Boy, Snow, Bird: A Novel Hardcover – March 6, 2014

During the years of segregation, the idea of “passing” was prevalent among many African Americans. Those who were light-skinned enough could live as if they were white people, without anyone around them having a second thought. The politics of this issue is exactly what Helen Oyeyemi explores in her novel Boy, Snow, Bird, which employs a clever adaptation of themes and tropes from the classic fairy tale, “Snow White”.Oyeyemi, a black woman raised in England, does an expert job at bringing to life the world of 1950’s America through the eyes of Boy Novak. Boy is a white woman who flees her abusive father in New York City to Flax Hill, a small town in Massachusetts. There she marries a widowed man named Arturo Whitman, who has a young daughter named Snow. Snow is a beautiful young girl that many in the town seemed to be infatuated with. It isn’t until Boy and Arturo have a child of their own that the nature of the Whitman family is exposed. Americans who have been passing as white. From here the story takes off in its narrative of passing in Jim Crow’s America.Oyeyemi’s writing style includes dreamlike, almost haunting imagery that both confuses and immerses the reader. Her use of first-person perspective pushes this, as the thoughts of Boy and Bird (the two characters through which the story is told) incorporate very surreal imagery based on their seemingly paranormal experiences. Despite Oyeyemi’s mastery in her style of writing, it often times is used in very mundane situations that doesn’t seem to add much to the overarching theme of the story. The similes and lengthy metaphors that are used to liken a character’s actions to something completely unrelated seem to drag out plot points that are forgotten later and confuse the reader. I found myself forgetting what was happening in the story as I trudged through simile after simile. Luckily, as the plot finally arrives at its main launching point, being the birth of Bird, Oyeyemi’s writing becomes much more focused on the overall theme of passing and the interactions between characters. The ending of this book, however, was disappointing. It seemed as if Oyeyemi decided along the way that an issue completely separate from that of passing would be more interesting to write about, leaving the book on both a thematic and plot-centric cliff hanger, not resolving either. It was up until that last plot twist that I was the most immersed in Oyeyemi’s world and the characters that she had created.Oyeyemi’s adaptation of the “Snow White” story is what served her best in weaving this narrative about passing. The tropes of the perfect child, Snow Whitman, and the evil stepmother, Boy Novak, work masterfully in this context. The symbolism of the mirror is also very central to Oyeyemi’s employment of this theme. Bird and Snow not appearing in mirrors, alongside Boy’s almost personal relationship with the other person in the mirror, highlight how each character views the world around them. Boy puts too much trust in the surface-level reflections of mirrors, taking people in the real world for what she sees on the surface. This is why, when it is revealed to her that Snow is actually African American, that Boy begins to feel jealousy and adversity towards her. The betrayal of trust and the reality of passing cause Boy to do what she does and establishes her as the evil stepmother. After all, her reflection was the only thing she had when she was abused by her father. Bird and Snow’s lack of reflection show that they are not simply what they appear to be. Despite Bird’s color and Snow’s lack of it, they are one and the same: blood relatives who care less about appearances than they do their real relationships with the people around them. These examples of Oyeyemi’s adaptation of “Snow White”, among others, create a very difficult and impactful dialogue about race, prejudice, and morality between these characters and others. The focus on reflections and appearances by all the characters in the story works to portray that this is how America dealt with race. Passing exists because race was a matter of surface-level perception to most people. It mattered how you looked, not where you came from or what was embedded in your genes. It is because of this unfortunate reality that Oyeyemi’s adaptation of “Snow White” works so well, with the main themes surrounding beauty and vanity.While in her novel Oyeyemi employs many very effective techniques in both her writing style and execution of adapting “Snow White”, it seems like it’s all for naught, as the story ends by shifting its focus away from the issue of passing and onto issues of gender. While not inherently a bad thing, it comes across in a way where neither issue seems fully explored or resolved. Personally, I was left quite taken aback and confused. The focus was so strong and pinpoint up until the end, and it all feels left behind. If the novel were to solely focus on passing and utilizing those Snow White tropes it would easily be a great, recommendable book. However, since Oyeyemi decides to take on two complex issues at once, allotting the latter issue only about 20 pages or so, it comes as more of an afterthought than an intentional theme. Why bother writing an entire book, establishing this complex issue and adeptly exploring it through a classic fairy tale, just to seemingly abandon it for an entirely separate matter and not resolve either one? Because of the ending alone, what might have been a 4-star novel is only a 2-star for me.

"Boy, Snow, Bird" was my book club's choice of the month. I'm not sure that I would have personally chosen this book to read but it's a great example of why I joined a book club in the first place. We are constantly exposed to books from different genres and themes and this month's theme was a fairy tale retold, and in this case, Snow White.There were larger issues, such as racism and how other's perception of you can shape your life and how you see yourself, displayed in this story. Constantly looking for the similarities to the Snow White fairy tale can become distracting which could, unfortunately, cause the reader to miss a lot of symbolism weaved throughout the storyline.The story dragged in the beginning and I wasn't quite sure what the point of the story was. At first, the only similarities I saw to Snow White were the references to the mirrors and one of the characters being named Snow. Otherwise, I just didn't see it, but I hung in there and the plot started to pick up after the 30% mark. Just as things really started coming to fruition the story ended very abruptly and without resolutions. This was unsettling to me and I find it very annoying to finish a book and feel that the story is unresolved.After my Book Club's dynamic discussion, I read a review article of "Boy, Snow, Bird", which also stated that there were no resolutions to the many issues presented in this book, and I felt vindicated that I wasn't alone in my assessment. It also got me thinking that maybe this was done on purpose because there are no real resolutions to these issues in real life, so why should we expect them to be resolved in a novel. I started to remember passages from the beginning of the book that didn't mean much at first but meant so much more now.Maybe this novel is just a vehicle to make us aware of these important issues, and designed to make us think.

Purchased this for a book club and was excited to see a new take on the snow white/evil step mother storyline. But this was just... Weird. The writing was at moments brilliant, and others utterly confusing. Never could get into the "rhythm" of reading it (and therefore get lost in the story) because you had to stop and reread certain sections over in order to understand exactly what this person was trying to say or what the narrator (if you can call her that) was talking about. And the ending, well... Random and half baked sum it up. Not that I was loving the book before the last 20 pages, but the ending killed any goodwill it had created up until that point. Would not recommend for a "fun" read. But it certainly was fun to discuss (and make fun of) during our book club!

Boy Snow Bird contains elements which I often find problematic. It touches in places on magical realism. It has a very open, inconclusive end. Yet it is a highly endearing book which I really liked. I think it is the sheer playfulness of the writing which won me over.On the surface it is the story of Boy Novak who, early in the novel, escapes from New York, and her violent rat catcher father. She arrives in the slightly mystical village of Flax Hill which "misbehaved a little, collapsing when I went to sleep and reassembling in the morning in a slapdash manner" and where everyone seems to Boy to be a skilled specialist. Author Oyeyemi initially gives us a picture of the life of an itinerant worker in 50s America as Boy lives in a lodging house of young women, flitting from job to job. While on a double date she meets, and is initially antagonistic towards academic turned jeweller, Arturo Whitman.Boy, in common with everyone in Flax Hill is captivated by the widowed Arturo's daughter, Snow, but the relationship changes when Boy gives birth to Snow's half sister, Bird.That brief account gives a window onto the second level of the book. This is novel which plays with fairy tale themes, although not in their conventional structures. Boy escapes from the Pied Piper to become stepmother to Snow Whitman, but desperately tries to be good. The mirror is a constant image throughout, and references to other tales, not least Cinderella, abound. There is even a much more modern reflection of the work of Iain Banks. Oyeyemi uses these fairy tale ideas to produce a work which is not so much magical realism as exploring how we use magical imagery to explain the everyday, as in the quote above where the simple act of getting to know a new town is described in fantastical terms. Interestingly the magic is also balanced by a parallel thread of investigative journalism which runs throughout.The third layer of the book is about issues of race and gender and how they are hidden and distorted by society and how they in their turn hide and distort. To say more would be to introduce spoilers.This is also a story of family relationships, and it is those relationships which tie all of the other themes of the book together. The third act of the book consists primarily of a series of letters through which the half sisters create a relationship which they were denied by events at the time of Boy's birth, and which are in terms magical, and investigative. There is also the wonderfully labyrinthine Whitman family whose complex relationships are driven by the interplay of race and the expectations of society.Boy Snow Bird struck me as a novel which would warrant a second reading as I'm sure there were things going on in it which I missed. For example the name of Bird's husband, and the cover of the hardback edition are both strong plot indicators.If have a significant criticism it is the story peters out. There is the second of two major twists, but the the consequences are left hanging.Overall,though, there is enough intelligence and invention here to overcome my reservations.Recommended.

'Boy, Snow, Bird' is a really interesting leap in form- reminiscent of the magical realism of Angela Carter (both formally and thematically) or Alejandro Carpentier. Whilst at times this became a little tiring as I struggled to established what was 'actually' happening, I think it's a brave and exciting choice, and the tale is enchanting enough that is carries you right through to the end.*SPOILER* the plot twist at the end which reveals that Boy's 'birth' mother is a man of transgender experience seems rather tacked on, and utilised for dramatic pathos, rather than as a way to give voice or platform to a transgender character. This is jarring with the otherwise sensitive and nuanced storytelling which precedes it.

I enjoyed meeting all the characters & story tho I did have an inkling of what was coming. An easy read.

'Retelling' is a stretch, it has some themes and motifs from Snow White, but in no way is it the retelling I was promised.The writing isn't bad per say.The characters can be flat and bland- Snow especially.The shift from prose to letters to prose is annoying and feels like an attempt to move tge story along a bit quicker...a welcome thing too because by then you want it over.A shame as it had loads of potential.

I really enjoyed Oyeyemi's crisp descriptions that kept this clever book cool, sharp and incisive. I'll definitely come back to her again and recommend this as a thoughtful, intelligent piece of writing.