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"A shape-shifting novel about the power of stories…Helen Oyeyemi is a literary pied piper — her voice is the kind that readers gamely follow into the most bewildering and unnerving of situations." – The New York Times
“A metatextual masterpiece.” —Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
“Oyeyemi writes here as an heir to Calvino or Borges…A dizzying, dazzling romp.” —Kirkus Reviews
The prize-winning, bestselling author of Peaces and Gingerbread returns with a novel about competitive friendship, the elastic boundaries of storytelling, and the meddling influence of a city called Prague
In Helen Oyeyemi’s joyous new novel, the Czech capital is a living thing—one that can let you in or spit you out.
For reasons of her own, Hero Tojosoa accepts an invitation she was half expected to decline, and finds herself in Prague on a bachelorette weekend hosted by her estranged friend Sofie. Little does she know she’s arrived in a city with a penchant for playing tricks on the unsuspecting. A book Hero has brought with her seems to be warping her mind: the text changes depending on when it’s being read and who’s doing the reading, revealing startling new stories of fictional Praguers past and present. Uninvited companions appear at bachelorette activities and at city landmarks, offering opinions, humor, and even a taste of treachery. When a third woman from Hero and Sofie’s past appears unexpectedly, the tensions between the friends’ different accounts of the past reach a new level.
An adventurous, kaleidoscopic novel, Parasol Against the Axe considers the lines between illusion and delusion, fact and interpretation, and weighs the risks of attaching too firmly to the stories of a place, or a person, or a shared history. How much is a tale influenced by its reader, or vice versa? And finally, in a battle between friends, is it better to be the parasol or the axe?
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
March 5, 2024 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780593829387
- File size: 235449 KB
- Duration: 08:10:31
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Starred review from January 29, 2024
The bold, lucid, and experimental latest from Oyeyemi (Peaces) portrays Prague as a city of dreams and mysteries. The writer Hero Tojosoa, who publishes under the pen name Dorothea Gilman, accepts a last-minute invitation to a bachelorette party in Czechia hosted by two frenemies. She brings with her a copy of Paradoxical Undressing, a novel by mysterious Australian author Merlin Mwenda, which provides a different narrative each time it’s opened (Hero’s copy shifts overnight from a story of a love triangle in the court of King Rudolf III to one of a dyspeptic judge hoping to frame his own son for crimes against the Communist Party). Also in Prague is the real Dorothea Gilman, who has an axe to grind with Hero for using her name. Dorothea winds up with her own copy of Paradoxical Undressing, one that’s set in 1943 and concerns the perilous adventures of a dancer hoping to subvert the Nazi Protectorate from within. By the time Dorothea loses her copy of the Mwenda and tracks down a new one in a bookshop, the novel has changed into a madcap farce about rogue hairdresser Ataraxia “the Uglifier” Pham, who terrorized 2016 Prague by giving clients terrible hairdos. Bizarre doublings and subplots abound as Oyeyemi delightfully channels a Borgesian literary lunacy, revealing the connections between Hero and Dorothea and introducing the real Merlin Mwenda (now working as, of all things, an ersatz ice cream vendor). This is a metatextual masterpiece. -
Dorje Swallow's performance of this metafiction centers this whirligig of a novel in which story begets story. His assured narration--in particular, his ability to do voices and accents and adapt his tone to whatever the scene--makes this audiobook marvelous to listen to. Hero Tojosoa ostensibly comes to Prague to join her friend, Sofie, for a weekend. When Dorothea Gilmartin arrives as well, the plot thickens, splatters, and all matter of mayhem ensues--including a wedding that the listener learns of before the character herself and a shape-shifting book titled PARADOXICAL UNDRESSING, whose stories change for every reader. The city itself seems to narrate parts. Not to worry, Dorje Swallow's steady delivery takes the listener through the looking glass in fine fettle. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine -
May 31, 2024
Narrator Dorje Swallow delightfully voices the city of Prague and the stories it contains in Oyeyemi's (Peaces) perplexing latest. Hero Tojosoa takes a last-minute trip to Prague to attend her fair-weather friend Sofie's bachelorette party. She carries a book titled Paradoxical Undressing with her, which changes its plot whenever she opens it. Meanwhile, Thea Gilmartin arrives in the city on business but decides to crash the party and confront Hero and Sofie about a past disagreement. She stumbles upon another copy of Paradoxical Undressing and also becomes baffled by its different versions. Swallow's Australian-accented voice overflows with glee and mischief as Hero and Thea find themselves in one madcap situation after the next. His narration of the incomplete stories from Paradoxical Undressing is akin to the zaniness of Rocky and Bullwinkle's "Fractured Fairy Tales" with its various accents and range. VERDICT Because of the absurdity of Hero's and Thea's plotlines, it's sometimes difficult to distinguish between a scene with one of them and a segment from Paradoxical Undressing. While the audiobook may require a few relistens to grasp all the plot points, Swallow's entertaining narration makes this a pleasurable experience.--Anjelica Rufus-Barnes
Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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