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A review by teresatumminello
White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
5.0
I’d been thinking of reading Oyeyemi for a while now, though I wasn’t sure if I’d ever get around to her. I’m glad I did. Her writing ticks off certain boxes for me, or maybe just one specific box: great prose with storytelling that combines fairytale tropes with an almost-[a:Shirley Jackson|13388|Shirley Jackson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1550251468p2/13388.jpg] feel.
The Silver family’s matriarchal house in Dover is one of the first-person narrators. I didn’t think of it while reading, but its relationship to Miranda is reminiscent of the antagonistic, destiny-laden relationship of the evil patriarchal house to Eleanor in [b:The Haunting of Hill House|89717|The Haunting of Hill House|Shirley Jackson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327871336l/89717._SY75_.jpg|3627]: Both houses are spaces of oppression. While reading, I did think of the host-hostage theory from the essay by Rebecca Million in [b:Shirley Jackson|57886522|Shirley Jackson|Woofter|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1619644621l/57886522._SY75_.jpg|90685102], though here it’s not of the mother-role, but concerning Luc, the father of Miranda and her twin brother Eliot. The Cambridge section of the novel should’ve reminded me of [b:Hangsaman|131177|Hangsaman|Shirley Jackson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1302734503l/131177._SY75_.jpg|1825944], but only did after the fact. Instead, while reading it, I thought of [a:Penelope Fitzgerald|3222|Penelope Fitzgerald|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1425224738p2/3222.jpg]’s [b:The Gate of Angels|838196|The Gate of Angels|Penelope Fitzgerald|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348834549l/838196._SY75_.jpg|851626].
Eliot is another first-person narrator, and his reliability and the house’s are both called into question at least once when one of them has to be lying. Luc—not a Silver (and French)—operates a bed-and-breakfast in the ancestral house his wife Lily inherited. The house doesn’t seem to want Luc there. It certainly doesn’t want the guests and employees who are not English and not white to stay there.
As for the fairytales, there’s no specific story I was reminded of, though Hansel and Gretel are mentioned once in reference to the twins. They’re finished with the local school and it’s time for them to leave the family home—or not. There are all-season apples (shades of Snow White). There’s an entity Miranda calls the goodlady; her friend Ore, of Nigerian descent, sees it as a soucouyant.
I have theories about the questions I was left with, especially regarding Lily and the power the house had over her, despite her being different from her mother and grandmother. Lily is not a focus of the book, but is a focus of the twins, especially Miranda, who has inherited her mother’s eating disorder: What else has Miranda inherited that she has no power over?
The Silver family’s matriarchal house in Dover is one of the first-person narrators. I didn’t think of it while reading, but its relationship to Miranda is reminiscent of the antagonistic, destiny-laden relationship of the evil patriarchal house to Eleanor in [b:The Haunting of Hill House|89717|The Haunting of Hill House|Shirley Jackson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327871336l/89717._SY75_.jpg|3627]: Both houses are spaces of oppression. While reading, I did think of the host-hostage theory from the essay by Rebecca Million in [b:Shirley Jackson|57886522|Shirley Jackson|Woofter|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1619644621l/57886522._SY75_.jpg|90685102], though here it’s not of the mother-role, but concerning Luc, the father of Miranda and her twin brother Eliot. The Cambridge section of the novel should’ve reminded me of [b:Hangsaman|131177|Hangsaman|Shirley Jackson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1302734503l/131177._SY75_.jpg|1825944], but only did after the fact. Instead, while reading it, I thought of [a:Penelope Fitzgerald|3222|Penelope Fitzgerald|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1425224738p2/3222.jpg]’s [b:The Gate of Angels|838196|The Gate of Angels|Penelope Fitzgerald|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348834549l/838196._SY75_.jpg|851626].
Eliot is another first-person narrator, and his reliability and the house’s are both called into question at least once when one of them has to be lying. Luc—not a Silver (and French)—operates a bed-and-breakfast in the ancestral house his wife Lily inherited. The house doesn’t seem to want Luc there. It certainly doesn’t want the guests and employees who are not English and not white to stay there.
As for the fairytales, there’s no specific story I was reminded of, though Hansel and Gretel are mentioned once in reference to the twins. They’re finished with the local school and it’s time for them to leave the family home—or not. There are all-season apples (shades of Snow White). There’s an entity Miranda calls the goodlady; her friend Ore, of Nigerian descent, sees it as a soucouyant.
I have theories about the questions I was left with, especially regarding Lily and the power the house had over her, despite her being different from her mother and grandmother. Lily is not a focus of the book, but is a focus of the twins, especially Miranda, who has inherited her mother’s eating disorder: What else has Miranda inherited that she has no power over?