This is Oyeyemi's first novel about a half caste girl who's mother is Nigerian and father is British. Since Jessamy, the protagonist, can't find a place for herself that reconciles both ancestries, she takes to constant fits that ostracize her from social circles.
This novel is very evocative and even disturbing at times since it deals with such mature and difficult issues, but I found it extremely hard to relate to Jessamy. She incomprehensibly is entirely uncontrollable and seems to be close to bursting with pain and anger and fear that makes her seem petulant and bratty instead of tender and pitiful. The title of the book "The Icarus Girl" seems to indicate that the protagonist might try very hard to get something but be ruined by trying too hard. Jessamy doesn't try at all. She is incredibly weak and simply doesn't try to work out her problems. Maybe this is because she's an eight year old and has no rationality, but I found it very frustrating because she often embraces and facilitates the sources of her problems, and cuts out the parts of her life that try to help her. Maybe she just had too much pressure and too much pain, but I can't find that source of pain in her life. Yeah she had a few bad things happen to her, but really her pain is supposed to be psychological and even almost magical in nature, and there is no way that I can relate to that as important.
Instead of being the martyr that she was supposed to be, I think Jessamy became an annoyance. She is just too illogical to my mind to be taken seriously as a character.
I would say that this is almost more of a fantasy book than a literary fiction, but too unbelieveably to draw you in and make you empathize with the pain that this little girl is going through growing up.
Not the greatest book ever, but it did draw me in enough to believe that if Oyeyemi writes another book, she may be able to fix the problems I had with this one. If you want to read a good first timer, read "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Housseini.
Adios
Andrew
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