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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
The prose was lovely, and a few of the stories had moments of brilliance, but overall left me feeling unimpressed.
Contemporary short stories based on fairy tales we all enjoyed as a child. Well written and extremely fast paced.
Michael Cunningham takes a feather from Angela Carter ([b:The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories|49011|The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories|Angela Carter|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388633104s/49011.jpg|47950]) and updates a handful of well-known and quite iconic fairy stories.
Instead of feminism and subversion as the main (re)active ingredients, Cunningham opts for a difficult combination of modernism and satire.
This works particularly well in his rendition of ‘The Monkey’s Paw’, and less well with Cinderella and Jack and the Beanstalk – probably because these characters are so mythopoeic already, and therefore they actively resist Cunningham’s attempts at humanising their contexts.
While not entirely successful, this collection is ample evidence of both Cunningham’s technical proficiency and rich humanism.
Instead of feminism and subversion as the main (re)active ingredients, Cunningham opts for a difficult combination of modernism and satire.
This works particularly well in his rendition of ‘The Monkey’s Paw’, and less well with Cinderella and Jack and the Beanstalk – probably because these characters are so mythopoeic already, and therefore they actively resist Cunningham’s attempts at humanising their contexts.
While not entirely successful, this collection is ample evidence of both Cunningham’s technical proficiency and rich humanism.
I have to admid first that I only read 3 of the stories, however I feel this is enough.
Everyone seems to like this collection and I'm not that sure why. Well, it kind of is a collection of tales for our cynic society.
The first story I read, the title story, was just kind of depressing without really making a comment about either society nor the original fairy tale.
The beauty and the beast one was just really problematic, and I don't often say that, but the narrator assuming it is hard for a widowed father not to molest his daughters and the protagonist not loving the beast because he is decent and doesn't rape her just totally feels wrong. And it isn't even satirical or anything, maybe I just don't get it, but: why???
The monkey paw retelling was just plain boring, which is saying a lot about a story with a disfigured corpse running around. How isn't this even interesting or at least really weird?
This didn't even have a particular good style of writing.
The only reason to go on with this would be to rant about it, but I can do enough of that with the stories I read. Really not my taste.
Everyone seems to like this collection and I'm not that sure why. Well, it kind of is a collection of tales for our cynic society.
The first story I read, the title story, was just kind of depressing without really making a comment about either society nor the original fairy tale.
The beauty and the beast one was just really problematic, and I don't often say that, but the narrator assuming it is hard for a widowed father not to molest his daughters and the protagonist not loving the beast because he is decent and doesn't rape her just totally feels wrong. And it isn't even satirical or anything, maybe I just don't get it, but: why???
The monkey paw retelling was just plain boring, which is saying a lot about a story with a disfigured corpse running around. How isn't this even interesting or at least really weird?
This didn't even have a particular good style of writing.
The only reason to go on with this would be to rant about it, but I can do enough of that with the stories I read. Really not my taste.
Enticing, charming, wicked, humorous, tragic.
My take-away: We humans are insatiable, blind to our happiness, perverse and twisted in our longings and needs. We are hopeless as well in our romanticism and belief in happy endings. But often enough there are no happy endings, there are just make beliefs and "what-you-make-of-its". And this marvellous collection of adapted short stories proves this just so.
The stories weave themselves magically under Cunningham's pen. He transports them with ease into our modern day and age, extrapolating meaning and essence with the precision of a maid working needlepoint to save her soul from a boring and inescapable ever-after by selling her craft to better-off clientele.
The illustrations by Yuko Shimizu are intricate, beautiful in their black ad white Gothic romance.
A delightful read.
My take-away: We humans are insatiable, blind to our happiness, perverse and twisted in our longings and needs. We are hopeless as well in our romanticism and belief in happy endings. But often enough there are no happy endings, there are just make beliefs and "what-you-make-of-its". And this marvellous collection of adapted short stories proves this just so.
The stories weave themselves magically under Cunningham's pen. He transports them with ease into our modern day and age, extrapolating meaning and essence with the precision of a maid working needlepoint to save her soul from a boring and inescapable ever-after by selling her craft to better-off clientele.
The illustrations by Yuko Shimizu are intricate, beautiful in their black ad white Gothic romance.
A delightful read.
I find fairy tales to be a rich canvas upon which to draw any number of threads on how humans see the world, interact, and reflect upon the nature of existence. Through being one of the prototypical depictions of fantasy, a deep well of classic archetypes from an idealized past, they are well suited to use as a canvas to explore a rich tapestry of themes. The Wild Swan and Other Tales by Michael Cunningham may be among the most effecting such retellings that I’ve read.
In this collection of short stories riffing on a series of fairy tales and other classic stories (Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, the Monkey’s Paw, etc.) Cunningham deftly looks at the bones of the story and takes them to new, contemporary places. Following threads only hinted at in the original works, he explores the unstated pain and joy in each of the stories, taking the long ago and far away to illustrate the commonality of humanity in storytelling. Kingdoms with mass media, the unforeseen side effects of broken curses, witches working in bars, comedy and tragedy, heartbreak and romance. The accompanying artwork by Yuko Shimizu, eerie and romantic and twisted, was a perfect companion to Cunningham’s deceptively simple writing. This was the first work by Cunningham I’ve read, and I would definitely check him out again.
In this collection of short stories riffing on a series of fairy tales and other classic stories (Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, the Monkey’s Paw, etc.) Cunningham deftly looks at the bones of the story and takes them to new, contemporary places. Following threads only hinted at in the original works, he explores the unstated pain and joy in each of the stories, taking the long ago and far away to illustrate the commonality of humanity in storytelling. Kingdoms with mass media, the unforeseen side effects of broken curses, witches working in bars, comedy and tragedy, heartbreak and romance. The accompanying artwork by Yuko Shimizu, eerie and romantic and twisted, was a perfect companion to Cunningham’s deceptively simple writing. This was the first work by Cunningham I’ve read, and I would definitely check him out again.