The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi Book Review — Bobolawal Olateru
Title: The Opposite House
Author: Helen Oyeyemi
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Year Published: 2007
Genre: Fiction
Summary
The main characters in the novel suffer the ache of displacement and identity crisis. Real-life is juxtaposed with a phantasmagoric realm of a non-ordinary reality where these characters are also avatars for ancient West African deities roaming the interspaces between prayers and dreams syncretized, disguised. They meet in the ‘somewherehouse’. A four floored house with two entrances located in the wrong quiet of the woods.
Maya is queer. She developed a tenuous psyche after a dissociative epileptic episode in St Catharines’ church in Cuba when she was five. Then her family moved to London and she experiences a parched yearning for “her Cuba” from whence she finds Voice and self.
The tale is about Maya’s complex relationship with her unborn baby, Chabella; her mother a German tutor and dedicated Santerian with the link to spirit and ancestors. Papi; her father. An erudite scholar and an emissary of reason. Thomas; her bulimic genius brother who talks to unseen others. Aaron; her “Caucasian Ghanian” lover and an aspiring psychiatrist. And Amy Eleni; her eccentric best friend with suicidal tendencies.
In an Alternate world, Maya is an Avatar for Aya or Yemoja. Yemoja exhibit herself in aspects that manifest to Maja as hysteria.
The story is told in a shape-shifting perspective that takes a certain amount of grits and perseverance to gather momentum and see it through.
Style and Themes
The style of this book reminds me of Ayi Kwei Armah Novel ‘Fragments’ in the Author’s deliberate attempt to be obscure. The dreamlike befuddlement is necessary to safely probe the metaphysical themes.
The main theme the book explores is the anguish that comes from displacement. Psychical, physical, cultural, spiritual. And that even the gods are not left behind.
My take away
I consider this book an obscurantist classic and I enjoyed it on so many levels; the complex characters, the magical realism, the evocation of nostalgic longing.
It begs the question of where the line blurs between reason and insanity. How do you differentiate the real from the surreal?
“Hysteric is a mystical signal for checking who is there.”
The novel introduced me to the Santeria religion and the concept of syncretization. The Orishas are restless in their disguise, learning new languages in their quest to adapt.
It also reinforces the idea that chronic depression, mental disorders, and psychosomatic illness could be a manifestation of some sort of dislocation. A cut off from a nourishing source that holds the center together. A compass to chart the path of return after stray flights.
The Author exudes a kind of creative confidence that is admirable. I love her approach to exploring the many layers of interpersonal relationships and the workings of the mind. For example; the mystery of the collar, the leaking roof in the basement apartment, strange warfare in other realms.
Reservations
Despite how much I enjoyed the book, I am dissatisfied because it didn’t cumulate into a definite resolve. It ended with Maya, in a somnambulistic state, leading Thomas to the ‘Somewherehouse’. There were lots of loose threads everywhere. The book ended just like it started. Again I think this might be deliberate. We do not know the exact moment we begin to dream and most dreams do not come to a logical conclusive end. We simply wake up.
With the style of the book, It’s either you like it or you don’t. There is no middle ground. I like it and I think it deserves a reread to unearth more gems.
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