My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me
This book is a collection of forty modern retellings of fairy tales.
The inspirations are pulled from all over the world. Some of the tales
are more faithful to the source material than others. But all of them
remain true to the form.
I love fairy tales. This dates back to my early days watching Disney films. I grew up in the golden age of Disney, when The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King were first released. The Little Mermaid was the first movie I ever saw in the theater and I was downright terrified of Ursula. Cinderella was the first movie I ever owned, and I remember being excited when my dad told me we didn't have to take it back to the store.
I graduated from Disney to the real fairy tales. The Little Mermaid experiences excruciating pain every time she takes a step with her new legs. In the end she turns to sea foam and floats away when her prince chooses a different girl (one that can actually talk). Sleeping Beauty is awakened not by a kiss, but by the cries of her newborn child nine months after the prince finds her alone in the tower. Snow White seeks revenge on her stepmother with a pair of white hot iron slippers. Rumpelstiltskin is so angry at being tricked that he tears himself in half. And Little Red Riding Hood gets eaten by the wolf, The End.
I liked these darker versions so much more. Happily Ever After comes at a cost, if it comes at all. Don't rely on love to save you. And don't talk to strangers. These are far better morals than "be good and pretty and some day your prince will come", as romantic as that dream is. Fairy tales are, in truth, thinly veiled horror stories. They are designed to scare young children into obedience, to teach them about the very real dangers of the world, and to show them that actions have consequences.
When I saw My Mother She Killed Me, My Father She Ate Me, I had to pick it up. I simply couldn't resist the new imaginings of classic fairy tales. Or the title; that's a great title. There really isn't an original version of any fairy tale. There's the version you heard first, the earliest written version you can find, the version you grew up with, the version you like best, the version you remember. But these stories mostly predate the written word. The authors in this volume pick them up, dust them off, and give them new life. Everything and nothing is familiar. That's how fairy tales work.
As is the case with any collection of short stories, I liked some better than others. I adored some of these tales and see many re-readings in my future. Others made less sense, but could get better with a second or third reading and a bit more understanding. A few were difficult to read. Some I couldn't even finish. And one left me with that bile taste in my mouth. Overall, the quality is good and I liked more of the tales than I disliked. Here's a list of all the stories in the book, the fairy tale each was inspired by, and the author. I've also included my thoughts on some of them:
The Pelican Child by Joy Williams, inspired by Baba Yaga.
Ardour by Jonathon Keats, inspired by The Snow Maiden: This story was haunting and tragic. The language pulled me in so completely that I forgot I was in a noisy bar while I was reading it, transported to the snowy woods of Siberia. The story is one I hadn't heard before, and this is a retelling of the tale, or the tale as the author remembers it.
I'm Here by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, inspired by Ivan Tsarevich
The Boy and the Bird by Alissa Nutting, inspired by The Juniper Tree. This is a modern retelling, but it still plays with some of the fantastical elements that appear in fairy tales. It seems to take place in the 1950s (given some of the technological hints). This is the story that the title of the book was taken from, and that's what happens.
Hansel and Gretel by Francine Prose, inspired by Hansel and Gretel
A Day in the Life of Half of Rumpelstiltskin by Kevin Brockmeier, inspired by Rumpelstiltskin. This story takes place a few decades after Rumpelstiltskin tore himself in two in a fit of rage. It follows the left half, who has emigrated across the ocean and maintains a correspondence with his other half, who still lives back in the old country. Half of Rumpelstiltskin has to deal with the challenges that naturally arise from being only half a person.
With Hair of Hand-Spun Gold by Neil LaBute, inspired by Rumpelstiltskin
The Swan Brothers by Shelley Jackson, inspired by The Six Swans. This isn't a tale I'm familiar with, and it took me a while to get through this story. I actually skipped it while reading the book (which is one of the beauties of short story collections)
The Warm Mouth by Joyelle McSweeny, inspired by The Bremen Town Musicians
Snow White, Rose Red by Lydia Millet, inspired by Snow-White and Rose-Red. This story was inspired by a tale I heard or read once when I was very young. It's not quite the familiar tale of Snow White, she has a sister name Rose Red. And after so many years, I half thought I'd dreamed or imagined this alternate Snow White. But then it appeared in this book. It's the tale of two young sisters, one with skin as white as snow, and one with lips as red as a rose who live in a cottage in the woods. They befriend a man living in the woods and he is able to change their lives for the better, though he ends up sacrificing himself in the process.
The Erkling by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, inspired by The Erkling.
Dapplegrim by Brian Evenson, inspired by Dapplegrim. I loved this tale. A man receives a dozen horses as his inheritance. But one is evil, possibly possessed by the devil. It kills all of the other horses, then begins possessing the narrator and making him do awful things.
The Wild Swans by Michael Cunningham, inspired by The Wild Swans
Halfway People by Karen Joy Fowler, inspired by The Wild Swans
Green Air by Rikki Ducornet, inspired by The Little Match Girl (and Bluebeard) This story is a little more abstract than the others. It didn't really speak to me at first, because I didn't quite get it. Reality and fantasy intertwine and it's hard to figure out what actually happened. But I feel like it will make more sense on a second or third read-through and that I'll grow to like it more.
The Mermaid in the Tree by Timothy Schaffert, inspired by The Little Mermaid
What the Conch Shell Sings When the Body is Gone by Katherine Vaz, inspired by The Little Mermaid
The Snow Queen by Karen Brennan, inspired by The Snow Queen. The Snow Queen is one of my favorite fairy tales. It's in a book I had when I was little with beautiful illustrations. A young boy is captured by a snow queen who holds him captive in her wintry fortress and his best friend, a young girl, goes on a journey to save him. I must have read this story hundreds of times growing up. The updated version in this book has a lot of the same imagery as the original, but gets rid of the happy ending. One of the most interesting parts of this story is that I read the entire thing assuming the main character was male and only discovered at the end that she was a woman. This isn't mentioned anywhere in the story, only in the note at the end. And it doesn't really change the reading, but it was a bit of a surprise. I don't know why I assumed the main character was male, though in hindsight I don't think either gender is obvious.
Eyes of Dogs by Lucy Corin, inspired by The Tinder Box. This story is unique. It's actually two stories, side by side, in columns. One is fantastical and has a happy ending. The other starts as fantasy, but moves to the real world. It doesn't have a happy ending
Little Pot by Ilya Kaminsky, inspired by The Teapot
A Bucket of Warm Spit by Michael Martone, inspired by Jack and the Beanstalk. I really didn't like this story. It had a weird, repetitive rhythm that I just couldn't get in to. And the imagery made me a little sick. But this is what happens with a collection of short stories. You're never going to like all of them.
Catskin by Kelly Link, inspired by Catskin
Teague O'Kane and the Corpse by Chris Adrian, inspired by Teague O'Kane and the Corpse. At first I thought this was going to be a version of Beauty and the Beast. A vain man refuses to dance with a disfigured woman at a club. She gives him several chances to be kind, but he refuses all of them. So she and her family punish him. But the punishment is far darker than the one inflicted in Beauty and the Beast, and there's no chance of redemption for Teague O'Kane.
Pleasure Boating in Lituya Bay by Jim Shepard, inspired by Jump Into My Sack
Body-Without-Soul by Kathryn Davis, inspired by Body-Without-Soul
The Girl, the Wolf, and the Crone by Kellie Wells, inspired by The Story of Grandmother This is an interesting twist on Red Riding Hood (I'm guessing that The Story of Grandmother is the Italian version of this tale). In it, a girl is told to bring food to a sick wolf. But an evil witch leads her down the wrong path, then pretends to be the wolf. I laughed when the little girl said "What blue hair you have", because it's just such an absurd image. Of course the little old lady dyed her hair blue.
My Brother Gary Made a Movie and This Is What Happened by Sabrina Orah Mark, inspired by The Young Slave
The Color Master by Aimee Bender, inspired by Donkeyskin. This was a great story. The queen has died and the king has taken it into his head to marry his daughter. He orders three dresses over the course of his courtship (or whatever you call it). The story is about the shop that makes these dresses, one the color of the moon, one the color of the sun, and one the color of the sky. There's a lot of detail about what exactly these colors are. How do you make a dress the color of the moon? Should you even be able to look at the sun dress? Does anyone really know what color that is? How blue should the sky dress be? And through this, the Color Master is telling her apprentice to weave anger into the dress as well. Righteous anger, to give the princess strength to leave her father. But she's not sure how to do that either. This story drew me in so completely I nearly missed my stop on the metro. I love a story that can do that.
The White Cat by Marjorie Sandor, inspired by The White Cat
Blue-Bearded Lover by Joyce Carol Oates, inspired by Bluebeard
Bluebeard in Ireland by John Updike, inspired by Bluebeard
A Kiss to Wake the Sleeper by Rabih Alameddine, inspired by Sleeping Beauty. The Sleeping Beauty in this story is wakened by a kiss on her other lips. It turns into a rather graphic sex scene (told from the point of view of an accidental voyeur). I was reading this on the metro and praying the man next to me wasn't reading over my shoulder. It was all a bit strange and meta.
A Case Study of Emergency Room Procedure and Risk Management by Hospital Staff Members in the Urban Facility by Stacy Richter, inspired by Cinderella
Orange by Neil Gaiman, inspired by The Odyssey
Psyche's Dark Night by Francesca Lia Block, inspired by Psyche and Cupid
The Story of the Mosquito by Lily Hoang, inspired by The Story of the Mosquito. This was a cute origin story about the mosquito. A greedy woman dreams of being married to an ugly, wealthy man who will shower her with gifts and let her do whatever she wants. Naturally, her parents instead give her to a poor, handsome, kind man. She is never satisfied with everything, and eventually wastes away. Because her husband is good, he gives her his blood to bring her back to life. But she remains greedy and eventually threatens to leave him for a wealthier man. He takes his blood back and she transforms into a mosquito, always trying to get back the blood, never satisfied, forever wanting more. The actual story is a lot better than my synopsis
First Day of Snow by Naoko Awa, inspired by A Kamikakushi Tale
I Am Anjuhimeko by Hiromi Ito, inspired by Sansho and the Steward
Coyote Take Us Home by Michael Mejia, inspired by Tales From Jalisco. This is another story that I couldn't quite make it through. It's inspired by true events, I guess. Migrant workers come to America and leave their children behind until they have enough money to send for them. This tale follows the journey of those children as the come to America. There are a lot of fantastical images, and a lot of things that I simply didn't get, I suppose. But not everything is for everyone.
Ever After by Kim Addonizio, inspired by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Whitework by Kate Bernheimer, inspired by The Oval Portrait
I love fairy tales. This dates back to my early days watching Disney films. I grew up in the golden age of Disney, when The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King were first released. The Little Mermaid was the first movie I ever saw in the theater and I was downright terrified of Ursula. Cinderella was the first movie I ever owned, and I remember being excited when my dad told me we didn't have to take it back to the store.
I graduated from Disney to the real fairy tales. The Little Mermaid experiences excruciating pain every time she takes a step with her new legs. In the end she turns to sea foam and floats away when her prince chooses a different girl (one that can actually talk). Sleeping Beauty is awakened not by a kiss, but by the cries of her newborn child nine months after the prince finds her alone in the tower. Snow White seeks revenge on her stepmother with a pair of white hot iron slippers. Rumpelstiltskin is so angry at being tricked that he tears himself in half. And Little Red Riding Hood gets eaten by the wolf, The End.
I liked these darker versions so much more. Happily Ever After comes at a cost, if it comes at all. Don't rely on love to save you. And don't talk to strangers. These are far better morals than "be good and pretty and some day your prince will come", as romantic as that dream is. Fairy tales are, in truth, thinly veiled horror stories. They are designed to scare young children into obedience, to teach them about the very real dangers of the world, and to show them that actions have consequences.
When I saw My Mother She Killed Me, My Father She Ate Me, I had to pick it up. I simply couldn't resist the new imaginings of classic fairy tales. Or the title; that's a great title. There really isn't an original version of any fairy tale. There's the version you heard first, the earliest written version you can find, the version you grew up with, the version you like best, the version you remember. But these stories mostly predate the written word. The authors in this volume pick them up, dust them off, and give them new life. Everything and nothing is familiar. That's how fairy tales work.
As is the case with any collection of short stories, I liked some better than others. I adored some of these tales and see many re-readings in my future. Others made less sense, but could get better with a second or third reading and a bit more understanding. A few were difficult to read. Some I couldn't even finish. And one left me with that bile taste in my mouth. Overall, the quality is good and I liked more of the tales than I disliked. Here's a list of all the stories in the book, the fairy tale each was inspired by, and the author. I've also included my thoughts on some of them:
The Pelican Child by Joy Williams, inspired by Baba Yaga.
Ardour by Jonathon Keats, inspired by The Snow Maiden: This story was haunting and tragic. The language pulled me in so completely that I forgot I was in a noisy bar while I was reading it, transported to the snowy woods of Siberia. The story is one I hadn't heard before, and this is a retelling of the tale, or the tale as the author remembers it.
I'm Here by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, inspired by Ivan Tsarevich
The Boy and the Bird by Alissa Nutting, inspired by The Juniper Tree. This is a modern retelling, but it still plays with some of the fantastical elements that appear in fairy tales. It seems to take place in the 1950s (given some of the technological hints). This is the story that the title of the book was taken from, and that's what happens.
Hansel and Gretel by Francine Prose, inspired by Hansel and Gretel
A Day in the Life of Half of Rumpelstiltskin by Kevin Brockmeier, inspired by Rumpelstiltskin. This story takes place a few decades after Rumpelstiltskin tore himself in two in a fit of rage. It follows the left half, who has emigrated across the ocean and maintains a correspondence with his other half, who still lives back in the old country. Half of Rumpelstiltskin has to deal with the challenges that naturally arise from being only half a person.
With Hair of Hand-Spun Gold by Neil LaBute, inspired by Rumpelstiltskin
The Swan Brothers by Shelley Jackson, inspired by The Six Swans. This isn't a tale I'm familiar with, and it took me a while to get through this story. I actually skipped it while reading the book (which is one of the beauties of short story collections)
The Warm Mouth by Joyelle McSweeny, inspired by The Bremen Town Musicians
Snow White, Rose Red by Lydia Millet, inspired by Snow-White and Rose-Red. This story was inspired by a tale I heard or read once when I was very young. It's not quite the familiar tale of Snow White, she has a sister name Rose Red. And after so many years, I half thought I'd dreamed or imagined this alternate Snow White. But then it appeared in this book. It's the tale of two young sisters, one with skin as white as snow, and one with lips as red as a rose who live in a cottage in the woods. They befriend a man living in the woods and he is able to change their lives for the better, though he ends up sacrificing himself in the process.
The Erkling by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, inspired by The Erkling.
Dapplegrim by Brian Evenson, inspired by Dapplegrim. I loved this tale. A man receives a dozen horses as his inheritance. But one is evil, possibly possessed by the devil. It kills all of the other horses, then begins possessing the narrator and making him do awful things.
The Wild Swans by Michael Cunningham, inspired by The Wild Swans
Halfway People by Karen Joy Fowler, inspired by The Wild Swans
Green Air by Rikki Ducornet, inspired by The Little Match Girl (and Bluebeard) This story is a little more abstract than the others. It didn't really speak to me at first, because I didn't quite get it. Reality and fantasy intertwine and it's hard to figure out what actually happened. But I feel like it will make more sense on a second or third read-through and that I'll grow to like it more.
The Mermaid in the Tree by Timothy Schaffert, inspired by The Little Mermaid
What the Conch Shell Sings When the Body is Gone by Katherine Vaz, inspired by The Little Mermaid
The Snow Queen by Karen Brennan, inspired by The Snow Queen. The Snow Queen is one of my favorite fairy tales. It's in a book I had when I was little with beautiful illustrations. A young boy is captured by a snow queen who holds him captive in her wintry fortress and his best friend, a young girl, goes on a journey to save him. I must have read this story hundreds of times growing up. The updated version in this book has a lot of the same imagery as the original, but gets rid of the happy ending. One of the most interesting parts of this story is that I read the entire thing assuming the main character was male and only discovered at the end that she was a woman. This isn't mentioned anywhere in the story, only in the note at the end. And it doesn't really change the reading, but it was a bit of a surprise. I don't know why I assumed the main character was male, though in hindsight I don't think either gender is obvious.
Eyes of Dogs by Lucy Corin, inspired by The Tinder Box. This story is unique. It's actually two stories, side by side, in columns. One is fantastical and has a happy ending. The other starts as fantasy, but moves to the real world. It doesn't have a happy ending
Little Pot by Ilya Kaminsky, inspired by The Teapot
A Bucket of Warm Spit by Michael Martone, inspired by Jack and the Beanstalk. I really didn't like this story. It had a weird, repetitive rhythm that I just couldn't get in to. And the imagery made me a little sick. But this is what happens with a collection of short stories. You're never going to like all of them.
Catskin by Kelly Link, inspired by Catskin
Teague O'Kane and the Corpse by Chris Adrian, inspired by Teague O'Kane and the Corpse. At first I thought this was going to be a version of Beauty and the Beast. A vain man refuses to dance with a disfigured woman at a club. She gives him several chances to be kind, but he refuses all of them. So she and her family punish him. But the punishment is far darker than the one inflicted in Beauty and the Beast, and there's no chance of redemption for Teague O'Kane.
Pleasure Boating in Lituya Bay by Jim Shepard, inspired by Jump Into My Sack
Body-Without-Soul by Kathryn Davis, inspired by Body-Without-Soul
The Girl, the Wolf, and the Crone by Kellie Wells, inspired by The Story of Grandmother This is an interesting twist on Red Riding Hood (I'm guessing that The Story of Grandmother is the Italian version of this tale). In it, a girl is told to bring food to a sick wolf. But an evil witch leads her down the wrong path, then pretends to be the wolf. I laughed when the little girl said "What blue hair you have", because it's just such an absurd image. Of course the little old lady dyed her hair blue.
My Brother Gary Made a Movie and This Is What Happened by Sabrina Orah Mark, inspired by The Young Slave
The Color Master by Aimee Bender, inspired by Donkeyskin. This was a great story. The queen has died and the king has taken it into his head to marry his daughter. He orders three dresses over the course of his courtship (or whatever you call it). The story is about the shop that makes these dresses, one the color of the moon, one the color of the sun, and one the color of the sky. There's a lot of detail about what exactly these colors are. How do you make a dress the color of the moon? Should you even be able to look at the sun dress? Does anyone really know what color that is? How blue should the sky dress be? And through this, the Color Master is telling her apprentice to weave anger into the dress as well. Righteous anger, to give the princess strength to leave her father. But she's not sure how to do that either. This story drew me in so completely I nearly missed my stop on the metro. I love a story that can do that.
The White Cat by Marjorie Sandor, inspired by The White Cat
Blue-Bearded Lover by Joyce Carol Oates, inspired by Bluebeard
Bluebeard in Ireland by John Updike, inspired by Bluebeard
A Kiss to Wake the Sleeper by Rabih Alameddine, inspired by Sleeping Beauty. The Sleeping Beauty in this story is wakened by a kiss on her other lips. It turns into a rather graphic sex scene (told from the point of view of an accidental voyeur). I was reading this on the metro and praying the man next to me wasn't reading over my shoulder. It was all a bit strange and meta.
A Case Study of Emergency Room Procedure and Risk Management by Hospital Staff Members in the Urban Facility by Stacy Richter, inspired by Cinderella
Orange by Neil Gaiman, inspired by The Odyssey
Psyche's Dark Night by Francesca Lia Block, inspired by Psyche and Cupid
The Story of the Mosquito by Lily Hoang, inspired by The Story of the Mosquito. This was a cute origin story about the mosquito. A greedy woman dreams of being married to an ugly, wealthy man who will shower her with gifts and let her do whatever she wants. Naturally, her parents instead give her to a poor, handsome, kind man. She is never satisfied with everything, and eventually wastes away. Because her husband is good, he gives her his blood to bring her back to life. But she remains greedy and eventually threatens to leave him for a wealthier man. He takes his blood back and she transforms into a mosquito, always trying to get back the blood, never satisfied, forever wanting more. The actual story is a lot better than my synopsis
First Day of Snow by Naoko Awa, inspired by A Kamikakushi Tale
I Am Anjuhimeko by Hiromi Ito, inspired by Sansho and the Steward
Coyote Take Us Home by Michael Mejia, inspired by Tales From Jalisco. This is another story that I couldn't quite make it through. It's inspired by true events, I guess. Migrant workers come to America and leave their children behind until they have enough money to send for them. This tale follows the journey of those children as the come to America. There are a lot of fantastical images, and a lot of things that I simply didn't get, I suppose. But not everything is for everyone.
Ever After by Kim Addonizio, inspired by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Whitework by Kate Bernheimer, inspired by The Oval Portrait
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