A Wild Swan and Other Tales

A Wild Swan: And Other Tales offered more hits than misses, which, for a collection of short stories, equals a successful reading experience for me. This was my first time reading anything by Michael Cunningham and I quite enjoyed how deep he took me inside the characters' minds, hearts and souls. I always say one thing I like retellings to do is add depth to the originals' characters -- Cunningham did exactly that! He also chose the somewhat darker path of the originals -- another favorite of mine.

The retellings were modernized but they weren't drastically different from their originals. So if you're someone who prefers the author make a lot of changes or add a lot of new stuff you may be better off with another collection; for show more example, The Witch And Other Tales Re-Told by Jean Thompson.

Hmm, if I were threatened with a poisoned apple, I'd have to pick "A Wild Swan" as my favorite of the collection. It retold tales classified within The Maiden Who Seeks Her Brothers such as "The Six Swans" and "The Twelve Brothers," but told from the POV of the twelfth brother who was left with a wing instead of an arm after the enchantment was lifted.

"Little Man," a retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, tugged at my heartstrings. "Steadfast; Tin" offered an honest portrayal of marriage and true happy endings. That one was a tearjerker. "Beasts" had a twist ending. Finally, "Ever/After" was a fitting close to the collection and another story that choked me up with its depiction of real love, family, and happily ever after.

4 stars show less

A short but very excellent collection of what I would term Fractured Fairy Tales. The essential stories we grew up on, just from a slightly different perspective and a little bit more real. "Crazy Old Lady" tells the story of Hansel and Gretel from the Witch's perspective, "Little Man" from Rumpelstiltskin's. "Her Hair" is the somewhat horrific aftermath of Rapunzel. A worth while read.

Quotes:
"Jacked" - Fair tales are generally moral tales. In the bleaker version of this one, mother and son both starve to death. That lesson would be: Mothers, try to be realistic about your imbecilic sons, no matter how charming their sly little grins, no matter how heartbreaking the dark-gold tousle of their hair. If you romanticize them, if you insist show more on virtues they clearly lack, if you persist in your blind desire to have raised a wise child, one who'll be helpful in your old age... don't be surprised if you find that you've fallen on the bathroom floor, and end up spending the night there, because he's out drinking with his friends until dawn.

"Steadfast; Tin" - They Stay married...because the marriage isn't all that bad, because getting unmarried seems so difficult, so frightening, so sad. They can separate after the kitchen is finished; after the kids are a little older; after they as a couple have finally passed through the realm of irritation and bickering, and reached the frozen waste of the unbearable. show less

This review is for the audio version of Michael Cunningham's A Wild Swan. I am a fan of retelling a familiar story from either a different perspective (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead) or with a different emphasis, which this collection does with several fairy tales. This collection succeeds primarily because it keeps the basic structure of each tale but delves a bit deeper into the psychology motivating the characters. The originals were primarily written to influence the actions of the reader, to establish or enforce the norms of the time. While that is not lost in these stories, the emphasis is on an almost tongue-in-cheek psychological analysis (and the periodic sociological analysis as well) of the characters.

The audio show more version was tremendous! I have to disclose that I am a big fan of Lili Taylor so I started out a bit biased, I'm sure. She delivered as I expected and Billy Hough was also phenomenal. They did a masterful job of highlighting key passages through subtle intonations and pauses.

I would definitely recommend the audio version to anyone interested in short tales and in nuanced modernizations of classic tales.

Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads First Reads. show less

Dis. enchant - A lyrical introduction that examines the fact that only the most excellent among us are the targets of a witch's curse or a god's punishment. Most of us are safe. And it doesn't even take a supernatural being to bring down evil upon the most beautiful, blessed, and gifted. Anyone can do it with a will and a little bit of know how.

A Wild Swan - Everyone knows the story of the 11 royal princes who were turned into swans by an evil queen. They know about their devoted sister who learned the cure and made them coats of feathers that would make them human again. She didn't quite finish the last coat so one unlucky brother still had a swan wing instead of a human arm. Whatever happened to that brother? This story tells his show more sorry tale.

Crazy Old Lady - An aging spinster makes herself into the knowledgeable matron who teaches young and experienced boys how to please women. But as she continues to age and rents rise and times change, she moves out to the forest and builds herself a cottage out of candy. But when the children come to her, she finds that the modern youth are neither ignorant nor innocent. They are already debauched by porn and covered in tattoos. They eat her house, even though the candy is fortified with chemicals to withstand weather, and eventually pitch her headlong into the oven.

Jacked - A jaded retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk in which Jack is a wastrel and the giants are a feuding couple with a rocky marriage. Jack and his mother steal from the giant but keep coming back for more as they are too irresponsible and greedy to maintain their lifestyle unaided. The giant's wife keeps helping Jack because she resents her husband and hopes to get some petty revenge. In the end, the giant is glad to perish by falling to his death, as all his life is one bitter disappointment.

Poisoned - The prince and Sleeping Beauty argue about the small offenses of their lives before the prince convinces her to climb back in her glass coffin and pretend to still be asleep for awhile. The prince has some sort of semi-sexual obsession with that moment of potential before he kissed her.

A Monkey's Paw - A stranger passing in the night gives an impoverished couple an odd gift: a monkey's paw. He tells them to only use it to make very reasonable wishes and leaves in a hurry. The couple try their best to use in carefully but end up with their dead son returning to live with them as a rotten corpse.

Little Man - A retelling of Rumpelstiltskin from the perspective of the titular character. He has long given up hope of falling in love and having a child of his own. He's given up hope of adoption as well. At this point, there is only the hope that someday he will come upon an unwanted child and make it his own. Everything changes, when he takes pity upon a poor girl who has been condemned by her lying father and the greedy king. Although the plan is barely forming in his mind, he decides to help her.

Steadfast; Tin - Modern retelling of the old fairy tale about love and destiny. This time, the tin soldier is an amputee who thinks he'll never find love until he meets a girl who he has a unique bond with. Their relationship is scrutinized by their teenage daughter, who has many criticisms.

Beasts - A dark, fatalistic retelling of Beauty and the Beast in which the protagonist is a bored village girl who distains her prospects in her backwater home and sets out to make the most of this adventure. She eventually returns home after the beast despairs of her ever loving him, but those who used to know her are now suspicious. In the end she returns to the beast and promises to marry him out of spite to all those gossips back home. But after the enchantment ends, she begins to wonder if this handsome prince was bespelled for obvious reasons. What exactly has she unleashed?

Her Hair - The story of Rapunzel after the prince fell from the tower and was blinded. He searches everywhere and with difficulty for her - as the witch has banished her to a distant land. They are eventually reunited. She still keeps her hair and cares for it in rich, lustrous cords.

Ever/after. - The focus of this story is what happens after the "happily ever after". What does the life of a royal couple brought together by magic and destiny look like? Do they remain faithful? Do they go to their deathbeds in peace? And what about their children and grandchildren? A bittersweet story about the playing out of a married life.

This collection of stories is beautiful, affecting, thoughtful, poetic, and ultimately familiar. The author's goal is to examine the parts of the fairy tales that remain unspoken or covered over by predictable narrative turns of phrase. Sometimes they are set in the fairy tale context, sometimes in a more modern or cynical time. Each is uniquely interesting and lovingly told. show less

Fairy tale retellings are one of my 'things,' so I had to pick this up when I came across it on the library shelf. I haven't read anything else by this Pulitzer Prize-winning author, so I can't compare this to his other writings.

The stories collected here are very consistent in 'feel' throughout. Each takes a fairy tale (or other well-known tale), and injects it with a dash of the modern-day (without wholly removing its more 'classic' elements), and twists the story a bit in order to accentuate the ironic, and perhaps make a bitter comment on humanity. There aren't a lot of happy endings to be found here.


Dis. Enchant.
This very brief piece on the theme of 'ordinary' people being resentful and jealous of the 'extraordinary' sets the tone show more of the book very well. If you like this piece, I'd recommend continuing. If you don't - the book might not be for you.

A Wild Swan
Based on: The Wild Swans: http://hca.gilead.org.il/wild_swa.html
All happens as it did in the Andersen tale - the brothers transformed, the sister who works to rescue them from the curse. But the author focuses on what happened to the one brother who was left with a swan's wing; transposing him in his trauma from the fantasy castle to a contemporary setting of bars full of alcoholic, depressed victims of curses.

Crazy Old Lady
Based on: Hansel and Gretel
The woman who focused on sex and good times while all her friends were getting married and settling down always dreamed of being a 'Mrs. Robinson'-style cougar in her later years. To her dismay, as she ages, she realized the boys just aren't interested. A bit unhinged, she decides to build a candy-and-gingerbread cottage. What eventually happens mirrors what happened to the witch in Hansel and Gretel a bit more closely than she expected. But the kids who visit her are no innocents.

Jacked
Based on: Jack and the Beanstalk
Here, the classic story is infused with plenty of authorial commentary on topics such as how very foolish it is to entrust your last cow to an 'imbecilic son' who'd trade it to a stranger for a handful of beans. It also comments on the very questionable morality of everything Jack does, although his burglaries and thefts certainly allow he and his mother to buy private planes, remote island, and limited edition Murakami Louis Vuitton handbags.

Poisoned
Based on: Snow White
After rescuing Snow White from her glass coffin, the prince develops a pervy obsession.

A Monkey's Paw
Based on: the W.W. Jacobs story, of course. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey's_Paw)
The twist is: What if they didn't use the third wish to send away the rotted corpse of their son? What if they invited him back anyways?
The story becomes a disturbing digression on the erosion of happiness.

Little Man
Based on: Rumplestiltskin
I've read other positive representations of the titular ugly 'little man' of the Rumplestiltskin story. Here, he is consumed by the desire to have a child: to be a good father and to pass on his knowledge to a new generation. His efforts to help a hapless girl spin straw into gold are motivated largely by kindness. But we all know what happens to a dream deferred... or denied.

Steadfast, Tin
Based on: Hans Christian Andersen's Steadfast Tin Soldier
A modern relationship is depicted here, which may mirror the tragic fairy tale in certain respects. At least, the woman in the relationship seems to think it does; and her daughter explicitly think that her mother used telling her the story as a way to try to explain her parents' relationship.
The story rather deftly questions the concept of destiny and true love, as it describes a troubled - but eventually 'steadfast' - marriage.

Beasts
Based on: Beauty and the Beast
Ooh, this was a twist on the story that I hadn't ever actually seen before. (And I've read a LOT of takes on this story.) I thought it worked really well, too. I might even say it was Angela Carter-worthy. Here, many events proceed as expected, with the additional information that Beauty herself might've been less meek and selfless, and more hopeless and frustrated than we thought. She professes her love for the Beast and breaks the spell... but have you ever considered WHY someone might've cast such a spell on the Beast?

Her Hair
Based on Rapunzel
Beginning where the story usually ends, this shows us a blind man at the fulfillment of his long and arduous quest to find his love. The short piece quickly becomes a metaphor about how we all sometimes hide certain things in relationships, to keep others happy.

Ever/After
I guess Cunningham didn't want to end the book on a low note, because this original fairy tale of an arranged royal marriage that works out surprisingly well is a love letter to life, with all its quotidian warts and travails.

Note: The illustrations here, by Yuko Shimizu, are exquisite. Simple, stark black-and-white, like something from a less-perverse Aubrey Beardsley. I couldn't help feeling like they belonged to a less earthy, more transcendent collection of fairy tales, though. show less

Michael Cunningham's clever twists on traditional fairy tales provides not-for-the-kids entertainment in macabre and dark fashion. Although we all know that even the traditional fairy tales were sanitized for children (they are all really rather dark and violent by nature), Cunningham's take on such familiar tales as "Snow White" and "Rapunzel" adds a layer of psychological and emotional complexity that really elevates the stories to an entirely different plane.

Having never read anything by Cunningham, I was impressed with his writing. (I have since discovered that he is a Pultizer Prize-winner, which doesn't surprise me, based on the quality and depth of his writing in "A Wild Swan.") Descriptions in each story are beautifully conveyed show more with just the right bit of humor, irony, sadness, and anger. The stunning illustrations by Yuko Shimizu are a perfect match for Cunningham, easily evoking the exact emotions that Cunningham elicits from his writing.

This book was a very fast read, and I enjoyed every story (although my favorite was his take on "Beauty and the Beast"). Highly recommended. show less

I thought most of the stories were fantastic -- humorous, wry and wise. The illustrations and book design are outstanding and really make this a beautiful book. Bravo for putting together such a nice work of art.

I did feel, however, that the last two stories weren't up to the mark, and wonder if someone was pressuring Cunningham to pad this slim volume. It's something you used to see with some records, too, once upon a time. I would advise readers to just skip those last two. Make your own mix-tape, as it were.