Bryony and Roses

This is a novel-length retelling of the "Beauty and the Beast" fairy tale, thankfully without all the bells and whistles added by the Disney version. Instead, the author mentions this was inspired by McKinley's "Rose Daughter" version, but in this case, the heroine (Bryony) is an avid gardener and uses her wits and her gardening shears to find her way out of the situation in the end. Despite the fundamental setting of the story requiring the beast to capture the girl, in this case he's quite sympathetic; it's clear from the start that he's also being forced into actions beyond his control and he's polite and apologetic and occasionally sarcastic, and while Bryony doesn't exactly volunteer to be captured, she is given about as much control over the situation as reasonably possible given the story's basic framework.

The characters are sympathetic and their banter is often funny and sarcastic and it's quite understandable how they might develop a friendship of sorts over time. Bryony is a bit frustrating in that she is rather exceptionally dense at times about how to possibly help the beast, but this is somewhat made up for when her sister Holly outright calls her on being such a complete idiot and expresses most of what the reader has been thinking. And, I liked the relationship with sister Holly, and the ending. One of the best retellings I've read so far, recommended!

Stories of women marrying wild beasts - snakes, bears, or foxes - are fairly common. There are also stories that run the other way: a Papuan story, for example, has a young man marrying a wild pig. Hovering behind these are concerns about marriage, sex and growing away from the family of origin.
The story we have of Beauty and the Beast has been trimmed down to a morality tale about a woman's marrying for the good of her family - a merchant's daughter sacrifices herself to save her recently impoverished father. (I have my own version of a very similar tale, 'East of the Moon and West of the Sun, here : www.tumblr.com/reblog/182868348003/f2ucR0JV) In T Kingfisher's version, however, the impoverished father is dead, and she winds up in the Beast's mansion through her own caprice : a short ride to a friend's house to pick up some rutabaga seeds (she's not even very keen on rutabagas) ends with her pony staggering its way through a snow-storm. Bryony is on the edge of death when she stumbles upon the Beast's mansion. (At one point she wonders whether she has not died in the storm, and the whole story is taking place in hell. This kind of tale often involves death and resurrection, and the Beast's domain is certainly what the anthropologists refer to as a liminal space, which is to say it betwixt and between. Rutabagas are a betwixt and between vegetable, being the bastard offspring of the turnip and the cabbage).

In the end, the rutabagas turn out to be heroic in nature, contributing to saving the day. For Bryony is a gardener, and has been summoned by the Beast, we are given to understand, because her expertise is a key to unlocking the prison in which he has been confined.

As a gardener, Kingfisher is not enamoured of roses. As a story-teller, she is scornful of the original Beauty, who she condemns to a horrific conclusion. Bryony herself is made of sterner stuff.

I have given this book four stars. It is better than many books I have read over the past year. If I were to measure it against Angela Carter's retellings of the tale in 'The Bloody Chamber' it would perhaps be unfair, as Carter is peerless. I'd put this outing neck and neck with Arden's 'The Bear and the Nightingale', and recommend it to anyone who wants a good read.