Dr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

Mr. Fox is a modern day Gothic novel--a story that contains both horror and romance. Which is true of the front story, and then there is a retelling of the Bluebeard myth throughout that achieves a multifactorial Gothic tone. The surface story is that Mr. Fox, an acclaimed novelist and husband to fellow novelist, Daphne Fox, has a muse, Mary Foxe (the names are similar and it is not an accident). She is one of the characters in his books, but she is not two dimensional, at least not by the time we meet him. She is up and about, accusing Mr. Fox of serial murder. How so? He invariably kills off all his female protagonists. She insists he must stop, or she will do the job for him. Their interactions are witty repartee, fun to follow, well written, but only part of what is going on in the novel. Woven into the text are various retellings of the Bluebeard myth. Oyeyemi delights in turning the fairy tale on its head. She locates in the Bluebeard story not only female loss of identity but male emotional imprisonment – a locked room containing not the bloody cadavers of previous wives, but the elusive authentic self of the husband. Neither are free, both are in their ways captive. Mr. Fox and Mary Foxe are similarly interwoven with each other. There is a jumbled feel to the book--but it is enjoyable, funny, smart, well written and entertaining. Don't miss it.