What this book has given me, over the past few days of reading, are innumerable scraps of paper: post-it notes, torn rectangles of printer paper, jagged sections of to-go bags. The one nearest me reads:

"I had in mind launching a three-pronged assault but the prongs wandered off seduced by fires and clowns. It was hell there in the furnace of my ambition. It was because, you said, I had read the wrong book. He reversed himself in his last years, you said, in the books no-one would publish. But his students remember, you said."- pg 53

The book does not provide much more context to appreciate that quote. Like most of Barthelme's short stories, the gems in Snow White work in plainspoken absurdity, like David Lynch at his most playful. He plays with the reader as a detached narrator and while it may be a critique born of our time, his lack of sincerity renders the project meaningless beyond an ice cold intellectual engagement.

I'm tired of postmodernism.

Snow White can barely sustain itself as a novel and I still prefer Barthelme's short stories, where lessons on writing and narrative are in abundance. ( )

What this book has given me, over the past few days of reading, are innumerable scraps of paper: post-it notes, torn rectangles of printer paper, jagged sections of to-go bags. The one nearest me reads:

"I had in mind launching a three-pronged assault but the prongs wandered off seduced by fires and clowns. It was hell there in the furnace of my ambition. It was because, you said, I had read the wrong book. He reversed himself in his last years, you said, in the books no-one would publish. But his students remember, you said."- pg 53

The book does not provide much more context to appreciate that quote. Like most of Barthelme's short stories, the gems in Snow White work in plainspoken absurdity, like David Lynch at his most playful. He plays with the reader as a detached narrator and while it may be a critique born of our time, his lack of sincerity renders the project meaningless beyond an ice cold intellectual engagement.

I'm tired of postmodernism.

Snow White can barely sustain itself as a novel and I still prefer Barthelme's short stories, where lessons on writing and narrative are in abundance. ( )

Published fifty years ago, Barthelme’s droll reworking of the fairy tale in bursts of absurdist precision is shrewd and smart as it subverts the forms of fiction. Not for those who need their stories straight and square.

Magic Hat Snow Roller Ale
Adirondack Beaver Tail Brown Ale

The author, Donald Barthelme, is known for his short stories.

In this book he tries to experiment with some poetry, some parts as if they are a play and some regular fiction. The result is an unreadable mishmash.

The story is a modern retelling of Snow White who is waiting for her prince.

I did not like this book and wouldn't recommend it. ( )

The retelling of Snow White, or rather, turning the story inside out with a post-modern flourish. Prince Charming can't make up his mind to approach, Snow White is vain, lascivious, and lives with the 7 whatevers in the East Village, but there is a meme in the middle of the book - just to give you a little break.