Tournament of Books discussion

What Is Not Yours, Is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi

About the Book: (source: books.google.com )
Playful, ambitious, and exquisitely imagined, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours is cleverly built around the idea of keys, literal and metaphorical. The key to a house, the key to a heart, the key to a secret—Oyeyemi’s keys not only unlock elements of her characters’ lives, they promise further labyrinths on the other side. In “Books and Roses” one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers’ fates. In “Is Your Blood as Red as This?” an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. “‘Sorry’ Doesn’t Sweeten Her Tea” involves a “house of locks,” where doors can be closed only with a key—with surprising, unobservable developments. And in “If a Book Is Locked There’s Probably a Good Reason for That Don't You Think,” a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason).

Oyeyemi’s tales span multiple times and landscapes as they tease boundaries between coexisting realities. Is a key a gate, a gift, or an invitation? What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours captivates as it explores the many possible answers.

About the Author: (source: https://literature.britishcouncil.org... )
Helen Oyeyemi was born in Nigeria in 1984 and has lived in London from the age of four.

She wrote her first novel, The Icarus Girl, while still at school studying for her A levels at Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School in London.
While studying Social and Political Sciences at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, two of her plays, Juniper's Whitening and Victimese, were performed by fellow students to critical acclaim and subsequently published by Methuen.

In 2007 Bloomsbury published Oyeyemi's second novel, The Opposite House which is inspired by Cuban mythology.
In 2009 Oyeyemi was recognised as one of the women on Venus Zine’s “25 under 25” list.

Her third novel, White is for Witching was published by Picador in May 2009. It was a 2009 Shirley Jackson Award finalist and won a 2010 Somerset Maugham Award. A fourth novel, Mr Fox, was published by Picador in June 2011.

Authors blog: http://helenoyeyemi.com/blog/
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If you would like to chat about this book, or this author, here's a place to do so!

Happy reading!!

ok, I'll kick off this discussion! this is one of those short story books that works better read all at once I think because the stories are sometimes loosely connected and provide insight into each other. Also there are some obvious themes running throughout... I felt like one was perhaps around entitlement (which fits the title).
every one has at least one story they just don't get, or outright hate. but everyone also seems to have one they love...
my favorites were |Books and Roses|, |Sorry Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea| & |A Brief History of the Homely Wench Society| :)

I read the first two stories and really enjoyed them. This is a book I want to buy and put next to my bedside table so that every night I can dip a toe into Oyeymi's weird imagination.

Amy wrote: "ok, I'll kick off this discussion! this is one of those short story books that works better read all at once I think because the stories are sometimes loosely connected and provide insight into eac..."

I'm glad I read your comment, Amy. I had planned to just read a story here and there but now I will wait until I can read the whole book.

I read Books and Roses and spent some time puzzling over it before falling asleep. Then I woke up in the night and it all came together for me. Okay, maybe not all ...

I finished this book yesterday and I agree with Amy, this book reads better if read all at once. It gave me a similar feeling to The Tsar of Love and Techno in that I wish I had diagrammed characters' relationships with each other!

Some of the stories ended too abruptly for me, some ended at just the right place, and some left me puzzling over how they would end. I found the entire book quite enjoyable.