In this beautiful book of classic fairy tales, award-winning author Philip Pullman has chosen his fifty favourite stories from the Brothers Grimm and presents them in a'clear as water' retelling, in his unique and brilliant voice.
Who doesn't right up until they read this book love Philip Pullman? His Dark Materials were amazingly imaginative and made me fall head over heels for the world he created. When he took on the Grimm Tales I believed that it would be interesting to view his take on them. My thoughts were along the Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber route therefore recognizable as which Grimm tales they were but only just.
It was however very very similar to the Grimm Tales themselves, all the gore and horror that I presume he thought would shock his reader was already tame as opposed to the original stories. The strong morals seemed weakened and the imagery less vivid so packing less of a visual punch it was altogether reminiscent of a limp handshake.
What disappointed me most I suppose is the expectations I had of this book. When he seemed to be such a heavyweight in the literary world with his imaginative skills and good characterization I thought the Grimm Tales would be something he'd grab by the balls. It seemed that he copied a lot of the original tales and put his "voice" into it. His voice seemed to make no big deal out of anything and made every tale sound exactly. Halfway through the book I thought I may have to stop just due to the monotony.
If you haven't read the original Grimm Tales I suggest you do, they're great but wouldn't recommend this. It's the bad sequel to the original great.
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"I had an unusually large-sized head, though this was not uncommon for a baby in the Midwest. The craniums in our part of the country were designed to leave a little extra room for the brain to grow in case one day we found ourselves exposed to something we didn't understand, like a foreign language, or a salad."
I came across Michael Moore when I watched the not-so-un-famous film Fahrenheit 9/11 (which on a side note if you haven't seen you should). Once I saw someone see a situation presented by a government and say, I don't think that's how it really was it completely changed my perspective. I haven't simply accepted something that someone's told me since just because they are an authority. For this I am indebted to the man and I'm surely not alone.
The man himself has had one of the most interesting lives I've ever had the pleasure to read. Not in the fact that he's nearly died in death-defying acts but rather escaped America to Canada so as not to be drafted. Nearly been hijacked in a plane and disguised himself to get in a governmental summit suggesting all American businesses to move their factories to Mexico. A catholic schoolboy he just was never one for taking the common phrase "it's just how it is". It makes his life interesting and funny to read and held me to the end easily.
His prose style is extremely conversational, in fact there seems to be no difference in how Moore talks to how he writes. This makes the book piss easy to read since it's really you just chatting with him about what he's got up to these past 50 years.
I know he's controversial, people hate him to the point of having a mini gunpowder (man-made bomb) plot against him and yet the other half truly love him. I fall on that side for sure, even if sometimes you disagree with his methods at least he is asking questions that need to be asked. Better than many many politicians.
Whatever you feel I think anyone would find this entertaining at the very least.
