sarahmichelef

Mirror, Mirror. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves à la Gregory Maguire. It was definitely interesting; I didn't feel sucked in but then, before I knew what was happening, I was nearly done reading it.

Part of this is because it takes a very long time to get to the story as we know it. And the wicked stepmother isn't a wicked stepmother - she's Lucrezia Borgia, who is sort of camped out in Bianca de Nevada's (aka Snow White's) house after Cesare Borgia sent her father off on a search for a branch of a tree (the tree?) from the Garden of Eden.

Also, what is it about the books that I'm reading lately and brother/sister incest? Supposedly Lucrezia and Cesare were ... fonder of each other and the reason Lucrezia sent Bianca off to be killed was because on his deathbed Cesare was ogling her. Anyway, so Lucrezia sends her off but the woodsman who is supposed to kill her doesn't and she somehow ends up living with the seven dwarves, who are really supposed to be eight but one of them went away... it turns out that he's been with Bianca's father the entire time. And the mirror, which Bianca's father finds in a lake at the beginning of the book is theirs and they want it back.

Yeah, it bears absolutely zero resemblance to the Disney version. In case that wasn't perfectly obvious.

That's enough plot synopsis... I find it really interesting how he located the story of Snow White in the geopolitical landscape of 16th century Italy. Not that I know that much about the geopolitics of 16th century Italy...

And, as I said... before I knew what was happening, it was over. At the same time, I was left feeling vaguely unsatisfied.