The Robber Bridegroom--A Book Review

 

  I am no fan of fairy tales. I know what this makes me. I just don't like how predictable they all are. You know what is going to happen even before you open the front cover. I also know that is the point. The fantasy of it all is that you can put yourself into one of the roles and then instead of some other princess or prince, it is you now and the story is your own.  I can see the joy in that. However, I was born a kill-joy and that is not my fantasy, but maybe it is also because I'm a guy. We don't want to be Prince Charming, but rather, we want to be Braveheart.

  However, this story, The Robber Bridegroom, is no regular fairy tale. Eudora Welty takes the plot of a normal fairy tale and she reworks it into something that was interesting and a joy to read all while not being wholly predictable. She does this using a cast of very odd, grotesque, and unique characters. She also sets the story in Mississippi and in Louisiana. Her princess is the daughter of a wealthy cotton farmer and an evil, ugly step-mother. Her prince is a thief who terrorizes people traveling on the Natchez Trace. Her other characters are human, but don't seemed to be because of deformities or other very real oddities. Welty also allows seemingly unbelievable things to occur right out in the open and you find yourself as the reader wanting to believe them and convincing yourself that, "truth really is much stranger and fascinating than fiction". And the way it is written allows one to feel completely wrapped up in the story and wanting several different story lines to unfold, but you are unsure about which way the story is going to go.

  What I liked best about the book was how the characters all evoke a definite emotion from you. You hate the step-mother. You both dislike and feel for the naive father. You cheer for the robber bridegroom, but also despise some of his actions, and ignore his profession. You laugh at the side characters, like Goat and Little Harp, as well as hate them. And lastly, you feel bad for Rosamond, Welty's princess, but at the same time wonder at her actions and find some of them annoying at times.  

    I would highly suggest this book. It is a good, fast, light read. It is also entertaining, which is one of the purposes for literature, right? I have read several reviews of the book on the Net and they all say that the story is stale and the characters are one-dimensional and static. I disagree, but what do I really know. I would encourage you to read this book through the eyes of an amateur reader. I think it would make the few moments you have to read before bed maybe the most enjoyable of your day. I think the reviewers forgot that Welty is a master storyteller and this is a great, original work of fiction.

David