Bookreporter.com - ROSIE LITTLE'S CAUTIONARY TALES FOR GIRLS by Danielle Wood

ROSIE LITTLE'S CAUTIONARY TALES FOR GIRLS
Danielle Wood
MacAdam Cage
Fiction/Short Stories
ISBN-10: 1596922524
ISBN-13: 9781596922525

The gothic, black-and-white, polka-dotted cover of Danielle Wood's new collection of interlocking short stories is, perhaps, the first clue that Rosie Little, the narrator and heroine of ROSIE LITTLE'S CAUTIONARY TALES FOR GIRLS, is not your ordinary Little Red Riding Hood. Wearing cherry red Doc Marten boots instead of dainty slippers, Rosie Little navigates her own deep, dark woods of success, romance and destiny by following a few ground rules and relying on help from the Shoe Goddess and maybe even a fairy godmother of her own.

Although Rosie's tales are "for girls," this is by no means a children's book. As Rosie herself notes, "these are tales for girls who have boots as stout as their hearts, and who are prepared to firmly lace them up (boots and hearts both) and step out into the wilds in search of what they desire." And desire --- fulfilled or unfulfilled --- is indeed at the heart of many of these stories. From Rosie's thoroughly unsatisfactory deflowering that opens the book, to Paula's disastrous proposal in "The Depthlessness of Soup," to a bridezilla's ludicrously misguided conception of herself in "Vision in White," unrealistic desires and expectations have a way of backfiring on those who harbor them.

Two of the stories included here --- "Elephantiasis" and "The True Daughter" --- have been featured in Best Australian Stories anthologies, and they do represent the strongest, most conventionally appealing tales in this collection. But Wood effectively integrates these stories into the other chapters, which, from "Virginity" to "Destiny," seem to trace the life cycle of the modern woman, in all its complexity, frustration and even (sometimes) joy.

Rosie herself is a fleeting presence in the book --- the protagonist of a handful of stories, she also drops in on any number of other tales, either as a minor character or as the provider of delightfully snarky sidebars entitled "On Writing About Noses" or "On Pubic Hairstyling." Attempting to make sense of her world, Rosie lives by a set of guidelines --- no use of the word "eclectic," for example, and no dating men named "Wolf" --- that impose order on the chaotic modern landscape. The stories deal with big issues --- domestic violence, abortion --- but do so with a kind of magical realism that gives these well-trod topics both more weight and a new twist or two.

In the end, ROSIE LITTLE'S CAUTIONARY TALES FOR GIRLS is a delightful, witty sendup of both classic fairy tales and modern chick-lit romances. Wood adroitly plays with reader expectations and literary conventions, treating "girls" to a smart, sassy selection of stories that understands adult women perfectly.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

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