‘A Wild Swan’ gives hilarious spin to the grim side of Grimm’s fairy tales

I thought I was done with fairy tales until I came across “A Wild Swan: And Other Tales” by Michael Cunningham, winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for “The Hours.”

The first chapter, “Dis. Enchant.,” operating as a preface or introduction, explains why bad things happen to the characters in the collection. Cunningham writes, “Most of us are safe.”

We are the B-list people compared to the chiseled chins and virginal beauties of fairy tales. We do not compare to these flawless people. For this reason, Cunningham asks who would not want to mess with them? He works to turn the flawless into the flawed and the enchanted into the disenchanted, knocking the characters in the collection off their made-up pedestals.

The title story, “A Wild Swan,” retells “The Six Swans” by the Brothers Grimm. An evil stepmother turns her 12 stepson princes into swans. It is up to the princess to reverse the curse.

While picking nettles at night, an archbishop notices her, and she is set to burn for witchcraft. Before she is put on the stake, 12 swans swoop in, and the princess throws nettle coats on her brothers, turning them back into princes. However, she fails to finish one coat, leaving one prince with a wing for an arm. The stepmother escapes to a convent, and everyone marries except for the swan-armed prince.

This, more or less, follows the Brothers Grimm’s version, but the story continues. Alone, in a bar, “a man with a single swan wing is considered lucky.” The collection follows characters whose misfortune falls on either side of the swan-armed prince’s fate.

The stories include Snow White and her prince, who only finds her attractive in a comatose state; Jack, who climbs a beanstalk multiple times due to greed; and Beauty, who gets her handsome beast but wonders if she prefers the man or the beast.

The collection, with illustrations by Yuko Shimizu, is a hilarious return to the more brutal tales of Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm, rather than the watered-down versions we see on television or in the movies. Cunningham does an excellent job of changing narrative voices while always maintaining the fairy tale tone. Each story moves quickly and gets the reader hooked in the first sentence.

When reading the book in a short span, the humor and stories started to feel a bit repetitive to me. I think this stems from growing up with a version of these tales. Stretching them out over a longer period than two days might have made for a stronger appreciation.

Regardless, the stories are fun to read.

This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 2:00 AM with the headline "‘A Wild Swan’ gives hilarious spin to the grim side of Grimm’s fairy tales."