Review: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister

This is not Disney's Cinderella. Gregory Maguire's second novel is an unnerving and human retelling no longer steeped in fairies and the pitting of simple good against simple evil. Nothing is simple about this tale. We are taught in this tome that the once upon a time adage of physical beauty equals spiritual beauty, and vice versa, does not play out in real life. Extreme beauty is an affliction and plainness is a curse. Pleasingly, another story grows through the middle and winks at the very end. Maguire's characters are more individual and much more engaging than the characters we were all brought up with.

Arriving in the unwelcoming streets of 17th-centrury Haarlem, Holland, Margarethe Fisher drives her starving daughters through the streets, hoping to find the house of a grandfather. Iris Fisher, the oldest daughter, is an intelligent young woman struggling with poverty and plain looks. Her younger sister, Ruth, a hulking dullard, begins to howl from the emptiness in her belly. This draws the attention of a beautiful and ethereal child who peeps out of her window to watch the wailing Ruth. Before long, the shrewd Margarethe has availed herself of a place in the home of an aspiring painter, Luykas Schoonmaker, who is in need of a housekeeper. The artist renders the irrepressible Iris on canvas at the price of disheartening the girl in the face of her ugliness. Yet, it is this painting that persuades a wealthy tulip importer, Cornelius van den Meer, to commission the Master. His daughter, the over-protected and formerly peeping Clara, is to be painted amidst his precious flowers. Van de Meer decides to buy Iris as a companion for his lonely daughter and Margarethe jumps at the chance. The Fisher family alights in the upper-crust residence of the Van den Meers. When Van den Meer's wife dies during childbirth, Margarethe takes over the household. Both Clara and Iris harbor memories they cannot abide as they grow together as step-sisters. For the reclusive Clara, fear of the outside has her donning the role of a cinder girl as she retreats from the world. Iris blooms with the attentions of Schoonmaker and his affable apprentice, Caspar, as she learns to look at the world through the eyes of a painter. But, tragedy upon tragedy befalls them and the familys fortunes diminish. All of their hopes rest on one night that could change everything. All of them must rise above their greatest fears and face hidden truths in order to survive.

This revisionist version of Cinderella is built on solid Dutch soil with realistic struggles equally internal and external. Each girl thinks the other has all that is needed to find happiness yet both are deeply sad. With a historically accurate background complementing the snappy dialogue, this incisive tale of human nature at its best and worst will sate even the hard to please princes and princesses among readers. The twist at the end crowns Maguires saga as a sensational read.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Jennifer Jordan

Book Review: Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister