There’s no shortage of fairy tale retellings, but it’s always a refreshing treat when Gregory Maguire tussles with one, carefully picking its seams apart before piecing it together as something else entirely.

In Hans Christian Anderson’s telling of “The Wild Swans”, a wicked queen turns eleven brothers into the titular swans. Their sister crafts a shirt for each of them that reverses the transformation. However, the youngest boy’s garment is missing one sleeve, leaving him with one remaining swan wing at the tale’s end.

In Maguire’s world, there’s Laura. Quiet with an edge only a teenager can get away with, Laura is recently expelled from her Manhattan high school. With the possibility of being shipped off to a boarding school in Montreal, she finds herself retreating from the hustle and bustle of her grandparents’ Christmas preparations … and then a boy with one swan wing lands on their roof. It’s the 1960s and magic is still alive.

In this, A Wild Winter Swan is less of a retelling and more of a what-comes-next. A large part of the appeal here is that most of the action rests on Laura, a girl simply stumbling through the trials of school and a tumultuous family life. She’s thoroughly without magic in the most literal sense. Yet, primarily through Maguire’s tender exploration of her complicated familial and platonic relationships, Laura both grounds the tale while hinting at the enchantment cast by everyday life.

All of this isn’t to suggest the boy with one wing isn’t just as compelling. He stumbles into the story as confused as Laura, and Maguire seems to revel in hinting at his origins. Though to be fair, Maguire’s language almost revels in itself—each line practically becomes an isolated poem, whether he’s exploring a snowy Christmas evening or a leak-damaged ceiling. With so many spells cast in the prose, the swan boy feels right at home, even as his existence in this world is perplexing.

Packed with humor, heart, and Maguire’s trademark sense of wonder, A Wild Winter Swan humanizes the fabulous and makes the world all the better for it.

This book does not even compare to Wicked, although I think that has to be his ultimate. It is still a a very good book, if you like Fairy tales. This story is more reserved compared to some of his other stories, but still captivating. Comparatively, there is little action,. After the swan boy falls from her roof, his scenes/appearances are nothing too dramatic. The swan boy doesn't fall from her roof until chapter 11 (there are 29 chapters total). Until that point when he falls from her roof, it is mostly Laura's day to day musings and her background.

My feature interview with Gregory Maguire appears in Historical Novels Review issue 94 (November 2020).
https://historicalnovelsociety.org/re-imagining-new-york-gregory-maguires-novel-a-wild-winter-swan/

This master of retellings missed the mark here. He chose a little known fairy tale. He completely twisted it so the fairy tale is barely recognizable. It is so prosey and full of flowery words that is sickeningly sweet reading. And I am not sure if it had and hea or not.

Riff on The Wild Swans. A lonely girl in mid-century New York grapples with loss, anger, and puberty while living wither her Italian grandparents. After she is expelled from school, strange things start happening around the house, including finding a baby owl* in a wall. Later on, she hears something land on her roof...

*Yes, I read this book when the owl was found in the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. Synchronicity.

Back in the day, I loved Maguire's retellings, but I'd gotten away from them. But I love this tale, and wanted to see what sort of magic Maguire would weave with it. And it's a decent little tale (shorter than anticipated, so yeah, little). But it was lacking a bit in magic and in resolution.

I felt like Maguire either rushed this one or just didn't know how to flesh it out. The story was just lacking, and the resolution was...lackluster and flat.

Not a bad story, but just feels like it's missing pieces.

A Wild Winter Swan is a beautiful exploration of a haunting fairy tale. The exquisite world-building and memorable characters make this a must-read.

While this was a relatively short book, I felt like the pacing at the beginning was so slow, that I really struggled to get into it. Had I not pushed on and made it past the 30% mark, I may have not finished it. However, once the story really begins to unfold, the pacing picks up and Laura becomes a much more likable and relatable character.

While I was not familiar with the story <u>The Wild Swans</u>, I was still able to enjoy the tale of Hans and Laura as a retelling of the classic fairytale. Maguire did a good enough job of introducing the plot of <u>The Wild Swans</u> that I never felt that the story was lacking in plot or character development. It was just such a slow story to start to the fact that I almost gave up on it that is cause for my 3 star rating.

A short literary fantasy, this book takes us to New York’s Upper East Side where Laura lives with her Italian immigrant grandparents. And like other Maguire books, it is a retelling of a fairy tale, The Wild Swans. It’s a quiet story. Taking place over the Christmas holidays, 15-year old Laura has been kicked out of her high school and is fearful of her new school in Montreal. The grandparents’ expectations of her weigh heavily on her mind as well. When a boy with a huge swan wing for his left arm crashes her bedroom, Laura tries to help him. Parallel stories are occurring in this short tale. The brokenness of the swan boy’s life and Laura’s struggles. Maguire does not disappoint in this book.

A second generation Italian-American girl growing up in the 60s in NYC tries to hide a boy with a swan wing instead of an arm from her grandparents as they prepare for a very important Christmas Eve feast of the seven fishes. This story was very sweet and touching. I felt for Laura as she tries, increasingly desperately, to hide the boy from the rest of her household. As with many of Maguire’s other books, “the help” are some of the most vividly realized characters, and in this story that’s Mary Bernice, the cook. She feels very individual and is a good foil/ally for Laura. This book can be read in conversation with Maguire’s other book about young women, Egg and Spoon. No one does fractured fairy tales like Maguire, and I have always loved his books. Recommended as a magical-realism alternative for fans of Naomi Novik.

I've always loved reimagined "standard" tales, and Gregory Maguire excels yet again at taking a story we know, in this case, Hans Christian Andersen's The Wild Swans, and brings it to life in a new way. Here, he introduces us to the one brother that was left part swan, part human in Andersen's story and gives him a second chance at freedom. Weaving together the story of this boy's stand in 'sister' who is looking for freedom of her own. I especially loved the frustration both felt through the inadequacies of language to communicate, and how that plays through the whole story.

I’m so grateful to read Maguire’s latest, as a massive fan, and I will always recommend and chat up, but the latest book is a total disappointment. It’s so rushed, and Laura is so unpleasant and unsympathetic. The novel is totally underwhelming and undercooked. And as for the swan boy, it seemed more farce, than fairytale. I shall wait for the next one.....