The novelist Michael Cunningham's reimagined fairy tales in A Wild Swan, beautifully illustrated by Yuko Shimizu in a style that recalls Aubrey Beardsley with a touch of Maurice Sendak, are fractured in more ways than one…"I dig out beautiful caves behind my characters," [Virginia] Woolf wrote in the diary entry Cunningham used as an epigraph to The Hours. "I think that gives exactly what I want: humanity, humor, depth." Cunningham has performed a similar operation on the 10 tales he has selected for transformation. Andersen and the Brothers Grimm were notably sparing in character motivation. For the stories in A Wild Swan, Cunningham has dug out caves of humanity, humor and depth behind some well-known characters.
The New York Times Book Review - Christopher Benfey
09/07/2015
"Delicious, shivery, sophisticated fairy stories as spat from the pen of a Pulitzer Prize–winning author. 'Most of us are safe,' Cunningham writes in his astonishing preface. 'If you’re not a delirious dream the gods are having, if your beauty doesn’t trouble the constellations, nobody’s going to cast a spell on you.' But Cunningham will, and does. In a market oversaturated by reworked fairy tales, his are the best." —Katy Waldman, Slate A Wild Swan is] positively delectable. I had no idea Mr. Cunningham had it in him . . . He can't help but write movingly, even as he's setting fire to our most cherished childhood texts. The book is studded with unexpected moments of grace." —Jennifer Senior, The New York Times The Independent A Wild Swan is an enchantment." —Alissa Schappell, Vanity Fair San Francisco Chronicle The Hours : 'I think that's exactly what I want: humanity, humor, depth.' Cunningham has performed a similar operation on the 10 tales he has selected for transformation . . . For the stories in A Wild Swan , Cunningham has dug out caves of humanity, humor and depth behind some well-known characters." —Christopher Benfey, The New York Times Book Review The Economist Miami Herald Booklist The Snow Queen ) offers elegant, sardonic retellings of 10 iconic fairy tales . . . Cunningham’s tales enlarge rather than reduce the haunting mystery of their originals. Striking black-and-white images from illustrator Shimizu add a fitting visual counterpoint to a collection at once dark and delightful." —Publishers Weekly
10/15/2015
How should fairy tales sound? When it comes to Michael Cunningham’s marvelous reimagining of 11 well-known stories, they should sound exactly the way Lili Taylor and Billy Hough deliver them. Their forthright, even cheerful, American tones as they alternate the delivery of each story lull the listener and magnify the inevitable surprise. Over and over, Taylor and Hough offer up the prettiest rose for us to sniff and at just the right moment, let the thorn prick us. Their pacing is immaculate. Cunningham’s contemporary reconsiderations of these age-old stories include more wry humor and downright comedy than the originals. “Beauty and the Beast,” for instance, becomes “Beasts.” Yet they are just as morally profound, occasionally shocking, and enticing as the originals. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine
DECEMBER 2015 - AudioFile
2015-08-16
