20. Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire

I was very hesitant about reading this book because I didn't like his best known book, Wicked, which was the inspiration for the musical of the same name. That book was weird -- political, sexual, magical. I honestly think the fluffy musical is a drastic improvement on that plot.

But Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister was extremely enjoyable (I'm going to assume that you're probably not going to read it, so light spoilers lie ahead).

The central conceit of the plot is that it's the truth behind the Cinderella story -- a story that was warped by rumors and children's imagination into the beloved fairytale.

Iris and Ruth, the ugly stepsisters, are half British and half Dutch. Their Dutch mother brings them back to the village she grew up in after disaster strikes their family abroad, and then she wheedles their way into some higher positions. She sucks.

Clara is Cinderella, the most beautiful girl in the village who rarely leaves her house after some childhood trauma. She's spoiled and aloof, and eventually just depressed. But she and her stepsisters have a strange bond that borders on love.

But Iris is the focus of the book, including Iris's dealing with unrequited love. Obviously I've never written about that before, and I couldn't identify with that plot at all. #storyofmylife


Iris is super plain looking. It's mentioned about every other chapter, which gets a little old. But the whole unrequited thing is done pretty well.


Anyway, I'd like to talk about something that's in this book but isn't specific to it -- a "Reader's Group Guide." It seems that all contemporary, popular novels have one, and I hate them. It's like the English teacher you hated in sixth grade came up with the dumbest, most obvious questions possible (but, to be honest, I loved all my middle school English teachers). But really? "What lesson can be learned from the story?" ARE WE FIVE? Do real people have real book discussion where they ask these obnoxious questions? "Do you think her beauty is a curse or a blessing?" Yawn. 


My friends and I tried to have a book club (which failed) but I'm sure we wouldn't have talked about anything that stupid. Probably would have done something more like this. 


But really, who are these people who look at these guides because they don't know what else to discuss? Do they actually start invigorating conversations? Probably not. I'd much rather talk about my feelings about the book -- but I always want to talk about my feelings. I guess other people would rather be less personal in their literary discussions, but I think that was part of the point of Reading Lolita in Tehran -- literature, especially that of any worth, is going to be personal. Also, that whole lesson question really got on my nerves. Stories don't need to have lessons, even ones based on fairy tales. Then they're just moral tracts. I love moral ambiguity (have you noticed?), and this book was full of it.


So let's all boycott "Reading Group Guides." Cool? Cool.


Next up: Maybe Grapes of Wrath? Or Jane Eyre. Or The Great Gatsby. Hrmph.