Tender Morsels in The Alternative Worlds

Feb 22, 2013 mark monday rated it really liked it

Shelves: were-people, legendarium, fantasy-modern

Snow White and Rose Red live with their mother in a cottage. upon them comes a bear, out of the cold, into their warmth and into their lives. he stays with them a bit; they become a sort of family, until he must go away. the girls meet a strange and irritable dwarf and save him several times. he is not grateful. later, the girls come between the dwarf and the now enraged bear. the unpleasant dwarf begs the bear to eat the girls rather than his little self. can the girls' sweet spirits get them o Snow White and Rose Red live with their mother in a cottage. upon them comes a bear, out of the cold, into their warmth and into their lives. he stays with them a bit; they become a sort of family, until he must go away. the girls meet a strange and irritable dwarf and save him several times. he is not grateful. later, the girls come between the dwarf and the now enraged bear. the unpleasant dwarf begs the bear to eat the girls rather than his little self. can the girls' sweet spirits get them out of this mess - are the girls able to survive? they can, and they will!

a young girl's mother dies, and she is left with her horrible father in a cottage. she is repeatedly molested and impregnated by her father. it is important that you know this, that this is a part of the book and this is a part of life, for some. a young girl loses her father and is happy for a time. a group of boys come upon her, pull her down from the chimney where she has fled, and proceed to rape her. it is important that you know this, that this is a part of the book too and this is a part of life, for some. can this much-abused girl survive? she can, and she will.

a woman writer named Margo Lanagan decided to write a book about women. she would make the book a portrait of a family of women, a family that grows bigger. she would make the book a portrait of motherhood and sisterhood and daughterhood, the challenges and the wonder and the excitement of becoming, of transforming into such roles. she would make this portrait of women a part of the greater world, so there are many voices heard, even voices of men, sympathetic men and strong, kind ones too. the book does not share the voices of those who are brutal and who destroy with their brutality; they are not worthy of having their voices heard and they are not missed. well, there is a certain voice, a harder voice: the dwarf. but his story is its own kind of tale, not the story of a brutal man but rather the story of a man small in stature and in spirit, an occasionally unkind man but not a brutal one, and one deserving of some sympathy. so this woman writer would take the fable of the sisters Snow White and Rose Red, their cottage and their mother and that dwarf and the bear-who-was-a-prince, as her template. men in the shape of bears and women in the shape of women. she would spin this tale out of prose that is light as gossamer, pliant as cotton, soft as flax, sturdy as wool. prose that sings; prose that whispers. can a woman do all these things in one book, tell all these tales, and still stay true to her goals and still stay true to the myth itself? she can, and she did.

I was once a residential counselor for runaway kids. one girl in particular, I remember her well, she came from a history of sexual abuse, like many others. she fled to the house where I worked. one night she went out wandering and upon her came a group of men. they raped this girl, this girl who had already suffered so much. was she broken though? she was, for a little while. but she came back, she healed, not completely because these kinds of wounds never heal completely, but she did heal. she was young and I know that this was still the beginning of her story. could she survive this beginning, could she survive and even thrive, one day? she could, and she did.

I thought of this girl quite a bit while reading Tender Morsels, her survival. the first 50 pages were exceedingly hard for me to read, for many others to read as well. sometimes these kinds of stories need to start hard. but they don't need to stay that way, only hard, they can expand and move beyond and transform, become something different, something more than atrocity, something bright and warm and ready to embrace those who have been hurt and who long for that bright warmth. can stories that start with such terrible things remain hard - even vengeful - while also growing softer, a soft side and a hard one, side-by-side, life is all sides, can a story juggle such things, even up until its very end? it can, and it did. ...more

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Jan 02, 2013 Ryandake rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2013-challenge, the-good-shit

what an interesting book. i imagine 50 or 100 years from now, if liberal arts education is not laughed off university campuses, students of English lit might actually be studying this one.

it's that layered, yep.

about halfway through i realized i was reading something i have run across so rarely: a book where men don't actually matter much. i've read a zillion books where women were just plot devices, getting things kicked off or causing a plot twist. in these cases the men of the story were indi ...more

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Feb 09, 2014 Kara Babcock rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2014-read, from-library, fantasy

This is one of those books where the description is of no help whatsoever, and in fact reading the description is more confusing than just reading the book. That鈥檚 not necessarily a bad thing, although it would probably make me less likely to take a chance on reading this had I just randomly encountered it. Instead, a group I鈥檓 a member of chose this for February鈥檚 read, and my library had a copy. I鈥檓 glad the group made this choice, because Tender Morsels is a pleasant surprise of a novel. It鈥檚 ...more

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May 14, 2009 Jackie "the Librarian" rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, youngadult, fairytalesretold, magic, misery-oh-misery, teen-books-adults-can-enjoy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Liga was sexually abused by her father until his accidental death. With a baby daughter from him, she thought with him gone, she was free. Then, the boys from the village came. Not wanting her daughter to ever experience what she has, Liga is ready to kill them both, only to have magical powers intervene. They give Liga her own paradise, a place just like the real world, but safe. Liga, pregnant from the attack from the village boys, delivers a second daughter, and the two girls thrive in their Liga was sexually abused by her father until his accidental death. With a baby daughter from him, she thought with him gone, she was free. Then, the boys from the village came. Not wanting her daughter to ever experience what she has, Liga is ready to kill them both, only to have magical powers intervene. They give Liga her own paradise, a place just like the real world, but safe. Liga, pregnant from the attack from the village boys, delivers a second daughter, and the two girls thrive in their separate world.

Then, a greedy little man forces his way in, and men costumed as bears for a yearly spring festival get pulled in and transformed into true bears. Urrda, Liga鈥檚 younger daughter and a restless spirit, follows a bear back into the real world, and that鈥檚 when things begin to fall apart.

This story refuses to follow the standard lines of the fairy tale it is expanding on. The love of the women does not restore the men who have become bears. Liga does not find the love of her life and get salvation. Urrda doesn鈥檛 look for love at all, but instead goes to develop an unexpected talent. I wanted a fairytale ending, especially for Liga, but this book does not wrap everything up in a neat happily-ever-after bow, and it鈥檚 unsettling. In fact, I feel like it should have a sequel, there were so many unresolved threads.

The book is long, lagging in the middle while Liga settles into her new world. The ending will but leave many readers aching for the characters and wishing for them to find happiness. The country dialect spoken by the characters may turn some readers off, as may the horror of the first few chapters. But the story invests you in the fate of the characters, and the writing is beautiful. A baby is described as 鈥渁 little warm scrap of bleating treasure.鈥� Not a book for everyone, but a book that will make you think - about what makes a hell on earth, what makes a paradise, and what people need to grow and love. Recommended for grades 10 and up. ...more

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Dec 30, 2010 Michelle rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, feminism, book_club, award_winner, fairy-tales, best_covers

in a small village long ago or far away, Liga's mother has died, and her father demands she take her mother's place. the situation is phrased about as gently as that - this is not an explicit or graphic sort of tale - but the enormous monstrosity of this girl's life is gradually made crystal clear. through a little twist of magic, she finds herself in her own perfect heaven, free to raise her children in perfect calm, away from the struggles and pain of the real world. but calm doesn't temper a ...more

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Aug 14, 2008 Lee marked it as to-read

Shelves: young-adult, fantasy

This is good but I put it down for a few days and got distracted. It has to go back to the library because someone else has it on hold. I will definitely come back to it.

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