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J.G. Keely's Reviews > Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins
Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins
by
by
J.G. Keely's review
bookshelves: contemporary-fiction, short-story, novel, reviewed, america, fantasy
Nov 08, 2007
bookshelves: contemporary-fiction, short-story, novel, reviewed, america, fantasy
Donoghue combines self-righteous messages with blatantly didactic interior monologues which can only appeal to those already believing everything she says. She spurs no thought which was not already there, and in writing a book which never aspired to art, has done what your average writer does: increase the general volume of words in print, and nothing more. A string of random monkey-typed characters would have aided mankind as well.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
October 1, 2005
–
Finished Reading
November 8, 2007
– Shelved
November 8, 2007
– Shelved as:
contemporary-fiction
February 27, 2008
– Shelved as:
short-story
February 27, 2008
– Shelved as:
novel
June 9, 2009
– Shelved as:
reviewed
September 4, 2010
– Shelved as:
america
February 14, 2018
– Shelved as:
fantasy
Comments Showing 1-2 of 2 (2 new)
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by
Julia
(new)
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rated it 4 stars
May 31, 2017 03:11AM
I don't normally respond to posts like this. We all have our opinions. But I really think this is an unfair review. One star? Really? I don't know what exactly about it irked you so much because your review does not make that clear to me. I thought the writing was extremely poetic and artful.
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Julia said: "I don't know what exactly about it irked you so much because your review does not make that clear to me."It didn't irk me, I'm not angry at the book or anything, I just didn't like it, hence the one star. I didn't think there was very much there. She took the fairy tales and 'fixed' them by filling them with 2nd wave feminist cliches. She failed to take advantage of the vast idea space that exists between these cultural stories from centuries ago and our modern views.
I prefer authors like Angela Carter, Virginia Woolf, or Joanna Russ, who use traditionally patriarchal forms to force the reader to look at a world beyond their own meager experience. Instead of simply giving the 'approved message', they challenge us to think for ourselves. In comparison, I found Donoghue's work bland and predictable.
"I thought the writing was extremely poetic and artful."
The writing wasn't bad, but I didn't think it stood out, particularly. Pretty standard lit-fic fare.
