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2011 Book Review #102: (re)Visions: Alice
Title: (re)Visions: Alice
Editor: Kate Sullivan
Genre: Wonderland-themed fantasy anthology
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: Carroll's original Alice in Wonderland, followed by four reimaginings.
Thoughts: Full disclosure: I know the editor and a couple of the authors.
Alice in Wonderland is so influential a bewildering phantasmogoria that it makes a perfect base for this clever concept. I'd actually forgotten how truly bizarre this story is to begin with. (You made a children's movie out of this, Disney? Really?) From the baby-that-is-really-a-pig to the rabbit's missing serving girl Mary Ann to Alice's truly atrocious manners and inability to navigate without breaking things or insulting people, I'd forgotten most of the details. Everyone remembers the Mad Tea Party and the Cheschire Cat and "off with her head", but the peppery cook and the Lobster Quadrille get left out. The endless number of details leave a million loose ends and entry points to be explored by the modern writer.
All four of the modern stories are clever and well done, although I do have my favorites.
Arguably, "What Aelister Found Here" is the least directly connected to the original work. But a careful reader with find dozens of layered references, both direct and thematic, in this lyrically written, almost surreal novella. History and mysticism blend in with the Alice allusions in this story of a runaway boy in Victorian London who seeks freedom and finds power in mannered card parties and bloody streets.
"House of Cards" has a confusing timeline that eventually made itself clear, but I still found frustrating. It's ambitious, but I'm not sure it quite worked for me. Here, though, is the answer to the question that bugged me most on this read-through of Alice--what happened to the missing Mary Ann?
For chutzpah and hilarity, "Knave" wins. Jack Knave is the classic noir anti-hero in a seedy city called Wonderland. The blond in the blue dress will be nothing but trouble.
"The World in a Thimble" might be the most literal of the retellings, as a modern day gallery owner without much of a spine tumbles into a Wonderland that is rather more Americanized than he remembered. The prose is less dreamy than the others, which I think highlights the absurdities that characterize Wonderland and keeps it from quite gelling as much as the others do.
I preferred the first and third, but all are interesting and worth a look. Don't skip reading the original, though, even if you've read it before. It's quite likely that you've forgotten much of the strangeness, and it's the strangeness that make these stories tick.
Editor: Kate Sullivan
Genre: Wonderland-themed fantasy anthology
Thingummies: 4
Synopsis: Carroll's original Alice in Wonderland, followed by four reimaginings.
Thoughts: Full disclosure: I know the editor and a couple of the authors.
Alice in Wonderland is so influential a bewildering phantasmogoria that it makes a perfect base for this clever concept. I'd actually forgotten how truly bizarre this story is to begin with. (You made a children's movie out of this, Disney? Really?) From the baby-that-is-really-a-pig to the rabbit's missing serving girl Mary Ann to Alice's truly atrocious manners and inability to navigate without breaking things or insulting people, I'd forgotten most of the details. Everyone remembers the Mad Tea Party and the Cheschire Cat and "off with her head", but the peppery cook and the Lobster Quadrille get left out. The endless number of details leave a million loose ends and entry points to be explored by the modern writer.
All four of the modern stories are clever and well done, although I do have my favorites.
Arguably, "What Aelister Found Here" is the least directly connected to the original work. But a careful reader with find dozens of layered references, both direct and thematic, in this lyrically written, almost surreal novella. History and mysticism blend in with the Alice allusions in this story of a runaway boy in Victorian London who seeks freedom and finds power in mannered card parties and bloody streets.
"House of Cards" has a confusing timeline that eventually made itself clear, but I still found frustrating. It's ambitious, but I'm not sure it quite worked for me. Here, though, is the answer to the question that bugged me most on this read-through of Alice--what happened to the missing Mary Ann?
For chutzpah and hilarity, "Knave" wins. Jack Knave is the classic noir anti-hero in a seedy city called Wonderland. The blond in the blue dress will be nothing but trouble.
"The World in a Thimble" might be the most literal of the retellings, as a modern day gallery owner without much of a spine tumbles into a Wonderland that is rather more Americanized than he remembered. The prose is less dreamy than the others, which I think highlights the absurdities that characterize Wonderland and keeps it from quite gelling as much as the others do.
I preferred the first and third, but all are interesting and worth a look. Don't skip reading the original, though, even if you've read it before. It's quite likely that you've forgotten much of the strangeness, and it's the strangeness that make these stories tick.
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