Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The Secret Lives of Fairy Tales

Short Story by Steven Popkes

Cynical, modern retellings of 5 fairy tales, loosely connected. The Snow White and Cinderella vignettes do form a coherent story, while the other three are just loosely tied in.

Quite funny throughout, I'm especially fond of the dirty-old-man interpretation of The Emperor's New Clothes. The other thing that stood out was the happy but not Happily Ever After ending and the finding joy in the moment, regardless of what the "ever after" might be.

The Secret Lives of Fairy Tales is funny and still manages to have some depth and meaning. It isn't Into the Woods, but what is? 4 out of 5 magic beans look suspiciously like mushrooms, because they're magic.

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