Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My best of the year -- so far, October 27, 2008
Once upon a time, the skeleton of this story was called Snow-White and Rose-Red. Like all fairy tales, it left much unexplained. Too much. Well, Margo Lanagan took those bones and added muscle and guts, bracing the loose joints of the plot with her characters' emotions, motivations, and histories. That's the secret of successful retellings: fleshing out the gaps that relied almost entirely on the readers' willful ignorance or suspension of belief, yet still leaving room for the existence of magic. And Lanagan knows how to handle magic delicately enough to make it believable: Tender Morsels revolves around magical doings, but never degrades enchantment to the level of coincidence. The plot must bend to fit the whims of the magic, and never, ever the reverse. Yet the setting is so rich that it all feels impossibly real.
And the characters -- hoo, the characters. They are vivid, passionate, flawed, sometimes randy (but never gratuitous), and fiercely devoted to their hearts' desires. Desires tangled with magic, though, turn out to have more power than any one of them have bargained for.
It's been almost a week, and I am still basking and soaking in this story. It is deep, thick, and heavy, but not in the ways that makes reading tiresome. It isn't a book you finish and set aside -- you surface from it and wait for it to roll off you. (I know, I know -- I'm going all purple and gushy. Plus I've overshot my adjective quota without ever managing to work in "visceral." Crap.)
An about face: I am somewhat loathe to admit this is not a book for everyone. Not by a long shot. The switching points of view, the nature of the abuse Liga weathers, and the spattering of old world Britishy-Irishy dialect each have the potential to deter a number of readers.
However, if you loved the themes of sweetness and brutality in The Giver, the robust characters and setting of The Moorchild, and the emotional tone of Donna Jo Napoli's fairy tale-based novels, I'd lay odds you'll be content to envelop yourself for a few days in Tender Morsels. It is quite possibly THE best reading experience I've had so far this year.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Snow White and Rose Red retold, but not for the faint of heart., December 25, 2008
This retelling of the Grimm Brother's Snow White and Rose Red is a compelling, but disturbing read. It is definitely for older teens. The book covers incest, abortion, gang rape, a suicide attempt and ends with sodomy. In addition, throw in some witchcraft, a dwarf, and young men turning in to bears. The story centers on Liga, who through incest, then rape gives birth to 2 daughters. Traumatized by the events that happened to her she considers suicide, but is saved by a mysterious magic that whisks her to an alternate universe where she can raise her daughters Branza and Urdda in peace. In this "heaven" the town is rid of all the people that hurt her, everyone is kind and supportive, and her daughters can magically commune with animals and romp in the woods. Eventually a greedy dwarf and 1/2 trained witch find a way into this world, followed by young men dressed in bear suits who become bears and stay awhile. Eventually, Urdda, the youngest daughter finds her way out of her mothers heaven and into the real world. With the help of a real witch, Liga and Branza are pulled into the real world, where they must confront the harsh reality of life there. The book ends on a sad note, with the daughters happy, but Liga is heart broken.
What makes Tender Morsels such a compelling read is the variety of characters and all their different voices. The story is told from a variety of view points, which makes for a rich and intriguing read, despite the many disturbing topics. I would have given it a 3.5 stars, but that's not an option. This book is definitely a grim retelling of one of the Grimm Brother's less scary and violent tales.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"born to make a real life, however it cracks your heart", January 3, 2009
Margo Lanagan's retelling of the fairy tale, Snow White, Rose Red is a novel that succeeds in the way that the most compelling of fairy tale retellings or fantasy novels do: through using the fantastic/magickal elements to tell a story that feels more real and believable then if the reader imagines the story without these elements.
Tender Morsels explores aspects of experience many people dont like to look at closely(brutal violence against girls/women in many forms), telling not only the truths of these experiences but the truth of how deeply these violations scar the women, unspooling the layers of effects on their lives.
Tender Morsels is compelling and original partly because the emotional tone conveys a depth of honesty, compassion, and warmth that is very rare. The language is original and poetic and a pleasure to read.
Lanagan's central character, Liga, is so wounded by rape and abuse, that her desire for safety above all else and at the cost of every adventure, new experience, and even reality is a character not often seen in literature with this kind of sensitivity and understanding; and this makes her journey more touching.
Lanagan explores some dark topics, but she does so in a way that does not dwell on the specific details, and instead focuses on the emotional significance of these traumatic events. The words that designate these dark topics conjure a graphic nature that do not convey the spirit of this book, and are to my mind, misleading when listed. Tender Morsels is an emotional journey, and like many original versions of fairy tales, the characters spend some time dwelling in the dark woods on their way to transformation and growth.
Tender Morsels questions something very significant fundamental and relevant: how can we find a way to live in a world and among people when such dark devastating brutality is a part of it. This book is not about smothering us in darkness, but helping the characters and us to find a way to allow and accept the truth of a world in which the light and the dark to co-exist, so that the darkness does not consume them/us, and they/we do not either live in the false artificial light of denial.
She questions what is safety? and at what cost? and how do we view those women who have suffered so that they fear everyone and everything and what place do they have in society? What is our responsibility to them? How we avoid them and deny them, some of us preferring they remain in their hidden places, others kindly drawing them into life.
She poses complicated moral questions with emotional intensity and insight, and doesnt take the simple easy answers, or pretend that the answers are the same for all of us.
She presents us with characters that have different experiences needs and desires, and does not tell us that one way is the right way. Her characters are imperfect, flawed and lovable. The shifting points of view are interesting and believable.
She shows us how our view of the world can completely change when the information and experience we have of it changes.
Tender Morsels explores denial and how it holds us captive as it seems to rescue us; what it is to be saved, what can be salvaged after devastating loss, what is the essential to the human heart, what it is to live, to love, to be human, to be wounded, to survive, what we loss, what we can gain back, what we hope for, the strange power of dreams and what we dream of, how our dreams keep us alive, transform us, and can even keep us tucked too tight and bound as a pupa in cocoon.
The Snow White, Rose Red fairy tale is incorporated into Lanagan's own narrative so seamlessly and truthfully, that it feels more like the fairy tale was distilled as the essence of Tender Morsels then the book inspired by the tale.
Tender Morsels touched me more deeply then anything I have read in a very long time. and it stays with me.
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