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vcbsantos 's review for:
A Wild Swan: And Other Tales
by Michael Cunningham
I'm such a huge fairytale fangirl that I was sure I was going to love this, even if it wasn't great. If only just for the joy of reading retellings and themes that I'm so fond of.
This was my first Cummingham and, alas, it will be my last. This was...not good. It kind of perturbed me the whole way through and it's hard to pinpoint exactly why. The way he wrote certain things, certain details, and particularly the way he wrote women, made me get this gut feeling that I wouldn't like him very much as a person. Many bits made me feel icky. That's what this whole collection was for me: a combination of bland unremarkable retellings and a large spoonful of icky.
I don't mean to say it was obviously awful or offensive or anything of the like. But it didn't gel with me at all. The tone was off-putting, a little self-important. And honestly I didn't think any of these stories were particularly imaginative or well executed.
This book's saving grace is Yuko Shimizu's absolutely stunning artwork. Worth a flip-through at the very least just to experience that.
This was my first Cummingham and, alas, it will be my last. This was...not good. It kind of perturbed me the whole way through and it's hard to pinpoint exactly why. The way he wrote certain things, certain details, and particularly the way he wrote women, made me get this gut feeling that I wouldn't like him very much as a person. Many bits made me feel icky. That's what this whole collection was for me: a combination of bland unremarkable retellings and a large spoonful of icky.
I don't mean to say it was obviously awful or offensive or anything of the like. But it didn't gel with me at all. The tone was off-putting, a little self-important. And honestly I didn't think any of these stories were particularly imaginative or well executed.
This book's saving grace is Yuko Shimizu's absolutely stunning artwork. Worth a flip-through at the very least just to experience that.