Sort Of A Darker "Into The Woods!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

                                              Like the Sondheim musical, darlings, "Gingerbread" is a compendium of characters and stories.  I have to say not since Disney's 1961 film, "One Hundred And One Dalmatians," have I encountered a story featuring the name, "Perdita."

                                                That would be Perdita Lee, daughter of  Harriet Lee, who, jointly, live off and on the gingerbread in a world of their own.  Kind of like Ruth and Esther in the woods on "At Home With Amy Sedaris," but more like Wing Tip, The Spick, the girl from the wrong side of the tracks, that is the Village Of Lice And Onions, in Carl Sandburg's delightful story, "The Village Of Cream Puffs."

Perdita Lee is the most captivating child, since Wing Tip, The Spick, and the world she and her mother live in is as enchanted as the titular Village O f Cream Puffs.

 

                 But the book gets harrowing, as it moves into the story of Perdita's mother, Harriet, which concerns a mystical place called Druhastrana, where unwanted children, of which Harriet was one, are sent to the house of the Kerchevals, the matriarch of which, Clio, is rather witch-like, and her house is one of windows that are sugar glass paned, and the walls, in and out, are also gingerbread. There are also two mysterious figures named Hansel and Gretel; Harriet forges a friendship with

Gretel, and is helped out of her situation.  Remember, in the original story, Gretel took the

initiative. Hansel was a wuss.

All this sounds exciting, and enjoyable, and it is.  Helen Oyeyemi, writes demonstrably well, but I have to confess I have been on a negative roll of late.  Like "Strangers And Cousins," "Gingerbread" did not engage me all the way through; I wanted the book to end sooner than it did, and was glad when I finished it.  

This says less about the book, which many readers may love, than it does about my dissatisfaction with much of the fiction being turned out this year.  As we soon get out of August, and into the "ber" months, it will be interesting to see what turns up on those Ten Best Lists.

Regarding "Gingerbread," I say read it at your own peril.  If you are not as enchanted, as the author intends you to be, then go back and read, or re-read, "The Village Of Cream Puffs."

And watch how it flies in the wind, and is controlled by string on a giant spool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!