In this Book
- Why the House Is Made of Gingerbread: Poems
- Book
- 2010
- Published by: Louisiana State University Press
summary
In Ava Leavell Haymon's third collection, an unremarkable, harried, contemporary woman named Gretel finds herself at midlife overtaken by the Grimms' household tale "Hansel and Gretel." The violence and terror in that story supplant the memory of her own childhood, and the fairy tale retells itself in a sharp succession of surprising poems. The witch, the sugar house, Gretel's brother, her passive father, his cruel second wife, the sinister forest -- all these and more rise like jazz motifs to play themselves in the present. Addressing themes such as hunger, child abuse, betrayal, cannibalism, and murder in a tone by turns disturbing and humorous, Why the House Is Made of Gingerbread is most certainly not a book for children.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xi-xii
- How One Became Two
- pp. 1-2
- Everygirl Hungry
- The Candle House
- pp. 5-6
- Fairy-Tale Childhood
- pp. 8-9
- Everygirl’s Mandala
- pp. 10-12
- Autobiography
- pp. 13-14
- Lunch Break
- pp. 15-16
- Smell of Baking
- What Gretel Learns from the Wind
- pp. 20-21
- The First Wish
- pp. 22-23
- First Bond
- p. 24
- What the Witch Wanted
- pp. 25-26
- The Blood Time
- p. 29
- Fairy-Tale Pedagogy
- pp. 31-32
- Year’s Turn
- p. 33
- The Riddle
- pp. 35-36
- How a Good Girl Learns to Kill
- pp. 37-38
- Everygirl Sings Herself an Old Lullaby
- Cradlesong
- pp. 41-46
- Every Story Makes Its Way Home
- Here Is a Girl
- pp. 49-50
- What the Smoke Knows
- p. 51
- Everyboy Returns
- p. 54
- The Spell Lifts
- p. 56
- Cornucopia
- pp. 57-58
Additional Information
ISBN
9780807137574
Related ISBN(s)
9780807135853
MARC Record
OCLC
659559157
Pages
72
Launched on MUSE
2015-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No