Book Review

Book: Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk & Fairy Tales by Jack Zipes

First of all, this title is totally misleading. It should really be called Jack Zipes Finds Issues Where There Are None Just So He Can Publish Another Book. I really try to avoid giving out and out negative reviews of books, but I honestly gained NOTHING from reading this. It was full of even more self-aggrandizing than usual without any interesting information to make it bearable. I thought the last Zipes book I read was bad, but now I know I will never read another book by him.

Okay, so perhaps I'm being a little harsh. I really loved all of the Introductory Fairy Tales at the beginning of the book. I liked that he disagrees so vehemently with Bruno Bettelheim (who I loathe even more than Jack Zipes). And I thought his take on the Harry Potter series very interesting (pointing out that they aren't true fairy tales because they begin and end the exact same way-with Harry at his aunt and uncle's house).

There were so many things that he brought up in this book that he either didn't follow up on, or have been written about by others in a more interesting way. His book seems to suffer from mulitple personalities, biting off more topic than can be chewed, and inevitably disappointing.

I realize that when I read a book for school I should be talking more about what I learned from the book than "reviewing" it, but I can honestly say that other than the three points above I gained nothing from this book. It was a long, boring read that I never would have finished if it weren't for school.