Fairy Tale

by Erich Segal

In this once-upon-a-timely tale, a Young and Innocent Hero embarks on a Quest and a Wicked Giant tries to Thwart him. The Quest leads to the domain of a villain from whom you wouldn’t want to buy a used car. And yet Our Hero does buy a used car, and lives happily ever after.

That is why it is a fairy tale.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction

46 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Erich Wolf Segal was an American author, screenwriter, and educator. He was best-known for writing the novel Love Story, a bestseller, and writing the motion picture of the same name, which was a major hit.

Reviews

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short little story that does remind me of Jack and the Beanstalk as there are magical beans, but that is where the similarities end. This story has some humor with the word choices and the writing style. It is cute and fun and worth a read.

How did this book/short story find me? I love Erich Segal and never heard of this before now.

[Sasha · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like, who the actual F was this written for? You can't use "Poop's Peak" and highfalutin in the same breath and expect any semblance of understanding. I shudder to think some poor parent bought this for their child as a bedtime book. Good gravy. Yikes all the way, folks.

[Orion · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a modern fairy tale about the Kertuffel family of moonshiners who live on Poop's Peak in the Ozarks. Told by Erich Segal of Love Story fame and illustrated by Dino Kotopoulis, this is a playful look at the stereotype of simple mountain people who live off the grid and outside the system. They are so far from the normal cares of modern life that something magic might happen to them without their batting an eye. And so it does when Jake Kertuffle goes down the mountain to The Big City to buy a new car. Segal obviously enjoyed the alliteration, puns, and rhymes that fill the text and make reading this short tale a joy. This book cries out to be read aloud.

[Debby]

This rather funny story is set in the Ozarks where a hillbilly family sends a son into town to buy a new card. While there the car salesman "swindles" him and for the old car (a collector's item) he is given some "magic" beans. The boy goes home and plants the beans and they do turn out to be magic - they grow money trees. The story ends with the car salesman chopping the tree and getting caught, but the family doesn't care. It has a happy-ever-after ending.

It's kind of a funny story, total unreal, so good for escaping. Not great fiction by any means and very different from "Love Story" or "Oliver's Story".

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Erich Segal has always been my author of (now not so) secret indulgence, so when I found out he wrote a fairy tale way back when, I was intrigued. This is funny, has amusing cultural references from the time in which it was written, and weaves elements from many classic fairy tales to create a somewhat modern American tale filled with stereotypes and classic references. It is an enjoyable read for those who like to study fairy tales, and some people who enjoy tales just to read them for their storytelling value may also like it.

[Laura Morrigan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story with deadpan humour. I loved this story as a kid. It's about a group of hillbilly moonshiners. When they send the dumb young son down to town to sell the jalopy and get a better car, a slick salesman tricks him into taking a handful of magic beans. He plants the beans and a money tree actually grows, leading them to wealth. But the salesman is planning to steal their tree...

Complete with simple and lively pen and ink illustrations, this is a little gem of American literature.