What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours: Stories
Helen Oyeyemi, 2016
Penguin Publishing
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781594634635
Summary
An enchanting collection of intertwined stories.
Playful, ambitious, and exquisitely imagined, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is cleverly built around the idea of keys, literal and metaphorical.
The key to a house, the key to a heart, the key to a secret—Oyeyemi’s keys not only unlock elements of her characters’ lives, they promise further labyrinths on the other side.
♦ In “Books and Roses” one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers’ fates.
♦ In “Is Your Blood as Red as This?” an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school.
♦ “‘Sorry’ Doesn’t Sweeten Her Tea” involves a “house of locks,” where doors can be closed only with a key—with surprising, unobservable developments.
♦ In “If a Book Is Locked There’s Probably a Good Reason for That Don't You Think,” a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason).
Oyeyemi’s tales span multiple times and landscapes as they tease boundaries between coexisting realities. Is a key a gate, a gift, or an invitation? What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours captivates as it explores the many possible answers. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—December 10, 1984
• Where—Nigeria
• Raised—London, England, UK
• Education—B.A. Cambridge University
• Awards—Somerset Maughm Award
• Currently—lives in London, England
Helen Olajumoke Oyeyemi is a British author with five novels to her name. She was born in Nigeria and raised in London, England.
Oyeyemi studied Social and Political Sciences at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, graduating in 2006. While at Cambridge, two of her plays, Juniper's Whitening and Victimese, were performed by fellow students to critical acclaim and subsequently published by Methuen.
Novels
She wrote her first novel, The Icarus Girl, while still at school studying for her A levels at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School.
In 2007 Bloomsbury published her second novel, The Opposite House which is inspired by Cuban mythology.
Her third novel, White is for Witching, described as having "roots in Henry James and Edgar Allan Poe" was published in 2009. It was a 2009 Shirley Jackson Award finalist and won a 2010 Somerset Maugham Award.
Mr Fox, Oyeyemi's fourth novel was published in 2011. Aimee Bender said in a New York Times review: "Charm is a quality that overflows in this novel." Kirkus Reviews, however thought that while readers might consider Mr. Fox "an intellectual tour de force," they might also find it "emotionally chilly."
Oyeyemi's fith novel, Boy, Snow, Bird, published in 2014, is a retelling of Snow White, set in Massachusetts in the 1950s.
What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, released in 2016, is a collection of intertwined stories, all involving locks and keys.
Extras
• Oyeyemi is a lifelong Catholic who has done voluntary work for CAFOD in Kenya.
• In 2009 Oyeyemi was recognised as one of the women on Venus Zine’s “25 under 25” list.
(Adapted from Wikipedia. Retrieved 2/18/2014.)
Book Reviews
Summarizing Oyeyemi is like trying to tell a dream.... Casual and accessible at the sentence level, [these stories] are not so much experimental as deeply comfortable with the pre-narrative and proto-narrative impulses at the heart of storytelling.
Chicago Tribune
Magical and show stopping.
Elle.com
An enchanting and beautifully crafted first collection of stories, linked by the recurrence of keys…Oyeyemi’s storytelling is without parallel.
BBC.com
In this collection of short stories, there are many keys that unlock many things. . . What links them all? You’ll want to open and see.
Cosmopolitan
These modern fairy tales from award-winning author Helen Oyeyemi…will unlock your imagination with stories of love, loss, and...keys...magical, feverish, spooky, and delightful.
Marie Claire
Helen Oyeyemi is a literary genius, and it shows in this fantastic collection of short stories.... With characters that will welcome you, push you, and surprise you, Oyeyemi's writing takes you past your expectations.
Bustle
In her first story collection, Oyeyemi conjures present-day Europe, made enticingly strange by undercurrents of magic, and populated by ghosts, sentient puppets, and possible witches alongside middle-aged psychiatrists, tyrants, and feminist undergrads.
Publishers Weekly
The prolific and immensely talented Oyeyemi presents fantastical short stories that all revolve around a key, whether literal or metaphorical.
Library Journal
(Starred review.) These nine casually interlocking stories, set in a familiar yet surreal contemporary world, overflow with the cerebral humor and fantastical plots that readers have come to expect from Oyeyemi.... For all the portentous metaphors (keys and locks appear in every story) and all the convoluted and fabulist narrations, Oyeyemi's stories are often cheerfully sentimental.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for What Is Yours Is Not Yours...then take off on your own:
1. First, what is your favorite story within the collection and why? Which is the most puzzling? Which is your least favorite?
2. Consider the title of each story and its meaning within the context of the story. Is the title thematic...or ironic?
3. The overriding metaphors within the collection are locks and keys. Whats role do they play in each story, and what is their symbolic significance?
4. In what way is "Dornicka and the St. Martin's Day Goose" an inverted "Little Red Riding Hood"? Do any of the other stories play with fairy tale themes? Consider, for instance, the way "Is Your Blood as Red as This?" draws on "Pinocchio."
5. Trace the characters who appear in multiple stories. How do they, or their roles, change from one story to the other?
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)