To Read & To Write

Francesca Lia Block’s “The Rose And The Beast: Fairy Tales Retold” is composed of nine tales that shimmer and sparkle with hope. Each story is very loosely based off of classic fairy tales such as “Snow White”, “Thumbelina”, and “Beauty & The Beast”. The book is melancholic in nature. While there are beautiful objects (“tall glasses of mineral water with slices of lime like green moons rising above clear bubbling pools”), beautiful people (“a singing stranger with golden hair tousled in his face and deep-set blue eyes and a big Adam’s apple), and beautiful backdrops (“the night was blue, like drowning in a cocktail”) – there is much suffering. Jealousy, rape, drugs, obsession, sickness… all these afflict the characters, and really, the common theme that ties the stories together is the idea that life can still be treasured in the face of tragedy. Snow, Rose Red, Rose White, Tiny, Beast – and all the rest of the characters – move from the traditional archetype to heart-wrenching...