She works as a teacher, and she tries to be active in Perdita's school, but her attempts are, at best, half-hearted. Harriet struggles to fit in with the society of which she is a part. Harriet lives in London with her teenage daughter, Perdita, and her mother, Margot. Harriet found this one of the greatest compliments she ever received about her gingerbread. One sampler of her gingerbread once told her it was like eating revenge, like chewing on the heart of someone who hurt a person you loved. It is less a sweet indulgence or a modest snack than it is a symbol of strength and vengeance. The novel opens with a description of Harriet's gingerbread. The almost magical gingerbread the two of them make together figures prominently in their lives and adventures, a recipe that binds them to their imaginations, their history, and one another. Endlessly surprising and satisfying, written with Helen Oyeyemi’s inimitable style and imagination, it is a true feast for the reader.A modern fairy tale set in London and the fictional country of Druhástrana, British author Helen Oyeyemi’s novel Gingerbread (2019) is the story of Harriet and Perdita Lee, a unique mother and a daughter who navigate challenging issues of class, identity, memory, and female power. As the book follows the Lees through encounters with jealousy, ambition, family grudges, work, wealth, and real estate, gingerbread seems to be the one thing that reliably holds a constant value. In fact, the world’s truest lover of the Lee family gingerbread is Harriet’s charismatic childhood friend, Gretel Kercheval–a figure who seems to have had a hand in everything (good or bad) that has happened to Harriet since they met.ĭecades later, when teenaged Perdita sets out to find her mother’s long-lost friend, it prompts a new telling of Harriet’s story. Londoners may find themselves able to take or leave it, but it’s very popular in Druhástrana, the far-away (and, according to Wikipedia, non-existent) land of Harriet Lee’s early youth.
And then there’s the gingerbread they make.
For one thing, they share a gold-painted, seventh-floor walk-up apartment with some surprisingly verbal vegetation. Perdita Lee may appear to be your average British schoolgirl Harriet Lee may seem just a working mother trying to penetrate the school social hierarchy but there are signs that they might not be as normal as they think they are.
Influenced by the mysterious place gingerbread holds in classic children’s stories–equal parts wholesome and uncanny, from the tantalizing witch’s house in “Hansel and Gretel” to the man-shaped confection who one day decides to run as fast as he can–beloved novelist Helen Oyeyemi invites readers into a delightful tale of a surprising family legacy, in which the inheritance is a recipe.
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