Best Of Helen Oyeyemi's "Gingerbread"

Here is a selection of memorable quotes from Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi.

Painting above: Whitening Canvas (c.1917) bu Zinaida Serebriakova

She thought it something of a mercy for the gullible to die young, as being too often mistaken breaks the spirit.

p.4

At the hospital Margot tells Harriet that, on the whole, it's probably better to have sons. Daughters are enigmatic minefields of classified information, she says.

p.28

She surprised them with the discovery that once an avid reader runs out of books, she reads people. Harriet read everybody she met, and when she met them again, she reread them.

p.62

Gretel's expression was a soundless fireworks display, the sort you see when someone's trying very hard not to laugh or cry.

p.116

There was a triplicate softness to the man, as if he were a combination of poet, invalid, and monk.

p.135

Handmade and heartfelt; Harriet wanted everything she did to be like this.

p.136