James Finn Garner

This is obviously the wrong season to be reading holiday books, but I'm very much anti-Christmas so anytime of year is the perfect time to read about a more enlightened holiday season! Garner's prose is simple, engaging, and quietly witty, which really sets him apart from some of the other writers of satirical holiday stories. I thought his interpretation of Dickens' Christmas Carol was particularly well done, since it gave readers the expected cycnical take on the story, but twisted the show more finale to be far less predictable. People may change, even the old Scrooge, but even with carefully planned crash-immersion therapy people act in unpredictable ways and are able to continue taking advantage of the system! show less

More "enlightened" fairy tales. In this one little red riding hood, the wolf and Grandma all end up cohabitating in a non-conventional family after the killing of the woodsman who came to the rescue with his less enlightened manly point of view. The three billy goats gruff are all codependent. The three little pigs fight back for their houses and an overzealous land developer. The woman at the prince's ball that Cinderella attended all end up taking off their finery and enjoy themselves sans show more corsets etc. In the emperor's new clothes the whole town ends up partying naked in the streets. Fun tongue in cheek look at fairy tales. show less

This parody of politically correct paranoia is absolutely hilarious. Garner milks our politically correct jargon for every ounce of ridiculousness it can render. I love the part at the end of Goldilocks when the bears gobble up Goldilocks and Baby Bear says, "But dad, I thought we were vegetarian." And Father Bear replies, "Well, we are, son. But that's the beauty of being multicultural: you are always open to trying new things." LOL.

I originally read this collection when I was a kid - it seemed to go hand in hand with the surge in popularity during the 1990s for modernized fairytales, and I read all of them that I could get my hands on - and it still holds up to re-reading it 20-odd years later. Political correctness never goes out of style (or in some cases, mocking political correctness, as this collection sometimes seems to), and it's always nice to see stereotypes turned upon their heads. The bears turning on show more Goldilocks is one of the most memorable moments from the collection, but I think the story that made me laugh the most is when the Emperor (of invisible clothes fame) manages to turn his kingdom into a clothing-optional society. Take that, dress codes! show less