She mostly focuses her energies on memories, thoughts, and regrets from her past, to the point that she has very little left over to give to reality in the here and now.Īfter the hospital discharges Perdita, she returns home to the gold-colored apartment she shares with her mother and grandmother. 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. 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.
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