The Snow Queen, by Michael Cunningham

This old fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen is getting quite a workout lately.  Disney’s Frozen is loosely based on “The Snow Queen” (very loosely…..) and the new literary fiction by Cunningham also adapts some of the elements of the original story.  This sent me back to the original, which I read and reread, along with the other stories in my mother’s 1926 edition of Andersen’s Fairy Tales.  It was my least favorite tale in the book as a child.  It’s long, with seven short intertwined stories and, like many fairytales, concerns the struggle between good and evil.  It has a very overt Christian slant.  In the fairytale an evil sprite constructs a mirror that reflects everything that is good as bad.  The mirror shatters and the shards may get in an innocent person’s eye or heart, where it will distort vision and turn the heart to ice.  In Cunningham’s novel it is a piece of driven snow that flies into Tyler Meek’s eye. It comes in window of the bedroom shares with his long-time girlfriend, Beth, who is dying of cancer.  His brother, Barrett, whose latest failed relationship is weighing heavily on his mind, has just returned to the apartment where he also lives, having seen what might be a vision in Central Park.  The fourth main character in the book is Liz, who manages the upscale store where Beth and Barrett work.  Will innocent Beth be saved by this possible miracle that Barrett has seen?  Will Barrett find true love?  Will Tyler write the perfect love song for his wedding to the dying Beth, and will he get over his addiction to coke and heroin?  Will Liz give up toy-boys like Andrew?  The writing is luminous, but ultimately I didn’t quite get it.  On the other hand, while trying to find out who translated the edition of the Andersen that I inherited, I discovered it is a first edition and (theoretically) worth $225, so time well spent perhaps!  256 pp.