Review Catch-Up: The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi

[megwrites]

Title: The Icarus Girl
Author: Helen Oyeyemi
Genre: Fiction
Page Count: 322
Publisher: Bloomsbury





Basic Plotline: Young Jessamy is, a half English, half Nigerian girl living in England. When she takes a trip with her parents to her mother's home in Nigeria, she meets the mysterious, intriguing Titiola, who she calls TillyTilly. They become fast friends, but TillyTilly is dangerous in her own way and soon starts doing things that Jessamy wishes she wouldn't, causing havoc for Jess and her entire family.

The Positives: This novel is pure poetry from start to finish. The prose itself was a delight to read, and even if everything else had been mediocre, I'd still be in love with the way this story is told.

Oyeyemi very deftly captures a portrait of a highly intelligent, creative, but troubled child who lives mostly inside her own mind, and has difficulty understanding not just herself, but people around her. Yet, never is Jess more than a child, even at the novel's most abstract and spiritual points. She's never overly wise or thoughtful, never a metaphor in the form of a child. She reads as a nine-year-old girl would, and some of the conversations between her and Shivs (her best friend for part of the novel) read like conversations I think I had when I was nine.

While Jess is thoughtful, the author very skillfully shows that she's not always perfectly introspective and that often times she no more understands herself than anyone else does. I remember this sense keenly as a child at that age. I would do things, some of which upset my parents or got me teased by peers, and when asked, "Why do you do that? Why are you like that?" I'd be left with as few answers as Jess. I really identified with a lot of troubles at school and at home that Jess had, and I think many readers will as well.

Oyeyemi's great accomplishment is to show Jess, TillyTilly, and the world Jess inhabits, both in Nigeria and England in such a way that while Jess herself never sees outside of her own situation, a reader looking on can, and derive meaning from being able to do that. It is in being able to see through Jess's eyes, but with our own minds that really lets this novel succeed.

There are a lot of deep themes arranged around doubles, being of two cultures and yet none, being one of a set of twins, living in two places (mind and body), good and evil.

The way Oyeyemi bring Nigeria and Igbo culture to the table when talking not only about Jess's Nigerian relatives and their lives, but in using the ideas that culture has concerning lost twins and spiritual otherselves gives structure to a novel that could be meandering without that to bind it together in both literal and metaphorical ways.

The Negatives: I can't think of much that was wrong with this novel or that I would have changed.

Some might think that the ending, the last section, feels a bit tacked on and too neatly wrapped up, and that's a valid enough reading. However, I didn't, because I think those last events are the proof of the experience that Jess has been through and that she is different now because of the things that have happened.

I would also note that while this novel is about a child, it's not necessarily one that I'd give to a child of that age range (8-10). Not for any graphic content, but because I think a lot of the themes and substance of the story make better sense to someone who has some distance from childhood rather than a reader who is still going through childhood. So, in case you're thinking "kid protagonist" = "kid's book", don't. Jess may be realistically written as a child, but she's not written for children. Indeed, much of this novel depends on a reader being able to see what Jess cannot about her life and situation.

CoC Score: 10/10. I was really glad to see the portrayal of Nigeria here. It was pretty positive and while I'm not expert enough to comment on accuracy or realism, it was fascinating to me. I also think Oyeyemi does a great job of showing how Jess is both part of and not part of the cultures she draws her heritage, same and different from her cousins and grandfather and even her mother.

Gender Score: 10/10. Wonderful ranges of female protagonists. A sympathetic mother and wonderful aunts and cousins and schoolmates. I particularly enjoyed the ideas about sisterhood and friendship that were floated through out the book. Indeed, there are only two notable male characters at all, Jess' grandfather and father.

GLBT Score: 0/10. I give this a good faith zero, which I don't give to most contemporary-setting books. But given that Jess is an at age when sexuality is still extremely nascent and only barely developing at all, there's not really a reason that she would have encountered, thought about, or really come into contact with GLBT characters or situations unless she herself was, perhaps, beginning to question whether she really felt like a girl or if she really liked boys or not. And even that, given the protagonist and her age, probably wouldn't have been a terribly lengthy or dwelt upon thought process.

Ablism Score: 0/10 or 8/10. Depending upon how one reads Jess and the story itself, this could be a story about a child developing a mental disorder and dealing with it. And I do think that it is dealt with, if that is the case, with great sympathy. One could also read the father's "sickness" as being a bout of deep clinical depression, depending. That, too, is treated with compassion and respect. However, if you don't read it that way, there really aren't any PWD of any sort, but I would give it a semi-good faith zero because I wouldn't expect Jess to have a lot of contact with PWD or think about these issues unless someone in her immediate circle was a PWD.