Transformations

5 out of 5

By Dan Flasar on Jan 11, 2009

If there is one fault with this book it is that Ann Sexton is not narrating it. I've heard a few of the poems she's narrated in "Transformations" and although I am enjoying the unexpected algorithmic nuance of my Bookport's reading, it of course must defer to Sexton's droll, spooky,wry re-tellings of our beloved, and bewithed, fairy tales. Retaining the macabre premise of the originals, Sexton Americanizes them, wryly and resignedly comments on their absurdity and even archaic moralism, but still allowing the gravity of these nursery staples have to bring even the wittiest reader down to the underworld.An example, "There was a man who had 3 daughters, one had 1 eye, whom he called "Cyclops", one who had 3 eyes, whom he called "Pawnshop", and another who had two eyes, who he called "Hey, you!".Read it with a friend with as wicked a sense of humor as you, open a bottle of wine or some dark beer and laugh through the dark woods with the Brother's Grimm's illegitimate great-great-great-great-granddaughter.