Godmother by Carolyn TurgeonPublisher: Three Rivers Press 2009
Paperback 273 pages
Everyone, at one point or another, needs a good fairytale. I'm not talking about a Disneyized washed out Brothers Grimm disaster either. I'm talking a fairytale for adults. One that brings magic into our lives, with just that slight element of something darker lurking under the surface.
In Carolyn Turgeon's Godmother we get the old tale of Cinderella with a twist. What if it wasn't Cinderella at the ball? What if the death of Cinderella's mother and father, instead of making her sing with mice, made her a suicide case waiting to happen? In this delightfully imagined tale we find Cinderella's fairy godmother in present day New York. After failing her duty to Cinderella she is cast out of the fairy realm and made to fend for herself. Working in a small bookstore, the godmother decides that the only way to redeem herself is to bring two people together; her boss, a shy bookstore owner, and a new acquaintance, who is still grieving for a lover that died years before.
The ending is unexpected, but wonderfully bittersweet. While the story can move fast at times, and too slowly in others, in the whole the creativity of the novel makes it worth the effort. Just don't forget your glass slippers!
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