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briandice's review against another edition
5.0
Once upon a time...
If you were like me growing up there came a time when the fairy tales your parents read to you no longer rang true. The story's simplicity and thin veneer of reality didn't jive with the way that the real world was just starting to reveal itself to your blooming mind. If you were like me growing up you began to ask questions about the story that the adult reading it to you couldn't answer. And like me, it was around that time that you were encouraged to embark on some independent reading of books that were age appropriate.
He has undertaken a great adventure ... to provoke a confrontation with the awful powers of enchantment itself.
Coover's ability to take the shopworn tale of Sleeping Beauty, smash it into infinite pieces - soak those with the blood and piss of reality, and then examine them one-by-one in a re-telling is nothing short of brilliance. We have the story told through the eyes of the sleeping princess, the crone fairy, the gallant knight. Told, retold, retold, retold and even though this novella clocks in at less than 100 pages it has the capacity of being endless.
In a sense, omnipotence is a form of impotence.
Beyond the familiar narrative, Coover explores the inner lives of the characters, the action of what came before and what happens after the awakening kiss. Countless alter realities. Which is the real story? Can't it be all of them?
...and they all lived happily ever after.
readcover2cover's review against another edition
2.0
This is a postmodern retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but I couldn't get into it. It was short, but I didn't finish it, so I'm not sure if I should count it. I read almost half and then skimmed the rest (very, very quickly), so I'm going to count it. :)
wickedlyethan's review against another edition
1.0
As a Post-Modern analysis of the fairy-tale of Sleeping Beauty, perhaps "Briar Rose" succeeds. As a story, however, it fails entirely. Boring, repetitive, ugly, and written to repel those without thesis-paper minds, one gets the feeling that you can never be smart enough for Mr. Coover, who delights in his ability to write the same sentences over and over again with little changed but ever-winding syntax. Had he cut the length in half and chosen to tell the tale of Briar Rose, instead of deconstructing it and leaving the pieces on the ground, much as a child does with toys, we would have a decent story, not the pretentious thought-experiment that is Robert Coover's "Briar Rose".
mandyherbet's review against another edition
5.0
Robert Coover is a master at the fairy tale rewriting - while this was a quick read initially, it's going to take some time and rereading to decipher his many techniques and ideas. I love how he has managed to incorporate all the different versions of the Sleeping Beauty tale - the Basile and Perrault versions with the 'what happens after happily ever after' in particular. Well worth a read!
versmonesprit's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.0
This was going to be my first Coover, but then I began with Spanking the Maid because I thought it would pale in comparison to Briar Rose. What a misjudgement!
Don’t get me wrong, Briar Rose has phenomenal writing at times. And maybe had I read it first, I would have loved it too, but after such a profound and allegorical book like Spanking the Maid, Briar Rose was too obvious, too shallow.
It did begin with immense promise, with emotional and tender characterisation, with the symbolism of the slumber and the dream; but then became too obvious, too repetitive in a way that unfortunately did not offer any depth. Perhaps there’s something to be lauded in the way the characterisation of the princess goes from tender to almost hateful, since the book deals primarily with the generation of violence, the compulsive desire to destroy beauty.
Though I feel like everything from this to the possibilities offered by The Woman Longing (a “trope” I love beyond measure) was a missed opportunity. There was so much more length to go for Coover, but he didn’t. Depth of meaning was sacrificed in favour of beauty of writing, which itself was not fully attained (at least for me) because the myriad reimaginings of the fairytale offered very little language (or meaning, for that matter).
If you remove the middle, I think you have the perfect, emotional, melancholic story. Briar Rose could be that AND profound, and I wish it were.
Don’t get me wrong, Briar Rose has phenomenal writing at times. And maybe had I read it first, I would have loved it too, but after such a profound and allegorical book like Spanking the Maid, Briar Rose was too obvious, too shallow.
It did begin with immense promise, with emotional and tender characterisation, with the symbolism of the slumber and the dream; but then became too obvious, too repetitive in a way that unfortunately did not offer any depth. Perhaps there’s something to be lauded in the way the characterisation of the princess goes from tender to almost hateful, since the book deals primarily with the generation of violence, the compulsive desire to destroy beauty.
Though I feel like everything from this to the possibilities offered by The Woman Longing (a “trope” I love beyond measure) was a missed opportunity. There was so much more length to go for Coover, but he didn’t. Depth of meaning was sacrificed in favour of beauty of writing, which itself was not fully attained (at least for me) because the myriad reimaginings of the fairytale offered very little language (or meaning, for that matter).
If you remove the middle, I think you have the perfect, emotional, melancholic story. Briar Rose could be that AND profound, and I wish it were.
sunnybopeep's review against another edition
4.5
Honestly? Despite all of the horrible things that just continuously happen over and over and over in this book, it was super cathartic and just what I needed.
A postmodern masterpiece? Nah.
But it’s a really fun exercise in twisting a fairytale that is beautifully written!
A postmodern masterpiece? Nah.
But it’s a really fun exercise in twisting a fairytale that is beautifully written!
redeyedandhungry's review against another edition
1.0
I don't know what he's done but Robert Coover should be arrested for whatever he did that inspired him to write this.
sarainfantasyland's review against another edition
3.0
A rather unsettling re imagining of Sleep Beauty. No idea what was "real" or what was a dream with an open ending that left me rather unsatisfied.
The point got itself across though; sitting around dreaming and waiting for the "one" to rescue you doesn't do much good at all.
The point got itself across though; sitting around dreaming and waiting for the "one" to rescue you doesn't do much good at all.