Gail Carson Levine's Ella Enchanted

I've been rereading Levine's Ella Enchanted for class tomorrow, and although Levine is not a brilliant prose stylist, I think this is a really smart book. Before anyone asks, no, I did not see the film adaptation that came out a couple of years ago.

OK, so this is yet another retelling of the Cinderella tale. But it's smart and interesting without being heavy handed. There's something so likeable and authentic about Ella's character. And Levine explores some of the complexities involved with fairy tale notions of goodness and obedience; this is what's most interesting about this novel. Levine shows that forced obedience is not at all the same as intrinsic goodness. She also explores some of the difficulties and contradictions of the folk / fairy tale, especially in the way that women are represented. But this is more than just another feminist fairy tale, a genre that I often enjoy. Levine explores larger issues having to do with what constitutes goodness while playing with some of the conventions of the Cinderella tale type particularly and the folk tale generally. For example, the notion of fairies who practice magic and can influence mortal affairs is shown to be problematic for the mortals themselves. In this way, I think Levine is dealing with bigger themes: the difficulty that accompanies getting what one wishes for, the relationship between "fate," loosely defined and human will, and the troubling nature of magic in the realm of "faerie." (NOTE TO SELF: I'm way overdoing the specialized terms in quotes lately. It annoys me when others do this. Need to stop.) In the end, Levine offers a variety of options for females including marriage, adventure, and scholarly work all at the same time. Maybe this is why I like this book. Maybe part of me still wants to believe in the possibility of having and doing it all. I'm a really bad feminist, aren't I. OK, I'm going to stop with that line of thinking, in part because I keep resolving that when writing about things external to myself, I won't turn it into something about myself.

I think this is a really fun, wonderful book. I don't think I have much maternal instinct, but when I think about the possibility of having children, I get really excited about what I could theoretically read to and with them. Ella Enchanted would be a good one.