The book starts with a memory of the main character’s (Becca’s) grandmother telling her the story of Sleeping Beauty. The entire story is told in such memories throughout the book, in between chapters of the main plot. I really like this idea in theory. It allows the author (Jane Yolen) to present the original story practically alongside her own version so the reader can compare the two (and ideally realize the depth and reality of the tale made manifest in the author’s portrayal of it). The memories also provide glimpses into Becca’s past, her developing relationship with her grandmother, and her set of specific philosophies that continue to guide her actions for the rest of her life (or at least for the rest of the book).

My main complaint about this method is the same complaint I have for every aspect of the book: it was not fully developed. For example, each memory contains very specific details. Jane Yolen knows how to paint a pretty picture; each image is stark and the reader is pulled right into the scene. If that was all, I would be OK, but there is always more. There is a mini plot, a little story within each memory that is never completely resolved and it always involves a conflict between Becca and her two older sisters. This problem exists to some extent in every book that uses flashbacks, switches characters between chapters, or uses some other device within the bigger context that drags the reader away from one setting and plops them down in a completely new one. It is difficult to pull off smoothly and should not be done unless it directly strengthens the novel. In this case, it did not.

First, the conflict between Becca and her sisters is left hanging at the end of the book, having not even reached some sort of climax. Second, the sisters are more of a distraction than a help. While there is a nice contrast between the sisters’ relationship with the grandmother and Becca’s relationship with her, their presence ultimately gets in the way of the reader’s first hand experience of the grandmother (she dies at the beginning of the book and is only seen in the flashbacks). Since the grandmother is the author’s Sleeping Beauty character, she is kind of important to know.

Third, the grandmother does not seem like a real person in the flashbacks. She does nothing more than say the words of a fairy tale and ward off any prying questions Becca or her sisters may ask with one or two-word responses. I realize that Yolen is attempting to create a sense of mystery (the reader is not told the grandmother’s history or why she loves the story of Sleeping Beauty until the end of the book) and show the developing insight of the girls but the result is a shell of a character that seems only to exist in the past.

Finally, while the plot and the characters were intriguing and the theme was original, I felt like I was reading someone’s diary or a short history lesson described in a fanciful way rather than a fictional, literary work. A few of my other complaints are the random, halfhearted love story between Becca and her editor; the conflict of the main story: is it about Becca or her grandmother?; and the mentioning of Becca’s favorite book, another retelling of Sleeping Beauty that I have read and still love, was the worst mistake Yolen could have made. It is called Beauty and is written by Robin Mckinley. Go read it.

I have been unfair to this book as a whole. There are more good qualities to it that I have not mentioned so as not to make this entry too long. But I do strongly believe that it would be a far more excellent book if it were at least 100 pages longer, probably 200 would be best. So many things could be expanded on and all of the separate plots could fit so nicely if given a chance. I’m sure the grandmother and Becca could happily share the main character-hood if the grandmother had a personality and Becca did more than think and talk.

You can find more information about this book and The Fairy Tale Series created by Terri Windling here: Briar Rose

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Post tags: fantasy, holocaust, sleeping beauty