Mirror Mirror is a retelling of the fairy tale
of Snow White, which—like other books by author
Gregory Maguire—draws parallels between history and
legend. However, it is not entirely successful in its
endeavors.
Snow White is known in this tale as Bianca. Her
father, Don Vicente de
Nevada, is a nobleman who owns land in Italy, and he
is sent on a quest by the powerful Borgia family to
find the Tree of Knowledge. Lucrezia Borgia, infamous
since it is rumored a Pope was both her father and her
lover, is the evil queen who becomes jealous of
Bianca's beauty. The dwarves begin their lives in the
story not so much human as they are vaguely sentient
rocks, and gradually develop into more.
The novel is divided into four sections based on the
years, in the early 1500s, in which the action takes
place. Poetry is interspersed throughout the story,
but it is choppy and unlyrical. It feels unfinished
and doesn't add much to the book. The artwork which
accompanies the book, as with most of Maguire's, is
done by Douglas Smith in the style of woodcuts. Even
this design fails in a way, for there isn't enough art
and the same pieces are reused too often. That which
is there is beautiful but doesn't reflect the story as
well as with the other books.
Although there are things to like about Mirror
Mirror, most of them don't happen until more than
halfway through. The first half of this book felt far
too long and drawn out. At some point later the story
finally picked up. Unfortunately, the ending reverts
to feeling confusing and unrewarding.
The Biblical and religious metaphors are a good
concept. Lucrezia's ties to the Pope, the use of the
fruit of the tree of knowledge, and ideas of good and
evil and power are well examined. However, there are
too many loose threads, too many other themes that
remain unfinished.
Don Vicente's past is hinted at but never revealed;
his quest takes years in the story but when finally
begun it is achieved too soon; other characters are
underused or overused in relation to their potential.
There are only a couple twists in the story that keep
it from being predictable, as retellings may be apt to
become, but these twists mostly serve to frustrate.
Several of Maguire's other books—Wicked, its
sequel Son of a Witch, and Confessions of an
Ugly Stepsister—are superior. Even though this
book's premise seems perhaps more plausible as the
basis of a good novel, it doesn't deliver. Mirror
Mirror is about twice as long as the story told
deserves to be; perhaps it would have been better to
reduce the redundancy and write a book simply called
Mirror.
Tom McMeekin is a writer and artist from Pennsylvania and a recent
graduate of Clarion University. His Web site is TomMcMeekin.com. For more from Tom, check out his ARWZ Blog
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