Upfronts: Boy, Snow, Bird

By Helen Oyeyemi

In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty—the opposite of the life she’s left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman. A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she’d become, but elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out when the birth of Boy’s daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitmans as lightskinned African Americans passing for white. Among them, Boy, Snow, and Bird confront the tyranny of the mirror to ask how much power surfaces really hold. Dazzlingly inventive and powerfully moving, Boy, Snow, Bird is an astonishing and enchanting novel. With breathtaking feats of imagination, Helen Oyeyemi confirms her place as one of the most original and dynamic literary voices of our time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Aug 27, 2013
• ISBN: 9780143190936

Helen Oyeyemi

Helen Oyeyemi is the author of The Icarus Girl, The Opposite House, White is for Witching (which won the Somerset Maugham Award), Mr Fox, Boy, Snow, Bird, Gingerbread and the short story collection What is Not Yours is Not Yours. In 2013, Helen was included in Granta's Best of Young British Novelists.

Book preview

ONE

Nobody ever warned me about mirrors, so for many years I was fond of them and believed them to be trustworthy. I’d hide myself away inside them, setting two mirrors up to face each other so that when I stood between them I was infinitely reflected in either direction. Many, many me’s. When I stood on tiptoe, we all stood on tiptoe, trying to see the first of us, and the last. The effect was dizzying, a vast pulse, not quite alive, more like the working of an automaton. I felt the reflection at my shoulder like a touch. I was on the most familiar terms with her, same as any other junior dope too lonely to be selective about the company she keeps.

Mirrors showed me that I was a girl with a white-blond pigtail hanging down over one shoulder; eyebrows and lashes the same colour; still, near-black eyes; and one of those faces some people call harsh and others call fine-boned. It was not unusual for

Reviews for Upfronts

[pdill8 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was a deep dive into identity. Told by a couple of different narrators and over a span of many decades, the strength of this book for me was the characters. Though the subject matter was at times heavy, the charming narrators each had endearing humor and frivolity that kept me thoroughly engaged. To boot, the book examines identity from a multitude of angles: how one sees them self, how one is seen by others, how the perception by others can effect a person and on many levels: race, class, gender. There were certain plot points that didn't quite jibe for me, but the concepts it left me to ponder were well worth it. Good stuff!

[ireneattolia · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

i very much enjoyed the first 9/10 of this novel but ohhhh boy that ending. somehow it managed to be both incredibly transphobic and Fucked Up about rape and it all just comes out of nowhere??

[kylekatz · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This lively, but somewhat slight, allegory of race, trauma and family, is seriously marred by a lurid plot twist that reeks of transphobia. (FoK)

[joanna.conrad · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Wow, I did NOT see that end coming! That said, I feel half the book could have been omitted, and neither Boy, Snow, nor Bird are the main character of the story.

[mal_upnorth · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Beautifully written novel, almost lyrical. I found the story captivating. Each character is expertly crafted, unique, and multidimensional. I didn't know what to expect but I am extremely glad this book was recommended to me. The ending isn't quite my cup of tea, but I will definitely be reading more of Helen Oyeyemi's works!

[kymmac · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Finished outside Babelia. Lots of people at bookclub. Loved the book, and the ending, which many people didn't like, really impressed me for the depth it gave the novel. Expounded on the mirrors, abuse, search for love. Also loved the sister bonding. Jealous.

[akblanchard_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

In Boy, Snow, Bird Helen Oyeyemi weaves an elaborate story around Snow White's not-so-wicked stepmother, one that involves separated sisters, tricky mirrors, a cruel rat-catcher, and the problems and indignities of blacks passing for white in a racist world.This overstuffed novel simply has too much--too many narrators, too many plot points, and too many secondary characters with similar names. I found it unengaging.

[deborahcthomas · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I had a tough time transitioning among the three main characters. I also didn't like the ending much.

[mishker-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

"She ought to know that where there's a queen there's often a plot to overthrow her."This book threw me for a loop. I thought I would be reading a Snow White re-telling set in the 1950's-60's; instead, I felt that this was really an examination of racial relations, family and gender with some elements and themes of the fairy tale artfully woven in. Boy Novack, who is a girl, grew up with an abusive father and an absent mother. When she finally escapes her father, Boy finds herself in the small town of Flax Hills, Massachusetts, a town where outsiders aren't exactly welcome. Boy finds a room at a boardinghouse and supports herself through a series of odd jobs. A local, Arturo Whitman finds himself enamored with Boy and they get married. Arturo has a daughter, Snow, from a previous marriage. Snow is a beautiful and perfect little girl, but Boy sees something off in her. When Boy has a child of her own, Bird, the baby's skin color reveals a secret that the Whtman's had been very careful to hide throughout the years. I enjoyed the story, it was just not what I was expecting.The book is separated into three sections, the first told from Boy's point of view, the second from Bird, and the third from Boy again.It was very hard for me to connect with Boy and Arturo's character, there is supposed to be something a little off about Boy, but she felt very blank. However, I loved the section written from Bird's point of view. In Bird's section there is feeling and a little magic is brought in. The ending also brought up more questions than answers for me and it wasn't really the full mystery that I was looking for to be solved.

[flying_monkeys_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Rating: 2.5 of 5Boy, Snow, Bird was not a Snow White retelling; instead, it was literary fiction based on Snow White's archetypes, symbolism, and themes.This was my first novel by Oyeyemi, and her prose was magical and beautiful but, sadly, the story was not. She tackled some pretty heavy subject matter - child abuse, race in the 1950s and 1960s, identity, sexuality - and yet chose to end the story with a plot twist shocking only in its ignorance.Up until the end, part three of the story, I was all in - I truly wanted to know where Boy, Snow and Bird would end up.Boy was extremely narcissistic and self-hating yet sympathetic and likable. With Snow, I couldn't figure out who she really was and what was merely a reflected image, everyone else's perception of her. In contrast to Snow, Bird seemed like she was born knowing exactly who she was, where she wanted to go, what she wanted to do. I found the mirrors quite clever and the most fascinating aspect of the overall story. But the dynamics between mothers and their children was definitely the heart of the story, for me, and it was why I kept reading.Then came that blasted ending...

[thelostentwife · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm struggling so much right now because I really, really wanted to fall in love with BOY, SNOW, BIRD by Helen Oyeyemi. I'm sitting here, struggling with a lack of words to convey my disappointment and struggling as well to try to articulate what exactly about BOY, SNOW, BIRD disappointed me. I asked myself when I finished reading if maybe I had expected too much - Snow White has always been one of my favorite stories, but I really went into this book without reading much of anything except the brief synopsis on the back. My mind was open to the possibilities and I had absolutely every hope of being drawn in.Read the rest of this review at The Lost Entwife on August 22, 2014.

[klmesoftly · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of those rare books that I found myself both trying to read faster so I could find out what happens...and trying to read as slowly as possible so I might savor the writing and characters. The book is very loosely inspired by Snow White, which I can say without giving any hints at all as to how the novel plays out - other than that like Snow White, Boy, Snow, Bird is about beauty, and about familial relationships between women. The comparisons I've heard between Oyeyemi and Shirley Jackson are dead on, this is exactly how I would imagine she would write a fairy tale inspired novel, and Oyeyemi's prose is every bit as beautiful as Jackson's.

[cosimas-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This was such an unsatisfying oddball story. "Boy, Snow, Bird" and I got off on the wrong foot and we never really got on track. As a retelling of the Snow White fairy tale it's not successful and the entire narrative is jumbled and perplexing.

On the first page the writing seemed whimsical and really beautiful. As I read on I quickly grew tired of the unnatural flow of things, especially the stilted dialogue. I had to reread a lot of passages only to conclude that they in fact still made no sense to me. The characters were inauthentic and their actions didn't ring true in a lot of ways (like their reactions to the Big Secret), Boy more so than anyone else. Almost every character except for maybe Clara and Snow seemed unreal. I found it strange that I connected better with the grown up version of Snow than with either Boy or Bird, who were the two characters telling the story. I would have liked to have heard more from Snow, but her POV would have probably been written in the same frustrating way that Boy's and Bird's were.

There were a few moments when the author's storytelling shined, but only a few: some of the earlier allusions to the fairy tale, the Thanksgiving dinner, and some of the yarns Bird spun. Other references to Snow White were rather heavy-handed though, like when Boy and Mia speculate about the significance of the snake bracelet and then inexplicably jump to their conclusion. Baffling. After heating up midway through the story flounders again. By the end I was still in the dark about the fuss surrounding Snow. I kept waiting for something to happen to explain the curiously strong feelings she evoked.

For a story about racial issues this book wasn't particularly enlightening or in-depth. On top of that it wasn't enjoyable to read and the ending was preposterous. I can't think of a reason to recommend it.

[meredk · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An interesting, original book - I've never read anything quite like it. The basic ingredients of the Snow White tale are sort of pulled apart and rewritten into something totally unique. The ideas about race and color are integrated in a fascinating way, and the writing is really good.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Heather Reisman of the Chapters Indigo bookchain picked this book to recommend a few months ago and the description really intrigued me. Without even reading it I suggested it to my book club as a book for the fall. I really hope it makes it onto the list because this is one book that you want to discuss with other people.Boy, despite the name, is a beautiful blonde girl raised by her father Frank in a poor area of New York. Frank is a rat-catcher and an abuser. Boy runs away from home as soon as she can because she is afraid the next time he is going to kill her. She takes the bus to Flax Hill, a town of artists and artisans in New England. When Arturo Whitman asks her to marry him she agrees although she doesn't really love Arturo. But she does love his daughter Snow and wants to be near her. With the birth of her own daughter she discovers the Whitman family secret which is that they are passing for white. The daughter, Bird, is unquestionably coloured. Boy is shocked and mistrustful and hurt. Perhaps that is why she does what she does. If you want to find out what she does read the book yourself and then let me know what you think. There is more than a hint of the fairy tale Snow White in this book but that is all I'm going to say.Helen Oyeyemi thanks Marina Endicott at the end of this book so that intrigued me because I wondered what the connection was. Praise be to Google I found an interview where she was asked this question. It turns out they met at a Literary Festival in Australia and they have the same agent. Their agent predicted that they would like one another and they did.

[w.mdo · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book crept up on me. At some points during reading it I definitely felt that the author's plan was for her readers to feel a little bit crazy. Boy, Snow, and Bird are the three female protagonists (or maybe antagonists- I never fully worked that out), but race, gender, and identity are the real driving forces. As I read this novel I did lots of Googling to try to learn more about the history of blacks passing as white in America, as this is ostensibly the main plot line of Boy, Snow, Bird. The black characters who attempt to pass (until they are unequivocally exposed) have to sublimate of all hints of their heritage in order to gain white privilege, leading to a generous amount of self-loathing.Boy, who tells the majority of the story, is the product of an abusive childhood and seems to have a pretty great track record of sublimation in her own right. She runs away from NYC to the artsy Boston suburb of Flax Hill in an attempt to make a new life for herself, but even as she escapes the secrets of her youth she walks into what seem to be even deeper secrets (cue the whole passing/sublimation issue.) There is a healthy dose of magical realism in the relationship that develops between Boy and her stepdaughter Snow, in which Boy totally pulls an evil stepmother move. The birth of Boy's natural daughter Bird exposes said family secrets, and Bird has her own MR moments: she's an expert mimic (magic or genetic inheritance?), she and Snow occasionally don't appear in mirrors (more of the obvious Snow White stuff), and she has an interesting affinity with spiders.I haven't decided how I feel about the twist at the end. Did it wrap things up too neatly? Maybe. It did provide me with a strange sense of relief, which is weird because the end is possibly more unsettling than the rest of the book. The whole narrative tone of the book changes for a brief period too, which threw me off a bit, too.But then I wonder, is the end really unsettling or just jarring? Can the gender issues surrounding Boy's parentage even compete with the race issues, an attempt on the author's part to be shocking and therefore a huge cop out? In the end I think the gender issues are actually hugely important, but they were thrown out so quickly that they were left under-explored, especially after how deeply the race issues were addressed. If I were the kind of reader who re-reads books this is one I'd want to take another swing at- I have a feeling there were a lot of things I missed on the first read.

[gogglemiss · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was really disappointed with this. What was promising to be a great story, this was broken up into musings and ramblings which interfered with the main body of the work. I didn't really like the characters involved, either. I still feel this could have been so much better.

[lamotamant · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I made a comment when I was about halfway through this book that it was a novel I'd imagine Alice coming back from Wonderland to write. Mainly because it feels like it has a bit of Carroll to it and it's easy to fall down into it while more than a little confusing on the climb back out of it's pages. It's choppy yet lush, insightful yet removed, slow but quick, quick, quick at the last. The ending left me wanting to reach out for it's sequel, the lack of which is a big factor in the 2 star rating.

It felt like there were these big issues spawned onto the pages, okay, good start. Give me something to chew on and I'm happy. Add a few character perspectives and show them chewing on said issues, also good. But it just fell for me from there because nothing really came of it all. The two scenes that could have really built into a profound novel were brushed over quickly and without resolution. The basic Snow White plot lurked behind unfinished parallels; parallels so unfinished that I found myself thinking it would have been more successful had it not been packaged as the plot twisted/reimagined. I think it's always good for an author to find a line between giving a reader something to consume and going to straight overkill. I don't think this novel reaches a desired and fulfilling line between the two even though the writing style itself is pretty stirring.

[mjlivi · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I really struggled with this - the characters voices were nearly indistinguishable, the plot oddly paced and the point hard to discern. It toys with some interesting themes, but there's something about the way it's written that meant I caught myself repeatedly glazing over, unsure what major plot shift had just been sneaked in between slightly pointless digressions. The big reveal at the conclusion of the book is crazy and the motivations of the characters throughout hard to engage with. Can't win them all I guess.

[bodachliath · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A vivid, stylish and unsettling modern fairytale full of surprises, ideas and striking imagery. Part family story, part reflection on racial identity and nature/nurture, and part exploration of fairytale themes, this is a dizzying and assured book from a talented writer.

[viviennestrauss · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really like Oyeyemi's style - beautifully inventive, always surprising twists.

[klburnside · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I thought this book was supposed to be a retelling of Snow White. There was a character named Snow, a stepmother, a mirror, and themes of beauty and jealousy, but it wasn't quite a fairy tale retelling.

I am honestly not sure what it was. The characters and their motivations didn't always make sense, I wasn't sure what the themes were or the point was. It seemed to be jumping all over the place. Then all of the sudden in the last 20 pages, there's another big surprise that comes out of nowhere. I think the book had potential, it was just lacking in focus.

[wagner5sarah35 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This novel is many things - a retelling of Snow Bird, a portrayal of a mixed race family during the Civil Rights era, a revelation of long buried secrets, and an exploration of all the ways to hurt a loved one. While the first chapter really gripped me, unfortunately the book was mostly hit and miss for me. It did end strong, and I would recommend it to someone looking for an usual read.

[canadianeggroll · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read the book summary from a magazine article and was intrigued. In the end, I wasn't disappointed. Oyeyemi successfully illustrates the benefit of being white/having white privilege in a discriminatory society, and I'm interested in reading her other works. I also appreciate the vast amount of female characters.

[tonstant.weader · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved the language. She is a skilled and poetic writer. The characters were fascinating people and I loved everything about the book except the ending which seemed unrealistic. It seemed like Oyeyemi wanted a resolution to the story, and in many ways it really did not need one.

[cameling_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Finally leaving her abusive rat-catching father, Boy flees north to a small Massachusetts suburb and starts to build her own life. She meets and eventually marries Arturo who has a daughter, Snow. It is only when Boy and Arturo have their own daughter, Bird, that Boy realizes that Arturo and Snow are actually very light-skinned African-Americans passing themselves off as white people. Her reaction and the way she treats Bird and Snow is unsettling and raises questions on racial identity and the perception of beauty. At times lyrical and at times syncopated, this was not an easy book to get into and I just wanted to get to the end so I could be done with it. A shame really because there are some passages that the author's talents flashed brilliantly through. I just wish she could have carried it throughout the book.

[jules72653 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Characters weren't particularly likable and the middle part of the book drug the story down as the voice changed. The twist at the end was a nice surprise and it had me wondering what would happen next.

[carmenere_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Disclaimer: I chose this novel from the library because the title intrigued me. After I brought it home I noticed my library classified it as "Fantasy". This threw me off and, as I read, I began trying to discover why it was categorized as such. So, this is the story of a woman named Boy. She grows up in a single parent household. At times her father is abusive and gruff. He seems to appreciate the rats he keeps and uses for his job more so than his daughter who seems like a burden. When Boy is 19 she decides to flee from a dismal life with her father, hops a bus and takes it from Brooklyn to the end of the line....a small town in Massachusetts. Here she makes a new life for herself and starts a family of her own with her husband, Arturo, and his daughter, Snow. When they have there own child, Bird, well, Arturo has some explaining to do. The decision Boy makes has life altering implications for everyone. I could see small amounts of magical realism in Oyeyemi's writing but not on the level of other authors who use this device. Oyeyemi is better at drawing a picture of life in the 1940's and '60's, the prejudices of the time and what people felt they had to do to live a better life. If the story seems to drag for you, I recommend completing it and waiting for the big reveal near the conclusion.

[dabble58 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Boy, Snow, Bird is one of those books you read swiftly, delighting in the language, the story, the characters, and then you spend the next several days chewing though it, sorting it out in your mind.
I loved it. I questioned it. I disliked it.
All by turns.
I don't want to spoil it, but suffice to say the character motivations were well-hidden. Racism, family secrets, the desire to belong all figure large, and the story makes me sad for all of those who feel they cannot be as they are.
Well worth a read.

[jlafleur_12 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I also received this book as a LibraryThing early reviewer. It will be interesting to see how it fares in the market. I predict it will do fairly well despite its significant flaws. Exploring the story of a mid-century black family with members trying to "pass" as white seemed like an interesting idea for a novel. Unfortunately, that topic is left unfulfilled by both the plot and the characters. In addition, there is a completely irrelevant shocking exposition at the very end of the novel which adds nothing to the story and feels very contrived. The second star is only for the prose. It is interesting how outmoded these attitudes seem in today's society.