Gregory Maguire is turning out to be one of my favorite authors. I have already reviewed Wicked! and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and just read Mirror, Mirror this weekend. Mirror, Mirror is the retelling of the classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but typically Maguire, flipped on its head and told mostly from the perspective of the Witch. In this version, Snow White is called Bianca de Nevada and was born on a farm in Renaissance Tuscany in 1495 among the Borgias, Machiavelli and Medicis. Arch-manipulator Lucrecia Borgia, daughter of Pope Alexander VI portrays the wicked witch. I do not remember the original tale that well except for snippets of the Disney film, the magic apple, the kiss, the Trivial Pursuit question of the dwarfs' names, and the song, "Hi Ho, Hi Ho, Its Off to Work We Go." Maguire goes much deeper, delving into the origins, motivations and backgrounds of the witch, the dwarfs, the apple and the mirror, as well as filling in information on the essentially bare framework of the story we all think we know. He also investigates such alternatives as what if there had been an 8th dwarf? The origin of the apple is explained, though less believable as the effects are too vague and measured as is the quest - lacking detail but perhaps that is because it could have made a Sinbad-the-Sailor-like novella by itself. The motivations of the dwarfs are less elaborated than I would have liked, especially as to why they helped and continued to help Bianca, and their reasons behind originally fashioning the Mirror. The surprise ending is also too quick and off the cuff. Despite these minor criticisms, it is a very well crafted and captivating book that I could not put down. I am eagerly keeping my eyes out for more of his books, such as Son of a Witch, What the Dickens and A Lion Among Men. There is a new Julia Roberts movie now out by the same name, also a twist on the classic tale, but it is unclear if it is based on or independent of Maguire's book.

By chance, the same weekend I also read John Morressey's "Mirror, Mirror Off the Wall" in Fantasy and Sci-Fi Magazine (August 1988).