living death, what other intention can be heard there? Are they helpfully identifying a noble cause for us to throw ourselves at? Insinuating that no backstabbing could radiate more tragic glory than the one committed by your own heart?”

TITLE—“Vituperator” in FURIES: Stories of the wicked, wild and untamed

AUTHOR—Helen Oyeyemi

PUBLISHED—2023

PUBLISHER—Virago

My thoughts:

The thing you gotta understand about Helen Oyeyemi is that—

—she’s not going to wait for you to catch up to her. Under no circumstances will she simplify or demystify her style, her characters, her language, or her stories for the mere reason of appealling to a larger number of readers. She doesn’t care if you don’t get it—even if you’re her number one fan. 😅 (it’s me. I’m the number one fan. 🙃)

Sometimes it feels like getting to the root of any meaning in Oyeyemi’s work is a practice in scrying. She has created a work of art in accordance with her unmatched vision and imagination and tossed it out for the reader’s perusal—if they think they can “get it”. So “meaning” is arguably less relevant here than in most literary conversations. But to say her work is pure absurdism is also to oversimplify and largely miss the project—as abstract and surreal as it may be.

Her 9-page story, “Vituperator”, in ‘FURIES: Stories of the wicked, wild and untamed’, is no exception. Upon finishing the story initially I was disappointed. I tossed the library book on the table and was like, “welp. I didn’t get it.” And then I went to make my tea, and as I was steeping my chocolatey rooibos, my brain started to turn over and over the lines that stuck out the most from her story. I even wrote a few words down on a piece of paper: “Makeda”, “Solomon”, “Queenie—Kingie”, “troll”, “AI”, “ego”, “netizen—zen”…. I went to get the jar of honey from the pantry. ‘Wait, where *had* I heard the name Makeda before?’

You probably already know. Makeda was one of the names of the Queen of Sheba—*the* Queen of Sheba: the match, or perhaps, the better-than, to the heralded “wise/st” King Solomon (incidentally the name of the AI program in the story); the philosopher-queen who traveled with an extensive retinue (google it, it’s wild) to visit the foreign, fabled king in order to “prove him with hard questions”, or “riddles”. ‘Hmm,’ I thought. ‘Who else poses riddles as a kind of test?’ (Ok, yes, Sméagol, but that’s not who I’m getting at—) ‘A *fairytale troll*!’

So now we have Makeda—>Riddler—>*Troll* (Oyeyemi’s Makeda’s job-description in the story)—> Vituperator… Makeda and Solly’s purpose… Their dynamic… It wasn’t a relationship because how could a human and an AI program have a relationship…or could they? Their success… mitigated? subverted? *subconsciously* aborted? Their ambition (ego, ego, ego). Their failure… the answer is just out of reach but the more I think about it, the more glimpses I catch—like trying to spy animals in the forest while riding a high speed train through the countryside—oh! and now I’ve overbrewed my tea.

“Solomon and its Queen really did seek to be the absolute best at what they did. The sheer euphoria of pushing their subjects just far enough to make them rewrite their contracts with themselves—that must have been distracting.”

The collection of stories in FURIES is meant to be “a fun and fearless collection of new and original feminist tales, from some of the most exciting writers working today”. The only author I’ve read before from those featured is Oyeyemi. I have a book each (unread) by Chibundu Onuzo and Ali Smith on my shelves but I either haven’t heard enough about or am just not feeling super compelled to read any of the other authors at the moment. 🤷🏻

I’ll be getting at least a paperback copy of the book when that’s released though because I’ve got to have all of Oyeyemi’s writing on my shelves and maybe I’ll check out some of the other stories then (because the premise *is* interesting). But for now, I was really just interested in Oyeyemi’s story. I’ll have to keep thinking about it though… 😆

“Poor Makeda, he thought. She was iust a feeble litte mind, supine in the concrete coffin of monolingualism.”

ladykillller's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

gabyelle97's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

caitamber24's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

1mpossiblealice's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

I thought this would be right up my street but I just didn't love any of the stories. There were some I enjoyed or thought were good, but nothing amazing or that I really connected with, and several that I read and just thought "?" at. So disappointing really. And looking back at the list there aren't many stories that I can remember much about at all.
I'm sure some people will love this, but just not for me really. The only one I really liked and remember clearly was the Ali Smith one.

More...