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Summary
Summary
Based on the fairy tale Rapunzel, the story is told in alternating chapters from the point of view of Zel, her mother, and the nobleman who pursues her, and delves into the psychological motivations of each of the characters.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 UpThis retelling of the story of Rapunzel is no simple fairy tale retold for the entertainment of children. Instead, it is a searing commentary on the evil that can result from human longings gone awry. Napoli sets the novel in 16th-century Switzerland and alternates the various characters' points of view. Zel and Count Konrad's narratives are presented in the third person, while Mother tells her own story. All are told in the present tense. Readers learn that the barren mother's obsession for a child drove her to give herself up to eternal damnation in order to have a daughter. Now, she seeks to keep the child away from the world so that the innocent girl will choose her mother above all others. That this will mean Zel's damnation also does not deter Mother in the least. When the inevitable happens and Zel meets the young man, Mother locks her away in a tower. Unlike most versions, this story realistically portrays the dismal effects of isolation on the girl's mind and spirit. She goes quite mad but is still able to accept Konrad's love when he finds her at last. Konrad's transformation from arrogant noble to a man with an obsessive love for a girl he barely knows is less realistic but follows the traditional story line. In his final confrontation with Mother, evil appears to have triumphed. Even the eventual "happily ever after" ending cannot clear the air of the darkness that pervades this tale. Mother's fatal possessiveness and the horror of Zel's life in the tower are the dominant themes that readers will remember. This version, with its Faustian overtones, will challenge readers to think about this old story on a deeper level. It begs for discussion in literature classes.Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
"Napoli visits her magic upon the tale of Rapunzel, creating a work of depth and beauty," said PW in a starred review. "The shiveringly romantic conclusion will leave readers spellbound." Ages 10-14. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Zimmerman is fourteen years old when he theorizes "that all love is the same, and is essentially a love of God. . . . I remind myself that the joy of discovering God may not be contained so simply in the word or idea of, well, some genius designer out there. I recall that we are used to attaching joy and love to people, and that if Christ . . . still seems kind of abstract, then, fine, the feelings will associate themselves with someone near at hand, especially someone who was involved in the awakening of this blissful discovery." That someone, for Zimmerman's parents if not himself, is Luke Mark John, leader of a sect called the Faith of Faiths. The contrast of the boy's beliefs with his parents' newly found fundamentalist faith provides the philosophical framework as well as the conflict in this spare but provocative novel. Zimmerman's narration alternates between an appreciation of the holdings of a small shop called Kollektible Kards and a chronicle of how his parents' beliefs continue to collide with his own - until a desperate choice must be made. The different views of Christianity and the juxtaposition of divergent geniuses provide an interesting perspective on religion within the context of a specific (albeit peculiar) contemporary family. (For further discussion of this title, see pages 492-496 in the July/August issue.) m.b.s. Michael Cadnum Zero at the Bone Anita has always been a perfect daughter, so when she disappears, her family is left with an enormous hole and no way to understand their lives. Cray, Anita's younger brother, narrates the story of a family working to survive the unexplained disaster. Cray and his parents were all successful, productive people; now they fumble along, barely knowing what to do or who they are. They duplicate and hang hundreds of posters, as if they have lost a cat; follow small leads; read Anita's journal; and begin to wonder if they really know each other, since it now seems they may not have known Anita. In one harrowing scene, the entire family waits at the morgue to identify a body; Cadnum portrays the interminable wait by drawing out his prose and describing the minutiae of the coroner's office. In the end, dental records reveal that the body is not Anita's. Cadnum's pacing is one of the strengths of this novel, which often stands perfectly still so that the reader can feel Cray holding his breath as he waits for news about his sister. At other points, days pass quickly, indivisibly, because there is nothing to report about the investigation. Gradually, the remaining family members begin to come back together, although the mystery of Anita's disappearance is never solved. Cadnum's tragic and frightening novel explores the aftermath of a horrifying event on an otherwise strong family, and the possibility that a person may have a secret part of herself hidden from those she loves. Cadnum's characters are complex, and his novel asks more questions than it answers. m.v.k. Chris Lynch Mick Blood Relations Dog Eat Dog Lynch has set himself a formidable task in his "Blue-Eyed Son" trilogy: to win sympathy for a protagonist capable of some despicable behavior. Mick's racist, violent, alcoholic brother Terry is a leader in their Irish-Catholic working-class community, and Mick is expected to follow closely in Terry's hate-mongering footsteps. Lynch sets the scene at a vividly depicted St. Patrick's Day parade, where Mick is coerced into throwing an egg at a group of Cambodians. Though the egg is thrown under duress, it also turns out that, while stinking drunk, Mick had been yelling out the worst of racial epithets the night before. Right there is the most fascinating aspect of the trilogy: Mick's raging conflict not only with his brother but within himself. Regrettably, the intensity of the first book is not maintained throughout the other two; while Mick is fiercely determined to escape the destructive elements of his life, he continually falls backward into his old ways. The extreme violence throughout the trilogy, punctuated by graphic visual descriptions and the lingering stench of alcohol and body fluids, peaks in the final book, Dog Eat Dog. With irony utterly lost to them, Terry and his friends now hold dog fights to prove their superiority over others. In the final climax Mick meets Terry for a private dog fight to determine home rule, but at the last moment Mick finally sees that beating Terry will only make him "king of the losers." The modest advancement of Mick's character over the three books is slow in literary terms, and the story could have benefited from either briefer format - one condensed, more quickly-paced novel - or further development of some of the other intriguing characters. But Mick's many setbacks are easily realistic, and Lynch's tale is a bracing account of one person's climb out of the rotten world he was born to. l.a. Donna Jo Napoli Zel g Inevitably looking over its shoulder at The Magic Circle (Dutton), the author's meditation on "Hansel and Gretel," Zel is a re-visioning of "Rapunzel," told in turns by the girl in the tower, the witch who keeps her there, and the prince who would take her away. The writing, although always sensuous in description and perceptive in shading character, is less concentrated than in The Magic Circle, and it's a bit of a wander as we move from Zel's early idyllic life with the witch to the old bargain (and its recumbent tragic destiny) that leads Zel to her tower. What powerful chapters come then, though, culminating in a stunning sequence of three encounters: between Zel and her prince, Zel and "Mother," and Mother and the prince in a struggle for the heart of Zel and life and death. While sometimes unduly hazy and with a telescoped last chapter, this is a book that transforms myth without flippancy, honoring the power of its roots. r.s. Jane Breskin Zalben Unfinished Dreams In a school story about Jason, a twelve-year-old Jewish fledgling violinist who must suffer the slings of the class bully, AIDS becomes the background thread as a beloved principal enters the final stages of the disease. Community reaction is predictable, and although there are no surprises in the plot, the naturalness and pace of the first-person narrative and the authenticity of the dialogue set the book apart. Characterization is nicely handled; Jason grows, and even the bully grows a bit. The richness of emotion and the value placed on an individual's talents and differences add to the book's strength. e.s.w. From HORN BOOK, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A passionate, painful elaboration of the story of Rapunzel, from the author who did the same for Hansel and Gretel in The Magic Circle (1993). Here again, the ``witch'' is the tragic figure: A woman unable to bear children but unable to exist without a child sells her soul for an eldritch power over all plants, bullies her terrified neighbors into giving up their newborn daughter, and spirits her away to a remote Swiss farm. Lovingly nurtured, Zel grows into a joyful, creative child, wholeheartedly devoted to the only mother she knows until she meets Konrad on a rare visit to town. Brutally torn between love and need, the witch imprisons Zel, and watches in anguish as the child's sanity begins to slip away with the seasons. Writing in present tense, using three alternating points of view, Napoli (Jimmy, The Pickpocket of the Palace, 1995, etc.) makes each incident immediate, each character's needs and longings sharply felt. She adheres closely to the traditional plot and, to a story already abrim with symbol and metaphor, she adds even more. This rich, complex reading may require an adult's sensibility and level of experience to absorb fully, but it powerfully renders the tale's inherent terror and tragedy. (Folklore. 12+)
Booklist Review
Rapunzel of the long hair tells her story--and so do her mother and the prince.