Rooted in social truth, these ideas, when combined with the supernatural, allow Oyeyemi to successfully present her collection as an introspection into human behavior and the often unsettling questions that surround it. And “‘Sorry’ Doesn’t Sweeten Her Tea,” despite its obscure ending, delves into serious questions about abuse, victim blaming, and ownership of one’s wrongdoings. At its heart, “Presence” explores human grief and the fantasies that people invent to cope, along with the relationship between husband and wife. Despite these outlandish, extraordinary embellishments, “What Is Not Yours…” remains grounded in realistic themes. Martin’s Day Goose” an old woman makes a promise to a “wolf” and as a reminder of her oath receives a wart-like bruise, which she chops off and keeps locked in a chest-to the danger of her goddaughter’s child, who finds its scent alluring.
A psychological experiment on mourning creates living specters of people in “Presence.” In “Dornička and the St. In “Is Your Blood as Red as This?”, puppets house the souls of once-living humans and even move, carrying other marionettes and lost keys at one moment. Oyeyemi’s collection delves primarily into the human experience, but she blends the stories together often with a fantastical twist. “What is Not Yours…” is an engrossing, provocative exploration of the human desire to unlock the truth and of the impossibility of ever succeeding. This idea is one that governs every story in the collection, whether it be for the characters or solely for the reader, and one that defines the impression left on the reader. Regardless of keys’ prevalence in any one story, however, their recurring presence hints at one of the book’s themes: one of opening doors-literal or metaphorical-into the lives and psyches of other people and into certain social constructs. In other moments, they play a minor role, providing the means to a happy resolution or co-conspiring in a prank. At times, they act as a central element in the plot, defining a character’s unknown origins or hiding the deadly secrets of an artifact.
The motifs of Helen Oyeyemi’s first short story collection, “What is Not Yours is Not Yours,” are keys.
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