Have to admit it: I'm easily amused.
Let me preface this review with the statement that I'm a political moderate; I'm neither a gushing liberal nor a knee-jerk conservative. I'm a veteran and vote my conscience as I've done for too many years to reveal here, but I'll admit that it goes back to when water was free and the price of a gallon of gas was less than what a cup of coffee costs today.
That being said, I found James Finn Garner's
Tea Party Fairy Tales to be hilarious political humor, an excellent parody, and as a Kindle Single, it was just the right size. Anything more for this type of spoof would have been too much. And just because it has the term "Fairy Tales" in its title, please don't assume that it's a book for children, because it's not. You've been warned, but please don't shoot the messenger.
The author's book Dedication set the pace with this quote from a prominent political group: "We oppose the teaching of higher order thinking skills, critical thinking skills, and similar programs ..." I had to laugh, recalling Stephen Colbert's July 17, 2012 rant on "The Colbert Report" but I love good political humor, wherever it's directed, and this parody is excellent political humor. Author Garner explains his motivation and where thing are headed in this book within his tongue-in-cheek Introduction, referencing (and sometimes skewering) pointy-headed academics, Disney Corporation, his own previous works, and of course, the Tea Party movement itself.
Garner's book takes classic fairy tales from familiar sources, the kinds that loving fathers and adoring grandmothers used to read to us back in the days before television (remember those days?), and then retells them, jabbing at a number of contemporary icons in the process. The first tale is based on that timeless classic, "Little Red Riding Hood," and right there we face this opening passage:
"Once upon a time, when everything was as it should be, there lived a young girl named Red Riding Hood. Now, just because she was named Red and liked to skulk around in red clothing and hide her face with a hood doesn't make her a secret Communist. On the other hand, it doesn't mean we'll be letting our guard down, either. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance."
As tempting as it is, I'm not going to drop any spoilers as to where this went or how this one ended, but having heard this tale so often in my youth, it left me laughing openly in parts.
The next three are parodies of what we read in Aesop's Fables, and author Garner does a fine retelling of "The Fox and the Grapes", "The Lion and the Weasel" (think of The Lion and the Mouse), "The Bundle of Sticks", and "The Tortoise and the Sparrow" (from The Tortoise and the Eagle). There's an appropriate moral at the end of each of these.
That timeless classic fable that we know as "Jack and the Beanstalk" follows, and you can only wonder in wonderment as we begin this tale with his mother spending the day watching television and sending Jack out to sell their old cow, receiving five magic beans ("the fourth is a secure border ...") as payment. And yes, there's a beanstalk, along with a proverbial giant who rides around supervising things in his golf cart. But again, no spoilers; just read it.
The author returns to Aesop's Fables, and offers us more retold classics with titles such as: "The Fox and The Dog", "The Chicken, the Osprey and the Blue Jay" (Moral: The louder you shout, the righter you are.), and the "The Ox and the Fence." And once again, we find each ending with an appropriate moral, though they can be sometimes irreverent.
We encounter "The Little Match Girl," who couldn't return home until she had made a profit, as her father believed in the benefits of traditional corporal punishment. Then there's "The Fisherman, The Fish, His Wife and Her Lover," a very irreverent tale in with a talking fish that can grant wishes. From the title alone, one can see that the ending is predictable, but getting there is half the fun.
Obviously James Finn Garner must have had plenty of youthful indoctrination with Aesop's Fables, as he offers us his interpretations of "The Hare and the Tortoise", "The Grandson of the Hare and the Tortoise", a beautifully snarky retelling of "The Ant and the Grasshopper", and "The Sparrow and the Wren." Each of these is a tight little gem with a moral at the end.
The timeless classic of "The Three Little Pigs" is here as well, and the author's comical retelling begins with this:
"Long ago, before the New Deal and free love eroded our collective character, there lived three little Pigs. They were honest, everyday swine who played by the rules and didn't want or expect any special handouts. These Pigs were just like you and me, except for the fact that we wear pants most of the time. And just like you and me, they were in danger from evil outside forces."
This is one of the best of the book, and it provides enough zingers that this reader had to go back and read it again, as the author has a descriptive way of writing that make one happy to see that the English language is still a beautifully expressive medium. There are other gems that author Garner has included, including more updated retellings from Aesop's Fables, a very funny version of "The Princess and The Pea" (complete with bed that was 20 mattresses high, and "underneath it all, the housekeeper tucked a copy of Atlas Shrugged."), which shouldn't be missed.
"Snow White and the 7 (Really, 6) Sovereign Citizens" depicts the title character and her stepmother, the Queen, in ways that you would not expect, with an expressive Magic Mirror unlike any that Walt Disney could have ever envisioned in his 1937 classic. The seven Little Men are far from coy, and keeping up with today, the Queen also has the Mirror installed as an app on her smart phone, with the Queen and her Mirror "locked in a disgusting liberal love fest."
The author's final fairy tale, "The Eagles and the Crow," is a short one, and is fittingly taken again from Aesop. It's one the Eagles wanted to elect a leader, and many birds offered their service, including a young Crow. Again, no spoilers offered here, but the moral couldn't have been more perfect.
Sidenote:
In his 1960 offering
Parodies: An Anthology from Chaucer to Beerbohm - and After, the late critic Dwight Macdonald offered this excellent definition: "Parody is making a new wine that tastes like the old but has a slightly lethal effect." During the 'Nam Era, it was one of those books that was a companion when things were getting a bit tough all around us, and it gave me a great appreciation for satire and parody. Miguel Cervantes' classic "Don Quixote" was a parody on "Amadis de Gaula" by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. Some of Lewis Carroll's parodies of Victorian verse for children are better known than the forgotten originals. In music, 'Weird Al' Yankovic's parodies have outlasted many of the bands or artists that he has parodied.
Summary:
This reader is quite familiar with James Finn Garner's writing, which I first encountered in 1994. His original
Politically Correct Bedtime Stories became a bestseller, in which he satirized political correctness and the censorship of children's literature, with a heavy emphasis on humor and parody. Encountered his wit again in 1997 with
Apocalypse Wow, which satirized the end of time, delving into Biblical prophecies and those from Nostradamus, and on to UFOs and much more.
As far as political correctness and humor go, I must admit to finding Stephen Colbert's
I Am A Pole (And So Can You!), which I purchased right after its release earlier this year, to be exceptionally funny. Garner's book here is topically different, but equally humorous as a whole.
In
Tea Party Fairy Tales, author Garner takes a few good shots at a number of venerable institutions, such as government benefits, global warming, lawsuits, big business, four-bedroom homes, the NRA, ecology, government regulations, mandatory training, and endowments. Readers will encounter ecosystems, unemployment insurance, building permits, environmental impact reports, licenses, health insurance, the federal court system, mortgages payments, libertarian thinking, and moral corruption, to name just a few.
This one will be a personal gift (and what a bargain for me) for a number of Kindle-toting friends, ranging from the far right to the far left, and a few like me, right in the middle. In short, there's something for everyone here, regardless of your political persuasion. All that's required is an open mind and a true sense of humor.
As stated in the beginning, I'm easily amused... but I digress.
8/17/2012
