Mirror Mirror

I don't really know what I thought this book was going to be, buuuut I don't think this was it. I guess it was more a shock to the system thinking it was one thing when some one suggested it to me and to find it is completely not what I thought it would be. I'm not usually one to read books heavily religion based even if it had some fantastical bits. There was a lot of terminology that was Spanish or Italian so I had to keep my phone by me to figure out what they meant and I found myself frequently having to look up who the people were since some of the situations or names aren't fully explained and I was left confused as to what was being referenced. It was kind of frustrating.

Gregory Maguire's "Mirror, Mirror" is another of his reimagining of classic tales. This time he focuses on "Snow White" and comes up with a breathtakingly original idea: cast Lucrezia Borgia in the role of the evil queen. By the time you finish you may even convince yourself that the fairy tale was in fact a parable about the Borgia Duchessa (it wasn't of course), and you'll pick up some knowledge about the historical period too. "Mirror" is more sophisticated than Maguire's most famous novel, "Wicked," his version of "The Wizard of Oz" from the point of view of the wicked witch. It requires more from the reader too--a knowledge of the Borgias, and of the historical moment when the late Middle Ages became the early Renaissance. Mr. Maguire is clearly less interested in the character of Snow White herself, here called Bianca de Nevada (beautiful but dull more than somewhat) than in Lucrezia Borgia herself. And his rendition of the eight (yes eight) dwarves is playful (MuteMuteMute is talkative, Heartless is sensitive, etc.). This should appeal to Mr. Maguire's legions of fans and to admirers of Umberto Eco as well.

Gregory Maguire delivers another masterful, imaginative interpretation of a classic fairy tale - "Snow White." In 1502 Bianca de Nevada lives a sheltered existence with her beloved father on an Italian farming estate, Montefiore. They are well liked in the district, despite their Spanish origins, and motherless Bianca is cosseted not only by her father, Vicente, but also by Primavera Vecchia, the elderly cook, and Fra Ludovico, the kindly priest who is no match for the irreverent Primavera. But this idyll is shattered by the arrival of the glittering, imperious, decadent Borgia siblings, Cesare and Lucrezia. They order Vicente to journey in search of a bough from the Tree of Knowledge, complete with apples. Lucrezia, left as Bianca's guardian, becomes jealous of Bianca's beauty and orders her killed; years pass while Vicente languishes in a dungeon and Bianca wakes in the shelter of the seven dwarves - agitated by the absence of their eighth brother. The dwarves are wonderful creations. Animate boulders, stirred by curiosity about human "quickness," they were driven to construct a special mirror, which was lost. The eighth boulder, er, brother, has followed Vicente in an effort to retrieve it. But time flows differently for dwarves: "Grinding our lunch can take most of a decade." Bianca has a dreamlike existence with the dwarves, who give themselves names with stone qualities: Heartless, Bitter, MuteMuteMute. Walls and furnishings materialize as Bianca imagines them, but try as she might, she is unable to conjure up a door to leave by. Eventually, Vicente returns with the apples and the eighth dwarf and Lucrezia gets on with her attempts at murdering Bianca. Maguire ("Wicked," "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister") ingeniously adapts the poisonous reputation of the Borgias, imbuing the tale with dark, sly humor. Wonderfully imaginative and edgy, the story retains its mythical feel, while incorporating ordinary sensationalized history.

What a great year Gregory Maguire must be having. His novel "Wicked" has been adapted into a Broadway musical, and has opened to mostly positive reviews, and his new novel reminds people what he was so good at in the first place. His last book, "Lost" a modern ghost story seemed to be written by a competely different person from the man who reinvented both "The Wizard of Oz" and "Cinderella". He has now returned to his fairy tale roots and concocted his own spin on the Snow White story. Blending the factual Italian Borgia family with a land owner named Don Vincente and his beautiful young daughter named Bianca, Maguire manages to tread very closely to the story many people are familiar with. The one area he diverges from is the dwarves. Gone are Bashful, Sleepy and Doc, and instead are creatures more of the earth than human.I also thought his "apple" was both inventive and clever. A well told retelling.

A marvelous book, a 300-page temptation, an invocation to the reader to plunge headlong and feetfirst into a tarantella of political intrigue, old magics, subtle loves, and unsubtle appetites...Maguire does not simply take the age-old tale of Snow White and set in in early Renaissance Italy, as others have done in their retellings of the classics. Intriguingly, he finds the place where it fits best, where it lodges, and roots, and grows...and so the story of the beautiful young Bianca becomes tangled with the history of Lucrezia Borgia, her poisons and her passions, and the resulting tapestry is rich, subtle, frightening, and revelational...and no one has EVER explained the dwarves as Maguire has done here, as strange, earthy entities caught somewhere between timeless torpor and true humanity. Lovely, and strange, and highly-recommended.

Gregory is back and it is wonderful!!! It had to be after that awful dribble LOST came out 2 years ago. I bought this book yesterday (I still had faith in GM) and I could put it down until I finished it. It held me in thrall and I just couldn't read it fast enough.The only complaint..it wasn't long enough!!! I don't want to give any of it away but this Snow White is no Disney cartoon. And man oh man these dwarfs are very strange and there's one extra one that we never knew about(?!). Get this book and have a wonderful time reading it. Gregory is back and its so good to have him back writing something great once again!!!!