Mirror, Mirror on the Wall : Women Writers Explore Their Favorite Fairy Tales

Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking and fun.
Review: Some short, some long, these essays are everything from quick and wandering dialogues to beautifully crafted essays. They're not necessarily *about* anything in particular. The only thing they have in common is that the authors, many of whom will be known to you, use a fairy tale as a sounding board for their miscellaneous ideas... on girlhood, feminism, and storytelling. They are of wide variety (some are less ambitious than others), all engaging. The only downside is that it's a quick read -- more like reading magazine articles than an absorbing non-fiction book.

Rating:
Summary: Important Contribution to Folklore Field
Review: This collection of essays should have received a lot more attention as an important contribution to the folklore field when it was first published. I don't understand why it was not reviewed more broadly. Bernheimer's book should be of interest to anyone who reads or studies fairy tales -- and who doesn't?

Rating:
Summary: Provocative and often surprising
Review: This collection was a splendid idea on the part of editor Kate Bernheimer. It's fascinating to see how many superb contemporary female writers (I dislike the term "woman writer"--have you ever heard of a "man writer"?) have been inspired or influenced by specific fairy tales, often in astonishing ways. Each writer was asked to respond to a question about how she herself responded to one or more fairy tales. The results range from fictional revisions of famous tales to meditations, confessions, or brief and very interesting scholarly essays. Bernheimer asked the right women, too: Margaret Atwood, Fay Weldon, Joyce Carol Oates, some young writers just starting out, and some surprises. I borrowed this book from the library and then realized that I had to buy my own copy!