Reviews

The Fourth Pig by Naomi Mitchison

torts's review

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No

3.75

I'm glad I skipped Marina Warner's introduction and went back to read it to contextualize the stories once I finished, since I think it might've spoiled some of the charm to know the fairytale parallels or the intended social critiques. I still didn't spend much time reading some of the more obscure stories (and mostly skimmed the poetry, including the songs within the Kate Crackernuts play), but I enjoyed enough of the stories to merit somewhere around four stars for pretty prose, female-led fantastical adventures, and interesting retellings of some classic fairy tales. My favorites:
*The Fourth Pig: I

didn't see the WWII foresight that Warner mentioned in her introduction, but I

enjoyed the extended metaphor of the pig's fear of the wolf (with the pig as a sort of stand-in for humanity).
*Hansel and Gretel: Sadly realistic and not too similar to the story it gets its title from, but recognizable in a way other stories (and poems) weren't.
*The Snow Maiden: Maybe too sad, but not at all unrealistic

in its portrayal of a woman who gave up her passion for academics in order to fulfill an expected role as wife/mother

. Probably could use a trigger warning because

the protagonist ends up with the man who assaulted her

, but it's pretty clear that it's going to be a dark story about the limitations placed on women's lives so it's not exactly surprising.
*Soria Maria Castle: Up there with The Fourth Pig when it comes to lovely and kind of brutal nature-focused prose. A better witch than Hansel and Gretel, and I loved the descriptions of the transformations and the playful frame

of the sand castle

.
*Kate Crackernuts: I

didn't notice the Twelve Dancing Princesses frame that Warner pointed out in the introduction, but I could definitely see the Goblin Market parallels. I

liked the female-led adventuring and the foregrounding of sisterly love

, and I didn't really feel like the heterosexual happy endings undermined the female agency the way Warner somewhat implied (or at least the way I might have interpreted Warner's parallel to the Goblin Market with the caveat about Mitchison adding heterosexuality, had I read the intro before the story)

.
*Adventure in Debateable Land: Kind of reminded me of Shrek and The Phantom Tollbooth, but a little less accessible. Could be worth rereading with less skimming.
*The Little Mermaiden: One of the more recognizable fairy tale retellings, and probably the only way I'll ever be able to stomach the "original" little mermaid story

(with the walking-on-glass and the turning-to-seafoam elements)

. I liked the perspective she chose to tell the story from, and appreciated the appropriately monstrous mermaids.

kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review against another edition

4.0

Naomi Mitchison’s collection off fairy tale retellings or modern fairy tales is poignant reminder of a world between World Wars. The title story is about the Wolf, and it isn’t really a wolf. There is a power and a controlled anger in this first tale.

The stories are also activist stories and poems, in many cases critical of capitalism. They succed in various degrees – the two strongest in this regard are the retelling of Hansel and Gretel and the poem “Furies Dance in New York”. There is also a heartbreaking, yet sadly still true, story about women and their place in the world, “The Snow Maiden”.

But the best is the play “Kate Crackernuts” because quite frankly this story can’t be retold enough times.

middlekmissie's review against another edition

3.0

Only a few stories were outstanding, but all were interesting, at least. The title story was by far my favorite.