LETTERS TO ANNIE

A series of epistolary meditations focuses on the allure and nature of fairy tales.

Hilder opens her collection of letters to Annie, the granddaughter she doesn’t have, by asking a series of questions about fairy tales. Should people read them? And if so, how should they be read? Are they good? Are they needed? And just what is “happily ever after”? This provides the author with an elastic framework for addressing a wide array of topics in letters that she constructs over many years of Annie’s life, from childhood to young adulthood—much along the lines of Fay Weldon’s Letters to Alice (1984). There’s a thread of Christianity that runs through many of these treatments. When discussing The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, for instance, she urges, “Remember, remember, and never forget who you are, Anna Catherine Joy Lamb: a beloved and deeply treasured child of God. Born to joy, eternal joy.” The author also voices various concerns. About a children’s version of “Cinderella,” she wonders if fairy tales should only be told in words, with no illustrations (“We’re such an image-driven culture,” she observes). For “Jack and the Beanstalk,” she shifts to a political interpretation, confessing to Annie that she can’t peruse the tale without overlaying a Marxist reading. The story is “all about the poor man retrieving wealth from the evil capitalist who stole from the people.” The governing conceit of the book is very inviting, particularly when Hilder digresses along personal lines, mentioning, for example, while discussing “The Little Mermaid,” that her generation was the first that “fully believed we women could have it all.” Unfortunately, some of the sentimentality gets a bit syrupy: “Dearest Granddaughter, precious Annie, how are you? What worries assail you this hour?” But on the whole, the author’s heartfelt insights into life and literature are wonderfully readable.

A sincere, engaging, and thought-provoking look at life through the lens of fairy tales.