Snow White

Some people say this book is Marmite, but I tried and failed to either love or hate it. No it doesn't make much sense, yes it is very "creative", no there isn't a satisfying narrative, yes it *almost* makes some interesting philosophical observations. Take it as it comes and make of it what you will. Oh and if you're looking for smut, look elsewhere (it is not as scandalous as its reputation suggests... times have changed I guess!)

Barthelme (1931-89) is generally held to be one of Postmodernism's torchbearers (but he's better than that), and to be more adept at short stories than longer forms of fiction (but he's better than that too). 'Snow White' is hardly, you can at least assume, the traditional tale retold. In a series of short chapters the captious heroine is obliquely revealed as a woman regularly pleasured in a shower cubicle by the seven dwarves for whom she performs 'horsewifely' duties; the prince is a fop, and the stepmother is almost an incidental presence in relation to the potently amoral Hogo (one of several 'introduced' characters to the fable). But the characterisation, no more than the narrative, is largely beside the point. The real pleasure of Barthelme's fiction is in the curiously mutating narrative position (large chunks of the story are told by various dwarves) and the flash of succinct sentences that seem to circumscribe an original world view ("...those girls who, right this minute, are trying to find the right typewriter, in the correct building"). This is quite an early book (1967) and perhaps more playful than his later pieces. Intelligent and excellent, it harbours no designs to change your life: that, after all, would be altogether TOO uncool...

A boat trip: Barthelme, a writer, looks at the water and sees a woman. Hair as black as ebony, heart as pure as the driven snow. He thinks of a film, but not a story.The lecture room: He, the writer, tells others what to write. `You write in lines, don't you?' he asks each of the students. They don't understand. What are you writing, they ask back. `Nothing original, perhaps.' Nothing, they ask? `Well, I did see this woman at sea, but no story.'His apartment: The writer sees the woman again. But different. Hair as black as ebony. Heart as messy as the dirt dragged through the driven snow.A subversion? Of what? Don't make it obvious, Donald. Please, not obvious.In the bar, with the details: The writer, drunk, creates scenes on the whisky top. A Disney prostitute, living with seven men. They, the seven men, have leadership issues. A Prince. Yes, but he's muddled. She hangs her hair out of the window for him, but he may never climb up. In the meantime, she sleeps with the seven men.Something different: `What haven't they seen before?' the writer wonders.At the end of Part One a questionnaire appears, asking the reader if the text, so far, has been emotional enough.The future, forty years later, a guy on amazon writes that this is the weirdest, most inventive book he has ever seen. And you will enjoy around sixty-two percent of it. The rest will frustrate.

Nicht besonders spannend und der Erzählstil ist recht fragwürdig.

The cover and printings inside look worse than a xerox-copy from the seventies.You can count the pixels in the capitals, and the ink is a kind of light-grey instead of black.It says 'Printed in Great Britain by Amazon.co.uk, Ltd.' I hope they still have their day-jobs.The cover has had various illustrations over the years, this is the most awful 'design'.This is seriously the worst printing I've ever come across.Still, a humorous 60's rework of an old fairy-tale.Nice read (if you can get past how horrible it looks).

a free-associative adult/psychedelic nerd-shaman take on the well known fairy tale. if you dig ben marcus, david ohle, pynchon, borges etc, you'll find much to love here.

O.K., maybe I'm just off the wall, but I just love this story. Of course, I think it's real.

my introduction to donald barthelme were his short stories. i learned of this book, dove right in and discovered quite a romp! i feel for the other reviewers that may have felt that this was a faithful rendition of grimm classic. it certainly is not!! it is twisted and thought provoking. my favorite passages are the quiz and the end of part one, and the letter that jane (the evil stepmother) writes to a stranger in the phone book, mr. quistgaard. that truly makes you stop and think about the way things are today and how we insulate ourselves in our own plenum. in a rather strange way, it made me want to do the same thing!i know absolutely nothing about post-modernist literature. i don't even know what it means. what i do know is that barthelme creates and recreates his own personal universe with each story and book. each one unique and provocative. i have read that barthelme is the master. i can believe it.

EM Forster asked in his famous Aspects of the Novel why can't the novel invent a form less rigid and more suitable to its genius. I agree. So much of what is served up these days to the public is a waste of time and obviously exists simply for commercial purposes. Not Snow White. Here we have real literature with a capital L and here we have real imagination too. Based on the original tale, alert readers will love how a master writer converts the simple to the complex, the silly to the profound, and yet keeps us entertained as he goes. Oh, I know in this democratic era questions of elitism are de trop. But so what? Go ahead and read an elitist book. It won't hurt and you will have a lot of fun in the process.

Excellent

This novel--although it really shouldn't be called that--is a wonderfully fragmented romp in the mud that is our bloated western culture. Don't go into this expecting an emotionally compelling narrative. While there are characters who do things, I'd hardly describe their actions as "plot," at least in the conventional sense. Moreover, though, I found my attachment to What Happened being continually, purposefully undercut.The moment-to-moment thrill, however, is unmistakable. These were some of the most enjoyable passages (if cynically so) I've encountered in awhile. If you're in the mood for an assertive tour-de-force (which actually does NOT go on for too long at all--precisely because things ARE happening!...plus the book is pretty short, not to mention a quick read), try this one out!

This novel is very strange. If you want an interesting read that questions everything and is a seriously messed up parody then this is it. Just beware, this IS NOT A FAIRYTALE!

My son is a student at Columbia in NYC. He had a class with the author last semester and wanted to read this book. He loved it.

I loved the premise but could not force myself to get through the entire book.

Deconstruction is not my thing. It is a good book for others though.

nice book

It is a m o d e r n writing, and the "old" Grimm story provides only a framework and pretext for Bartheöme to discuss several aspects of relationships, in a playful, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes phylosophical

Great book. Beautifully written and FUNNY!