The best book I read this month was the novella Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne Valente. As you might guess from the title, it is a retelling of the fairy tale “Snow White” set in the Old West.
What struck me first, and what I fell in love with, was the story’s narrative voice. It is vibrant and colorful, as if someone were sitting in front of me telling the story aloud.
The cover illustration is equally striking, and the pen-and-ink sketches scattered throughout the book add a nice visual dimension to the storytelling.
The story itself is not a Disney fairy tale, either. It’s dark in places and does not sugarcoat the harshness of life in the Old West. The exploitation, violence, racism, and sexism of the era are key aspects of the characters and story line. In this tale, Snow White is the daughter of an unscrupulous white mining magnate and a Crow woman, and her racial heritage colors the way she is treated, especially by her stepmother. But this is a fairy tale, and after many trials and much tribulation, Snow White does find a Happy Ever After.