Title: The Opposite House Author: Helen Oyeyemi
Published: June 19, 2007
Genre(s): Literary Fiction
Page Count: 258
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:Maja was five years old when her black Cuban family emigrated from the Caribbean to London. Now, almost twenty years later, Maja is a singer, in love with Aaron, pregnant, and haunted by what she calls “her Cuba.” Growing up in London, she has struggled to negotiate her history and the sense that speaking Spanish or English made her less of a black girl. But she is unable to find herself in the Ewe, Igbo, or Akum of her roots. It seems all that’s left is silence.
Meanwhile distance from Cuba has only deepened Maja’s mother faith in Santeria —the fusion of Catholicism and Western African Yoruba religion—but it also divides the family as her father rails against his wife’s superstitions and the lost dreams of the Castro revolution.
On the other side of the reality wall, Yemaya Saramagua, a Santeria emissary, lives in a somewherehouse with two doors: one opening to London, the other to Lagos. Yemaya is troubled by the ease with which her fellow emissaries have disguised themselves behind the personas of saints and by her inability to recognize them.
In this novel, Helen Oyeyemi presents a disquieting, dreamlike story, told from two perspectives: Maja, a Black cubana dealing with pregnancy and her heritage and her mother’s Santería; and Yemaya Saramagua, an Orisha (a minor god in both Santería and Nigeria) living in a “somewherehouse” between Cuba and Lagos. Both characters’ stories seem to have things in common, but I didn’t quite get how or why the author chose to link them. It was far too subtle and tenuous connection, lost in the book’s foreboding magical realism.
At its heart, I felt that The Opposite House dealt with subjects and themes familiar to any reader, especially regarding heritage and immigration. But these themes were so heavily costumed in the surreal and strange elements of the book, it was hard for me to decipher them and make sense of Oyeyemi’s intent. I almost felt that a background and working knowledge of Santería was required to fully comprehend what transpired—particularly Yemaya Saramagua’s portion of the book. Though I loved the magic and mysticism Oyeyemi wrote with, I nevertheless found some aspects of the text inaccessible and confusing.
What I love about Helen Oyeyemi’ books is her prose: the unusual, yet profound, imagery that suffuses her novels. Her stories themselves tend to be hit or miss with me—I loved Mr. Fox but was only mildly enchanted by White Is for Witching and Boy, Snow, Bird. Unfortunately, this latest attempt, The Opposite House, was mostly a miss. I liked aspects of this book, but on the whole I found it difficult and distant.
