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White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi.O goodness gracious!
Underneath her skin, she is
a great ball of fire!
You know, this is the second time that a blurb on the back of the book has really been right on in our book club. That is, first off, this was Liz's pick for
Eleven-Books Club. Someone on the back of
The Dispossessed was like "such an economy of writing, everything is meaningful!"& they were right. This time, it was
The Austin Chronicle, who said
White is for Witching was the heir to Shirley Jackson. (It is also the second book in our book club to have pica as a crucial plot point, the other being
Mermaid in Chelsea Creek. I get it; I used to be a little obsessed with pica, too; I still have story ideas floating around in my head about it, too.) I've only read
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, but that is why I recommended it so heartily to
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handstil. Seems up her alley, & it was up mine to but by means of another angle of approach: magic. This has some supernatural teeth. Like
Among Others, it kind of messed me up in parts. I'm a warlock, I want to get in there, scrapping. Listen, if you have a haunted
house, you should call me. Or if you get cursed, or if Caribbean vampires are after you, or whatever. When I hear soucouyant I know how to deal with it-- thanks, Kit Marlowe & Co.-- & I know it is a skin-changer like the loup-garou. The Goodlady makes me think of Carlo Ginzberg & Bensozia & I start getting my game face on & then I remember that it is just a book. "Just" a book, because if you think books aren't spells, you are...wrong.
It took me a long time to "get" what this book was about-- it wasn't until page 137 that my theory was confirmed-- & heck, it took me a long time to figure out what ethnicity the protagonists were. So with that in mind, I suppose spoilers follow? I'm going to stay vague & generally talk more about broader themes & the occasional discreet element-- as I normally do-- but Oyeyemi has a flourish for the post-modern. Which is to say, this isn't a book full of exposition, so talking plainly about things is inherently an act of hindsight. Does that make sense? Like
Dark Souls-- yes, I can turn any conversation into a conversation about
Dark Souls, apparently-- the story is told in the margins, so to speak. In hints & clues & scattered statements that all together build a picture, but are presented puzzle piece by puzzle piece. The author is a black British woman-- I realize that the ethnic identity of being a Afro-Caribbean Brit is complicated, like hey! The pilot in
Code Name Verity, but I don't know a lot about it, so if I stumble in terminology or say something stupid, let me know-- & West Indian mythology & Haiti are referenced in the opening pages, but the Silvers are white people. "White is for witching" is...a statement about how this is a book about a racist haunted
house. It is also put me in mind of Saruman of Many Colours:
"White!" he sneered. "It serves as a beginning. White cloth may be dyed. The white page can be overwritten; and the white light can be broken."Oyeyemi's book is about race, but it is never
about race, except when the haunted
house is speaking. It is about immigration, or the casual use of strange slurs out of context-- like "golliwog" to refer to a brand of cigarette-- or adoption, or class, or any of the other dogwhistle terms you can hear on the news. Only here, rather than being cryptoracist "code," those are more often terms for the blank stupidity of people who act as cogs in the greater machinery of racism. The
house-- which seems, from the wreckage of Miranda's dream sequences, to have been blown up in the Blitz & to be a ghost of
itself even?-- is the unspoken racism, & ironic racism, unexamined biases & privilege are weapons in the specter's arsenal. You know, & haunted elevators or poison apples or nightmares & hallucinations, possession, mesmerism, whatever evil
Alice in Wonderland stuff it can scrape together & use to terrify. & it works, enough for me to feel it as I read the book, to want to yell at Eliot for failing to be the dark knight (the witch's champion!) he knows he's supposed to be. There is other magic afoot in the world-- the tower of guns, voodoo & dark gods in feathers in Haiti could be just a dream, but I don't think so-- & their
housekeeper Sade sets her magic against the
house but really all she can do is delay, aid, assist.
What happens at the end of the book? Well, finishing, I wrapped back around & read the first few pages & I still don't have a cogent thesis. I'm going to start rambling-- more than usual, I mean-- here, as I try to sort out my thoughts. It isn't all out there in the open, though I am willing to believe all the answers are here, hidden in plain sight, in nooks & crannies, under lock & key. Reminds me of Gene Wolfe, that way. First, can Miranda defeat the Goodlady, the haunted
house? I don't think she can, not on her own. Eliot...I don't think Eliot is useless but like Sade, I think he can only offer so much, & from the apple pie at the end I wonder if he isn't entirely compromised. No, it is up to Ore I think, Ore who uses necromancy to blind the ghosts to pass among them, she cracks open the skin of the soucouyant, who could be the vampire slayer but chooses...mercy? Or is weak? Or whose story isn't finished, yet. Ore, who is from Kent, like me, & studied "arch & anth" like me. Ore, who holds the hand of the one she loves & trusts that she won't let her crash when she has her eyes closed, as I trusted my love
Jennifer, who led me into a pole when we first started dating... Miranda is in the
house. Is she dead? Who do you believe?
The meeting itself was pretty heavily attended! Liz was first, followed by
Rasheem,
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fatbutts,
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carmyarmyofme,
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littlewashu, May,
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fordmadoxfraud-- in the flesh!--,
Terra-- via the Matrix-- & last but not least, Beatrice. You can tell by the proportion of Livejournal users that it was a group of hoopy froods who really know where their towels are. We had a pretty rousing discussion about the book-- generally very well liked, though the consensus was that it was mostly a meandering tale rather than a tightly crafted one--
Carmen's review called it "ping-pong-y"-- backed up fairly conclusively by author statements. I compared her to Gene Wolfe-- because I think second readings will be rewarded,
as Kerry said in her review-- but David pointed out that it was more impressionistic, which led me to conclude it is Lynchian; like
Twin Peaks it holds tight to its internal logic, but that "logic" is dream logic. Other people thought that it was less a "racist haunted
house"& just hated outsiders, but I still disagree. Wanted to put down their thoughts for posterity though! We also had a book exchange! Lilly got my pick,
We3-- which I chose because, well, I'm into cheap shots-- & I got Carmen's pick,
As God Commands.
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littlewashu-- as well as Jennifer & Liz & other people who might not have the letter rule but have the spirit of the rule-- & pledged that at least half of the books I read this year will be from women authors. No excuses for "oh, I had to read it for work" or "this is for a blog project," either. I'm planning on padding at least some of the stuff early in the year with Ursula Le Guin's science-fiction stuff. You know how I normally say this list is in no order? Well, that is true again-- mostly the list is arranged by the horizontal size of the cover image, to be honest, since I was making the cute little banner-- with the exception of The Dispossessed, which is just flat out my favorite book from last year. I did a Top Three Books for Tor.com, but those had to be books that were published this year, but all three of those-- The Black Axe, The Land Across&Mummy-- all made it onto here, as well. No honorary mention list this year; I just wasn't feeling it, in all honesty. I had a top ten in a way that in years past I haven't. Certain books are negotiable, maybe something else will stick with me or some other thing will be forgotten. That's the fun of writing things down, though, isn't it? Coming back to it later & seeing it in new light, either vindicated or supplanted?
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin.
The Man of Gold by M.A.R. Barker.
Mermaid in Chelsea Creek by Michelle Tea.
Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard Volume Two by David Petersen, et al.
The Word for World is Forest by Ursula Le Guin.
White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi.
Shackleton by Nick Bertozzi.
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison.
The Telling by Ursula LeGuin.
Valour & Vanity by Mary Robinette Kowal.
