Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire (April 18-23, 2004)
Mirror Mirror is a retelling of the Snow White, mixing the fairy tale with fantasy and elements of history. The story is set in Renaissance Italy, where Bianca de Nevada is cast in the role of Snow White. Lucrezia Borgia plays the role of the evil stepmother, though she is not Bianca’s stepmother in the story. She and her lover/brother Cesare, are the illegitimate offspring of the Pope, and Lucrezia’s son by her brother is Bianca’s friend, the gooseboy Michelotto. Vicente, Bianca’s father, is a widower who recovers the magic mirror from the lake nearby. We learn that the mirror was made by eight stone dwarves, who move and think slowly. The only person who sees herself in the mirror is Lucrezia. Made of quicksilver (mercury), the mirror causes paranoia, and since Lucrezia is a member of a conniving, murderous family, looking at her reflection in the mirror does her no good.
Cesare calls upon Vicente to steal a branch from the biblical Tree of Knowledge that he learned had been preserved by the Ottomans, and is still flourishing. Vicente is crushed to leave his daughter behind, but has no choice but to retrieve the fruit of knowledge to regain his peaceful life. Bianca is left at Montefiore alone, with the cook Primavera and priest, Fra Ludovico. Lucrezia looks in on her from time to time as she promised Vicente. Time passes, and when Bianca is 11, Cesare visits and finds her innocence and beauty alluring. In jealousy, Lucrezia wants Bianca dead, and calls upon Primavera’s grandson Ranuccio, a hunter, to take Bianca to the woods, kill her and bring back her heart as evidence. We learn that the hunter cannot kill after an encounter with a unicorn, and he allows Bianca tp escape. Meanwhile, Bianca collapses on the doorstep of the dwarves’ home and proceeds to falls asleep, aging to womanhood, while the dwarves look on. She has trouble telling the seven apart, and the dwarves have trouble too, although since one of them is missing, they have come to realize that there are seven of them.
The eighth dwarf, NextDay is trying to recover the mirror, and helps Vicente find the lost tree limb, laden with three apples (one he leaves with the Doge in Venice). When Vicente returns, he is told his daughter is dead. So is Cesare, so his mission was in vain. Since his daughter’s remains were never found, he searches for her. NextDay is fed a piece of the apple by Lucrezia and becomes more human, and later his seven brothers are fed from the apple too, which puts them into action at last as they all decide to recover their mirror. Once Lucrezia discovers Bianca is alive, of course she must try again to kill her. After a few attempts, she coats the remaining apple with poison on one side and convinces Bianca to take a bite by taking a bite from the other half. The dwarves recover their mirror, and return to find Bianca asleep again (they presume dead). The mirror coating is removed to form a glass cover for her coffin, and they stand watch over her. Her father finds her and visits with the dwarves until he grows too old. Then gooseboy discovers her and wants to kiss her, but the hunter interrupts and kisses her in apology. They live happily, while Lucrezia suffers. She remembers the final apple and goes in search for it, finding instead her pathway to hell with a horned gondolier with the final Apple embedded in its chest.
The addition of the historical rumors and reputations of the Borgia family were the best aspect of the story. This was my favorite quote: "Happiness was a cruel hoax, usually, eclipsing momentarily the true sour nature of the world." One problem with the book is that Mirror Mirror is not as developed as either Wicked or Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. The often extremely short chapters feel fractured. While the jumps from one character perspective to the next gives insight sometimes, at other times it created a disjointed read. However, the book was an engrossing read, and was far superior to its predecessor Lost. It was a good read overall, and I look forward to Maguire’s next book.
