Likewise, some seemingly standalone pieces, like “drownings,” invent their own mythos, and can be read as fantastical thought-pieces that exist in a different world than the other stories. The puppets stubbornly announce their own identities and histories to the narrator, using her as a mouthpiece for the larger world.
Some stories slyly dance around the question of what is real, with half of “is your blood as red as this?” told from the perspective of a living puppet who was once a female puppeteer. While you may be normally used to reading works with a straightforward plot (even if events are depicted out of order, they can be strung together into a discernible chain of causation), these stories emphasize the absence on the page 一 on what is not yours 一 to open the story to readerly interpretation. Some stories draw on magical realism (or fabulism, or its many other names) to casually place surreal elements into the everyday, while others entirely escape this world for a more fairytale-esque retelling.
Perhaps most strikingly, Oyeyemi challenges the idea that readers are entitled to certain truths or traditional logical structures of meaning within stories. All nine of her standalone short stories are tied loosely with the motifs of locks and keys and recurring characters, and each piece dazzles and dazes. To great effect, Oyeyemi explores and broaches the boundaries of traditional narrative expectations, balancing fantasy and the surreal over a precarious slope.
Quoting Emily Dickinson, Helen Oyeyemi’s first short story collection, “What is Not Yours is Not Yours,” begins with the epigraph of “ open me carefully” and swiftly delves into an exquisite unravelling of storytelling and reality.
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