Boy, Snow, Bird

Boy, Snow, Bird is a 2014 novel by British author Helen Oyeyemi. The novel, Oyeyemi's fifth, was a loose retelling of the fairytaleSnow White. Oyeyemi also cited the Nella Larsen novel Passing as an inspiration.^[1] The novel was named as one of the best books of 2014 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and BuzzFeed.

Boy Novak, a young white girl, is born to an abusive transgender father who works as a hot rat exterminator and whom she refers to as the rat catcher. In the winter of 1953, when she is twenty years old, Boy runs away from her father, and moves from New York to Flax Hill. In Flax Hill, Boy stumbles across a tenement house and begins to go on double dates with one of the other tenants who introduces her to her boyfriend's business partner, a jewellery designer and widower called Arturo Whitman. Arturo eventually tells Boy that he has a young daughter named Snow.

While Boy and Arturo initially have a tempestuous relationship, they grow closer as Boy is enchanted by Snow. On a weekend trip, Arturo proposes to Boy by giving her a bracelet shaped like a trickster. She thinks of the bracelet as evil step-mother jewellery, but she accepts it. Boy and Arturo have a quick wedding, after which she learns that Arturo has an older sister, Clara, who is shunned by the rest of the family.

Boy becomes pregnant and gives birth to a girl she names Bird. As soon as Bird is born, Boy realizes that Bird is black. Boy interrogates Arturo, who reveals that his father and mother were white-passing African-Americans from Louisiana. He also reveals that his first wife Julia was descended from white-passing African-Americans, and they were both relieved when Snow was born with light skin.

Boy grows increasingly frustrated over the different ways in which the family and the town react to Bird and becomes jealous of Snow. She finally reaches out to Clara, who tells her to give Bird to her to raise, as she—Clara—was once given up by her mother, when she was not passing as white. Instead, Boy asks Clara to take Snow for what she claims is a short visit, in reality planning to have her stay indefinitely.

Thirteen years later, in 1968, Bird grows up as the only daughter in the Whitman family, while her father visits Snow twice a month. Bird discovers a series of letters Snow wrote to her mother in which she begs to be able to come home and fails to understand what she might have done to upset Boy. The last letter in Boy's collection is one addressed to Bird, which Bird decides to answer.

Bird y Snow inician una correspondencia secreta, y Bird descubre más detalles de la historia oculta de Whitman. Finalmente, gracias a su correspondencia, Boy permite que Snow regrese a casa de visita.

Antes de que llegue Snow, Bird es atacada y secuestrada temporalmente en su patio trasero por un hombre que resulta ser su abuelo, el cazador de ratas, cuyo nombre es Frank Novak. Tras una tensa y desagradable conversación, Frank abandona a Bird para no volver jamás.

En Acción de Gracias, toda la familia Whitman se reúne, incluyendo a Clara y su esposo John. Boy le pide perdón a Snow por haberla echado y la incita a que la golpee para saldar cuentas. Boy también le pide a Snow que se quede con ellos en Flax Hill un tiempo más, y Snow acepta.

Un día, Mia, amiga periodista de Boy, llega a su puerta para confesarle que fue ella quien le dio la dirección de Boy a Frank. Mia, soltera, admite que quería escribir un artículo sobre mujeres que no podían ser madres y decidió buscar a la madre de Boy, descubriendo que se llamaba Frances Amelia Novak. Frances era una feminista muy inteligente y candidata a doctora, además de lesbiana . Debido a su lesbianismo, fue violada por un conocido. Frances quedó embarazada y, durante el embarazo, hizo la transición a hombre y comenzó a llamarse Frank. Después de que Mia confrontara a Frank sobre su antigua identidad, le pidió que le contara a Boy la verdad sobre sus orígenes antes de que se publicara el artículo. Él había ido a Flax Hill para hacerlo, pero se marchó porque no pudo hablar del tema.

Boy decide ir a Nueva York para intentar ver a su padre y averiguar si puede encontrar a Frances en él. Se lleva consigo a Mia, Bird y Snow.

The Guardian lo calificó como "un libro intrigante y de atractivo sinuoso". ^{[ 2 ]}

El Globe and Mail elogió a Oyeyemi por ser "uno de los pocos narradores que parece estar en sintonía con el lenguaje del mito". ^{[ 3 ]} El New York Times elogió el libro por su prosa y sus temas, calificándolo como una " historia aleccionadora sobre la ideología posracial, los limbos raciales y la política del disimulo". ^{[ 4 ]} Algunos blogueros y críticos han criticado el libro por su final transfóbico. ^{[ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ]}