Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: A Novel Review
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I've read almost all of Gregory Maguire's books, and didn't like any of them. Except for this one. This one was wonderfully done and while it showed some of his tendencies towards crudeness, the writing and characters were much better developed.
Margarethe and her two daughters have escaped from England, where the locals were wanting to kill them. Originally of Dutch descendants they thought they could find a home with relatives still in the city. However, upon arriving they learn that all of their relatives are dead.
They are taken in by an artist who the mother cleans for, her daughter Iris poses for, and her other daughter Ruth (thought to be challenged mentally) picks flowers for. It is during this time that the artist paints a picture of Iris and some regular wild flowers that entrances a local man Van den Meer to bring them into his household as a playmate for his daughter Clara. Clara is an exceptional beauty and the complete polar opposite of Iris. Iris is clever, but extremely plain to look at.
Through a series of misfortunes the wife of Van den Meer dies in childbirth and through some manipulations Margarethe becomes married to him. Not holding to the usual Cinderella story, Clara chooses that fate on her own, wishing to disappear into the kitchen and be left alone with her chores.
During this time the family's fortune is made on the Tulip Craze that was sweeping through the area at the time. It is merely coincidence but I had just finished reading "Tulipomania" which is a non-fiction book a week ago and was amazed at how much I recalled from that novel that was in this one. Maguire did his homework well. Unfortunately, for anyone familiar with the craze, it quickly plummeted and many lost their fortunes, much like the Van Den Meer family.
Desperate, Margarethe tries everything to restore their fortunes while losing her eyesight at the same time. When the coming of a Prince is announced she sets up her biological daughters to be present at this meeting while Iris secretly plots to get Clara there. The goal is for Clara, the beauty, to catch the eye of the prince and be free from everyone.
The characters in this story are well written. I felt great compassion for most of them and Iris especially gained a place in my heart. She had her flaws but did her best to overcome them and do what was right for others, even at her own expense. Ruth, while somewhat of a surprise at the end, even in her simplicity added a lot to the book and was an important character. Clara we are able to see grow throughout the novel and while she may not be the most pleasing character at the beginning, she is one of the most well-rounded ones at the end.
Maguire's writing is very descriptive. However, he does tend to go off topic sometimes or for the sake of effect through in crude scenes and ideas. In this particular novel I wasn't fond of the fact he decided to add what we can only presumably call a rape into one of the scenes. It didn't really add much to the story and just played into sensationalism, which is what makes his other novels distasteful to me.
Overall though, I'd say that this book was wonderfully done and offers a great insight into the other side of the story. It is also placed in a well thought out setting as the entire story seems plausible enough to happen. Much better than anything else he's written in my opinion.
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
Copyright 1999
368 pages and a Reader's Group Guide
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: A Novel Feature
- ISBN13: 9780060987527
- Condition: New
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Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: A Novel Overview
Is this new land a place where magics really happen?
From Gregory Maguire, the acclaimed author of Wicked, comes his much-anticipated second novel, a brilliant and provocative retelling of the timeless Cinderella tale.
In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings.... When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats....
We all have heard the story of Cinderella, the beautiful child cast out to slave among the ashes.But what of her stepsisters, the homely pair exiled into ignominy by the fame of their lovely sibling? What fate befell those untouched by beauty . . . and what curses accompanied Cinderella's exquisite looks?
Extreme beauty is an affliction
Set against the rich backdrop of seventeenth-century Holland, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister tells the story of Iris, an unlikely heroine who finds herself swept from the lowly streets of Haarlem to a strange world of wealth, artifice, and ambition. Iris's path quickly becomes intertwined with that of Clara, the mysterious and unnaturally beautiful girl destined to become her sister.
Clara was the prettiest child, but was her life the prettiest tale?
While Clara retreats to the cinders of the family hearth, burning all memories of her past, Iris seeks out the shadowy secrets of her new household--and the treacherous truth of her former life.
God and Satan snarling at each other like dogs.... Imps and fairy godmotbers trying to undo each other's work. How we try to pin the world between opposite extremes!
Far more than a mere fairy-tale, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is a novel of beauty and betrayal, illusion and understanding, reminding us that deception can be unearthed--and love unveiled--in the most unexpected of places.
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister: A Novel Specifications
Gregory Maguire's chilling, wonderful retelling of Cinderella is a study in contrasts. Love and hate, beauty and ugliness, cruelty and charity--each idea is stripped of its ethical trappings, smashed up against its opposite number, and laid bare for our examination. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister begins in 17th-century Holland, where the two Fisher sisters and their mother have fled to escape a hostile England. Maguire's characters are at once more human and more fanciful than their fairy-tale originals. Plain but smart Iris and her sister, Ruth, a hulking simpleton, are dazed and terrified as their mother, Margarethe, urges them into the strange Dutch streets. Within days, purposeful Margarethe has secured the family a place in the home of an aspiring painter, where for a short time, they find happiness.
But this is Cinderella, after all, and tragedy is inevitable. When a wealthy tulip speculator commissions the painter to capture his blindingly lovely daughter, Clara, on canvas, Margarethe jumps at the chance to better their lot. "Give me room to cast my eel spear, and let follow what may," she crows, and the Fisher family abandons the artist for the upper-crust Van den Meers.
When Van den Meer's wife dies during childbirth, the stage is set for Margarethe to take over the household and for Clara to adopt the role of "Cinderling" in order to survive. What follows is a changeling adventure, and of course a ball, a handsome prince, a lost slipper, and what might even be a fairy godmother. In a single magic night, the exquisite and the ugly swirl around in a heated mix:
Everything about this moment hovers, trembles, all their sweet, unreasonable hopes on view before anything has had the chance to go wrong. A stepsister spins on black and white tiles, in glass slippers and a gold gown, and two stepsisters watch with unrelieved admiration. The light pours in, strengthening in its golden hue as the sun sinks and the evening approaches. Clara is as otherworldly as the Donkeywoman, the Girl-Boy. Extreme beauty is an affliction...But beyond these familiar elements, Maguire's second novel becomes something else altogether--a morality play, a psychological study, a feminist manifesto, or perhaps a plain explanation of what it is to be human. Villains turn out to be heroes, and heroes disappoint. The story's narrator wryly observes, "In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings. When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats." --Therese Littleton
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