Gregory Maguire's latest book, \Mirror, Mirror,"" takes the classic story of Snow White and puts a historical twist on it. Maguire guides a girl, Bianca de Nevada, from her breezy life on her father's farm, Montefiore, in Tuscany through the dark side of a fairy tale with the infamous Cesare Borgia.
Bianca can remain innocent for only so long as she is separated from her father, Don Vicente, and is left in the clutches of the nefarious Lucrezia Borgia. While Lucrezia stares into a mirror at Montefiore Bianca grows up and grows more beautiful. Soon, the mirror shows the fairest woman of the land is not Lucrezia, but Bianca.
The Daily Cardinal recently spoke with Gregory Maguire about seeing ""Wicked"" on Broadway, fairy tales in the 21st century and green-skinned people at his book signings.
How's the book tour going?
I'm enjoying it a great deal.
Are there any particular highlights that stand out?
I always like it when people show up with green skin, which happens rather more often than you might expect, as a token of my character of Elphaba from ""Wicked.""
I've been interested to see that this year, with my book ""Mirror, Mirror,"" when I read from it, people are not just buying it, but they're often buying my backlist.
You've also had a performance with ""Wicked"" cast members.
Yes. ""Wicked"" opened on Broadway about a week ago as a musical. I interrupted my tour to go there for the opening and that was rather extraordinary. The dazzle of it makes one think for a moment, ""Well, maybe writing for the theater would be fun to do as well as writing novels.""
How does it feel to see your book on a new medium?
I've been very generous about letting it go, but I don't claim any particular credit for that generosity. The fact is that I based my story, in part, on work that had been done by multiple creators in 100 years past.
It only seems right to say that the evolution doesn't stop with me. It's my job to be gracious and move aside and let the story continue, to develop under its own speed. It feels pretty exciting, but I also feel a healthy distance from it. It's like having a child, letting it grow up to decide its own career.
What were your beginnings as a writer?
My parents were rather strict and old-world. They prohibited my six siblings and I from the entertainment of the day, which was riding bicycles and attending camps. About the only entertainment really open to us was using the library. We weren't even allowed to watch much TV. I read for pleasure and to escape from boredom. As a child I wrote many manuscripts to amuse myself and all through grade school and high school.
And you just ran with it?
Yes, I've always been interested in how children reading is one of the many safe ways that they learn about variety in the world. It's a safe way to experiment with different ways of thinking and being to read widely. I have thrown myself into promoting literature for children as one of the causes in my professional life. One of the reasons I like coming to Madison, not just because I think that Canterbury is such a remarkable place, but because Madison is home to the Cooperative Children's Book Center. The kind of work that the CCBC does is akin to the kind of work I've tried to do both as a private citizen and also as the co-director of my own, called Children's Literature, New England.
This will, I believe, be my fourth visit to Madison in 15 years. I so love going for a walk along the lake and up to where I stay.
What made you decide to bring together themes of fantasy with your own creation?
I have a reputation for taking fairy tales and material of childhood and reconsidering it to see what adult concerns do to that material.
I don't really like to be known as the writer who rewrites children's books for grown-ups.
The matter of childhood, of fairy tales, the books we read as kids is coming close to being one of the few remaining cultural languages, the lingua franca, that all Americans share.
People from all sides of the socioeconomic spectrum know the story of Snow White, know the story of Cinderella, know the story of The Wizard of Oz. They no longer necessarily know the Bible. They certainly don't know the Greek myths or the Roman myths.
But almost everyone knows the fairy tales and the matter of childhood. Therefore, when I want to think about a topic that is deep and meaty, and I want people to come along with me, I give them the handhold, the semblance of a familiar tale to make them comfortable.
