Customer Reviews

Can't Catch Me: And Other Twice-Told Tales

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I found this delightful book quite by accident while looking for another title by this wonderful author for my daughter. Can't Catch Me collects 18 whimsical tales, all retellings of familiar stories. "Bear It Away," is Goldilocks transformed into something Kipling might have written for his "Just So Stories": "How Bears Lost the Ability to Speak." "Can't Catch Me" retells the Gingerbread Man. "P-Bird" is the Phoenix. And so on. But although half the stories in this volume retell classic fairy tales, the stories are much more than that. They take familiar stories and make them magical again. For adults, for children, for anybody who grew up reading for the pleasure of discovery.

Can't Catch Me And Other Twice Told Tales by Michael Cadnum is an outstanding collection of interesting and insightful lore drawn from history and retold with a modernized and compelling philosophical perspective of contemporary wisdom and collective post-situation knowledge. Diligently feeding its readers with advice and worldly understandings of these once ancient tales of long ago and far away, Can't Catch Me gives the reader an intriguing compendium of new-age tellings. Can't Catch Me is very highly recommended for general fiction, philosophy, historical, myth, folklore enthusiasts for its adroit grasp of these ancient "twice-told" tales.

As I keep saying, fairy tales are not for me--until another great writer comes along to prove me wrong! The latest to do so is Michael Cadnum with Can't Catch Me. It's no surprise Cadnum is a poet. His prose is spare and lyrical, though easily accessible. All the stories in this collection are told in the first person POV, so we're granted direct access to the inner lives of such characters as Goldilocks and the Gingerbread Man. These retellings delight, but my favorite tales are the ones that include characters from Greek mythology. "Hungry" is a creepy, atmospheric horror story that delivers chills without gross-outs or splatter. "P-Bird" is a humor story with a great fabulist twist ending. Most of these stories would be appropriate to read to children, but a few of them do have adult themes and language. The book also has a beautiful cover illustration by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law.

This book was include in the gift bag I received at World Fantasy Con 2011.