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Loading... Mirror, Mirrorby Gregory Maguire
 CasaBooks | Apr 28, 2013 |  I was in the mood for some fairy tales, and I saw this on the shelf at the library. I really wanted to like it. Instead, I kept reading because I was sure it was going to get good at some point. The premise sounded interesting, but the plot was convoluted, annoying, and historically meh. There was so much Maguire could have done with this that he passed over, such as the established moral ambiguity of his "dwarfs," which were closer to rock spirits than actual dwarfs. They started out as interesting possibilities, lacking in much emotion and as slow-moving as a quick-paced ent. But Maguire couldn't figure out what they looked like, opting for vague waves at cloven hoofs and stone bodies instead of presenting any type of description. I could have gotten over it, but they really had no motivation to care about the humans in the story other than that the story of Snow White demanded it. I didn't either, really. The only character who interested me -- an Italian woman named Primavera. Really? Really? -- was quite forcibly silenced partway through the novel. There was some Biblical allegory thrown in, some menstrual blood symbolism that didn't really seem to have a point, and a chick who had at some point had sex with a squid. Also, what? I want to read about that person because she is infinitely more interesting than anything that happened in this story. Maguire picked the worst people he could come up with and cast them as the villains in his story. As a result, this is a forced Snow White adaptation which is less interested in the actual narrative than in writing a love letter to the Borgias. Especially Lucrezia, by whom the author seems fascinated but is instead conveyed as an unsympathetic, dull, and stereotypical femme fatale. I give this book a giant "whatever." (  ) eldashwood | Apr 17, 2013 | I don't know why I keep going back to Maguire's books. They're dense and depressing. I do, however, appreciate that the books make me think. After reading Wicked and Confession, I got "smart" with this one and scanned it, only reading the parts that made it a story for me. That means that essentially I skipped the first 160 pages or so, then allowed myself to skip the overly-long or depressing passages. I may be onto something here - skim and skip. Maybe I'll get Son of a Witch, after all. ( ) FiberBabble | Mar 30, 2013 | I really liked Maguire's reinterpretation of Snow White, Borgias and all, which surprised me in a good way because I had disliked Lost so much that I was really afraid to approach another Maguire book. But this was quite good. I was interested and engaged from the first few pages; I liked that Bianca's father had personality and character and that the dwarves were so strange. Really recommend this one. (  ) makaiju | Sep 29, 2012 | This book has an interesting concept, but it was just too dry and dense for me. (  ) sapphireblueeye | Jul 8, 2012 | no reviews | add a review Is contained inIs an adaptation of
Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0060988657, Paperback)The year is 1502, and seven-year-old Bianca de Nevada lives perched high above the rolling hills and valleys of Tuscany and Umbria at Montefiore, the farm of her beloved father, Don Vicente. But one day a noble entourage makes its way up the winding slopes to the farm -- and the world comes to Montefiore. In the presence of Cesare Borgia and his sister, the lovely and vain Lucrezia -- decadent children of a wicked pope -- no one can claim innocence for very long. When Borgia sends Don Vicente on a years-long quest, he leaves Bianca under the care -- so to speak -- of Lucrezia. She plots a dire fate for the young girl in the woods below the farm, but in the dark forest salvation can be found as well ... A lyrical work of stunning creative vision, Mirror Mirror gives fresh life to the classic story of Snow White -- and has a truth and beauty all its own. (retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:29:55 -0500) A story of affecting poetry and romance, 'Mirror Mirror' constitutes the world of the Renaissance as a troubled and magical time in which Vatican corruption, Atlantic exploration and conquest, and the secrets husbanded in Byzantine monasteries come to bear on the life of Bianca Nevada.… (more) |
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I liked this one and so much better than "Wicked" (in my opinion)
but liked "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" much much better.
Read in 2008. (