Ruth’s Comments (group member since Jan 11, 2016)

Ruth’s comments from the The Last Day of the Month Book Club group.

Although I didn't hate this book, I probably wouldn't read it again. I think it would make good research material for an author thinking about writing a book set in this period. It would certainly make their lives easier!

I liked learning about how women's lives were at the time - plenty of things have changed but a surprising amount haven't. It was fun every time there was a mention of York too.

I dipped in and out of it, but didn't feel compelled to read it cover to cover. It wasn't difficult to read, but I just wasn't hugely interested in the subject matter.

Any re-interpretation of fairy tales will always have my interest and attentions, so perhaps this book was an easy-win for me... there was very little chance I would hate it, given the subject matter. What is it about fairy tales? Why are they so fascinating? Hrmmm...

I enjoyed the style change, as it helped to shake things up a little - as soon as you begin a tale with "once upon a time" you are entering into a formulaic, fixed style that has to follow certain conventions. Changing the linguistic style allows the reader to feel that other changes will occur too, so they can no longer predict how the tale will turn out. Beautiful characters are no longer necessarily beautiful on the inside... step-mothers can be good rather than being doomed to be evil, and little pigs aren't always the ones you feel sorry for, when faced with the wolf.

I think I figured them all out, although some seemed to be a mix of several fairy tales - one contained elements from Rapunzel and Beauty and the Beast. Another was Rumplestiltskin and Beauty and the Beast again. I do love fairy tales and am fairly familiar with them, so didn't have any trouble spotting the re-adapted characters. The author obviously had a lot of fun subverting the tropes and clichés of the original tales and re-writing them in a fresh and new manner, which made them feel a little playful and kept them interesting. In particular, her characters are obviously a lot less one dimensional than in the original tales, as she was working with a different linguistic style and intention than, say, the brothers Grimm. Being able to expand on notions of grey ethical status and complex motivations makes the stories rich and lively, while still familiar enough to be oddly comforting. A pleasure to read for the second time.

I really enjoy short story collections. They are so easy to digest. You can pick the book up, drop into a story and drop out again ten minutes later. As you suggest above, some collections feel more like they are "meant" to go together and New World Fairy Tales is one of those. Although it wouldn't matter which order you read the tales in, the fairy-tale theme runs through them all, and the "interview" style narration. It feels cohesive, which was pleasing.