Subversive Once Upon a Time, They All Lived Mainly Unhappily after……………..
Michael Cunningham’s A Wild Swan is a darkly, slyly, sour and witty adaptation of some particularly potent faerie tales.
There’s more than a whiff of Angela Carteresque sumptuousness and sexual meaning out in the open, though Cunningham pulls many of these tales into the here and now.
How could I not start snickering, in a kind of wry, sophisticated fashion, at an opening like this:
Most of us are safe. If you’re not a delirious dream the gods are having, if your beauty doesn’t trouble the constellations, nobody’s going to cast a spell on you. No one wants to transform you into a beast or put you to sleep for a hundred years…
The middling maidens – the ones best seen by candlelight, corseted and rouged – have nothing to worry about. The pudgy, pockmarked heirs apparent, who torment their underlings and need to win at every game, are immune to curse and hex. B-list virgins do not excite the forces of ruination; callow swains don’t infuriate demons and sprites.Most of us can be counted on to manage our own undoings
I was immediately captivated by the authorial voice which opens out ‘what’s really going on’ displaying the often difficult world of love and marriage, and mismatch between expectation and reality, to belie the traditional ‘they all lived happily ever after’ .
These morality tales (what faerie tales often were) updated, are often beautifully upended. So, for example, the beginning of Cunningham’s version of Jack and The Beanstalk, Jacked :
This is not a smart boy we’re talking about. This is not a kid who can be trusted to remember to take his mother to her chemo appointment, or to close the windows when it rains.
Never mind asking him to sell the cow, when he and his mother are out of cash, and the cow is their last resort.
We’re talking about a boy who doesn’t get halfway to town with his mother’s sole remaining possession before he’s sold the cow to some stranger for a handful of beans….Jack isn’t doubtful. Jack isn’t big on questions. Jack is the boy who says, Wow, dude, magic beans, really?
I was absolutely thrilled to be offered this as a review copy by the publishers, Fourth Estate, in digital version………however, I would urge you to get the wood book, as there are stunning illustrations to each story, by the artist Yuko Shimizu, and I did long to see them on paper.

Yuko Shimizu’s illustration for the story “Beasts”
The stories are pretty well all magnificent, and it will be the readers’ pleasure to work out which fairy tales they are based on. The Hansel and Gretel tale is probably my own particular favourite. Most do not end anywhere near happiness, and one must feel grateful, therefore, for the absence of that ‘ever after’
Though, to be fair, kind, a little bit magical and hopeful , the final story, Ever/After does give us one redemptive sweet tale to take away, albeit one which starts more realistically and less under the illusion of the romantic happy ever after. In the last story, the couple have fewer stars in their eyes and are not bewitched by sprinklings of too much magic.
HIGHLY recommended; in fact magical
These are, by the way, very definitely faerie stories for ADULTS and not for children
A Wild Swan: and other tales Amazon UK
A Wild Swan: and other tales Amazon USA
I bet you enjoyed some hours and perhaps laughing out loud. I enjoyed your revue.
Thanks Susan. Indeed, I laughed a lot. Cunningham knew how to work my chuckle reflex, for sure!
Oh my word, what a beautiful illustration! It really conveys a sense of perspective too. Lovely review, and I like your nod to Angela Carter. Would this be suitable for young adults? I’m thinking of one of my goddaughters – she’s fifteen (going on seventeen).
Well, if she’s going on seventeen, maybe. It’s not coy about sex, but its not titillatory either. Just quite frank, I suppose. That in some ways is the Carteresque aspect too
Great review! I guess they’re not as dark as Grimm?
Oh they are certainly plenty dark. They are less supernatural, more edgy, street dark, rather than horror, if that makes sense. Not to mention dark humour a plenty
Ok, now I’m hooked even more. Nothing better than dark humour.
I’m a big fan of Angela Carter and I loved The Hours, so I will be snapping this up! The beautiful illustrations are the cherry on the cake 🙂
Whoopee, Madame Bibi. Snap away, it’s a real treat.
Hook, line and sinker. I’m in! My son has his book group at a local bookstore tomorrow, and this will be on my list to purchase. Can’t wait to take a dip in its pages!
Ha ha, hee hee, a hit in Jilanne’s TBR at last! It is SPLENDID however.
Great review- this sounds like such a good read! I love Angela Carter, so this sounds very much up my street!
It was a real joy to read and I had to stop myself from binge reading, in order to slow down and savour!
This sounds lovely, and with the illustrations too – wow!
Yes, a special treat of a book
I so look forward to reading these tales. I love the resonance of well written fairy tale retellings, and the edginess of these stories will add another level of pleasure. I’ll take your advice and buy a paper version to get full enjoyment of the illustrations too. Thanks again for a great reading prompt.
You’re welcome, Underrunner