21st Century Literature discussion

Any story that can be told may eventually be re-told. How do you feel about re-tellings? Do you have any favorites published in the 21st century? (These can span the gamut from borrowed characters, inverted stories, modernized versions, etc. Short stories are welcome, too!)

Some Examples:
- We That Are Young & A Thousand Acres--King Lear
- Snow, Glass, Apples & Boy, Snow, Bird --Snow White
- The Mere Wife--Beowulf
- The Meursault Investigation--The Stranger
- The Lightning Thief--Greek mythology
- This Strange Way of Dying: Stories of Magic, Desire and the Fantastic--Mexican folklore

Quite a few!

I think Margaret Atwood’s interpretation of the The Tempest, Hag-Seed is excellent.

Ali Smith’s take on ovid’s The Metamorphosis, Girl meets boy and her retelling of Antigone are a must.

Jeanette Winterson’s feminist retelling of Atlas’ is funny

And Daisy Johnson’s Everything Under was worthy inclusion for the booker

I am not always a fan, but I liked some of the ones in both of your lists, and will add Home Fire

You've hit on one of my favorite topics. I love reading and writing mythic retellings. Some of my favorites are the following:

The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood—a retelling of the Odyssey

Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin—The Aeneid

Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck—Camelot

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie—Antigone

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes—The Trojan war

Omeros by Derek Walcott—featuring characters from the Iliad and Odyssey

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker—The Trojan war

The Watch by Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya--transplants the story of Antigone to an isolated American outpost in a desert in Afghanistan.

War Music: An Account of Homer's Iliad by Christopher Logue—the Iliad

Bright Air Black by David Vann—Medea

Ransom by David Malouf—Priam goes to Achilles to retrieve the body of Hektor.

I have posted my reviews of all these books on goodreads if anyone is interested in reading more about them.

As usual, this seemingly simple question has made me think about a much wider subject. I would divide retellings into two types of overlapping categories. The same story from a different perspective, usually a women and/or non-white character; and then stories that switch the original to a different age or milieu, such as the aforementioned A Thousand Acres, or The Art of Fielding (Moby Dick).

Of the former, I would add Circe as one of my recent favorites. Of the later, Victor LaValle's Destroyer, a graphic novel where Frankenstein meets Black Lives Matter.

I tend to enjoy many retellings as I like seeing what different authors will do with a story. I read some of the ones you mentioned, Marc -- Boy, Snow, Bird and The Meursault Investigation -- & really enjoyed them.

I especially love Mr. Fox, a mix of Bluebeard & various fox tales.

I actually liked The Gap of Time better than the original The Winter's Tale.

The Palace of Illusions was very good, though I have very little knowledge of the original source material (the Mahabharata &, more specifically, the Bhagavad Gita).

And then there is a book like Sunjata, which actually transcribes the oral stories from two different storytellers/griots, Bamba Suso & Banna Kanute. It is so fascinating to see how each griot tells the story. Bamba Suso's style was more straightforward & direct storytelling, while Banna Kanute was more of a performer using varied music & song styles with each retelling.

Extending that out further, you have a book like Nick and Jake: An Epistolary Novel, which takes famous characters (Nick from The Great Gatsby & Jake from The Sun Also Rises), plugs them in with other fictional & real historical people to create a new book. (This is what prompted me to later read The Razor's Edge because Larry Darrell showed up as a character.) A different book group of mine has had a spirited discussion about creating books that are spin-offs of characters since The Great Gatsby went out of copyright this year & things like Nick are coming out. (Turns out that some people I know seem to take great offense at this "lifting" of characters....)

Do all the zillions of vampire-related stories count too, as spin-offs from The Vampyre; a Tale or Dracula? There are so many variations & spin-offs of those, Frankenstein, Jekyll & Hyde, The Turn of the Screw, & more. Maybe I'm wandering too far afield here....

Basically, I find them to be lots of fun. That doesn't mean I like every variation I end up reading (or trying), but I just love seeing what other authors will do with a story. This applies to movies too, like Apocalypse Now from Heart of Darkness or Roxanne from Cyrano de Bergerac.

I'm not sure if these count as "re-tellings", since they play fast and loose with the source references. But that's the kind of re-telling that I like!

By accident, I had a little Frankenstein period over a couple months:
Jeanette Winterson, Frankissstein: A Love Story
Laurie Sheck, A Monster's Notes

(Also Larry Fessenden's Depraved:
https://letterboxd.com/film/depraved-...)

A favorite: Laird Hunt's In the House in the Dark of the Woods. Plays with a slew of fairy tales including Red Riding Hood.

I guess these retellings aren't much looser than Marc's proposal of Boy, Snow, Bird (which I loved).

Stacia wrote: "I especially love Mr. Fox, a mix of Bluebeard & various fox tales."

One of my favorites as well!

On my *really*-want-to-read list (but first I must acquire them):
The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break
The Minotaur Takes His Own Sweet Time

:-)

Stella Gibbons wrote Nightingale Wood, a fun-to-read retelling of the Cinderella story.

Barbara Comyns revisits the Grimms fairy tale “The Juniper Tree” in her novel, The Juniper Tree

Barry Unsworth reinterprets Euripides’ "Iphigeneia in Aules" in his novel The Songs of the Kings

And of course Ulysses, but I guess that’s too obvious to mention.

I haven’t (yet) read Iris Murdoch’s The Green Knight, but the description in GR certainly suggests that it’s a retelling of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – could one of you well-read folks confirm or deny?

I enjoyed all of the above (other than Murdoch, which I haven't gotten to yet, but it's waiting for me in my TBR)

And yes, Stacia, The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break has been suggested to me and I, too, am curious about it!

I don't know the original Gawain and the Green Knight well enough to know how much of it was used in the Murdoch novel - it is a long way from a straight retelling.

Hugh wrote: "I don't know the original Gawain and the Green Knight well enough to know how much of it was used in the Murdoch novel - it is a long way from a straight retelling."

Noted. I look forward to reading it, Hugh.

Had another thought, one book I forgot to mention is Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita which is a world onto itself but also plays on a Faustian theme.

Janet wrote: "Had another thought, one book I forgot to mention is Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita which is a world onto itself but also plays on a Faustian theme."

Yes, good one! Master and Margarita is one of my favorite books.

I think Faust may have inspired more retellings than any other story. We did a "Faust Through the Centuries" read in a now defunct GR group I was in, which hit only some representational high points; the original History of Dr. Faust, Marlowe, Goethe, Murnau (it included a couple films), Bulgakov, Mann, Szabo, Mamet). Looking at Wikipedia, there are hundreds of works based on Faust. The most recent novel being The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

Zadie Smith's On Beauty is a reimagined Howard's End and impressive.

Robin McKinley retold Beauty and the Beast twice. First as Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast and then years later as Rose Daughter. I think the first one is stronger, but they are interesting in different ways.

Alan Garner's The Owl Service haunted me for years. Poetic and strange as three young people find themselves reliving an old Welsh legend.

I loved The Meursault Investigation. I read it for a book club along with rereading L'Étranger along side a couple of the translations. My book club was not as enthusiastic as I was.

Another fun lets tell the story two ways comes from Orson Scott Card who wrote Ender's Game and then 14 years later wrote Ender's Shadow told from the point of view of one of the other characters and upends a lot of assumptions from the first book.

Tea73 wrote: "I loved The Meursault Investigation. I read it for a book club along with rereading L'Étranger along side a couple of the translations. My book club was not as enthusiastic as I was."

Tea, we read it here as well. You can find the links to the discussion in this thread. https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Has anyone come across The Myths series published by the independent Scottish publisher Canongate?
There are some details on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonga...

I'm not sure if this is still a thing, since they are no longer all on the Canongate website, but I followed it closely in the beginning. It is 8 years since any titles have been published. Back in 2005 & 6 there was an early announcement that Donna Tartt was going to contribute a volume, but we have passed the 10 year wait for one of her novels, so I doubt that will happen now.

Atwood's Penelopiad was one of the early volumes.
Other great writers who contributed great stories include Jeanette Winterson, Ali Smith & A S Byatt.
I've read all but two or three of the 18 and they have all been great re-imaginings / reinterpretations.

Marcus wrote: "Has anyone come across The Myths series published by the independent Scottish publisher Canongate?
There are some details on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonga...

I'm not ..."

Marcus, I looked over the list and am a little embarrassed to say that I actually own a copy of Pelevin’s The Helmet of Horror: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur but didn’t think of it, since I haven’t read it yet so it didn’t stick in my head!

Janet wrote: "...I haven’t read it yet so it didn’t stick in my head! ..."
I don't think you should worry Janet.
There have been a couple of occasions in the last year when I bought a book at one of the big book fairs we have locally, thinking "Oooh I really want to read that."
Once I get home I find that I must have thought exactly the same two or three years ago and already have a (unread) copy!

Hah! Well there’s a future question of the week: How many of us have forgotten which books we own ? And have rebought or borrowed? ;)

Marcus wrote: "Has anyone come across The Myths series published by the independent Scottish publisher Canongate?
There are some details on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canonga...

I'm not ..."

I wasn't familiar with those. Thanks for the link!

Hogarth did a series of retellings of some Shakespeare works (of which The Gap of Time, which I mentioned previously, is a part):
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/se...

Galley Beggar Press also has some retellings (that I haven't read but have heard good things about), including Forbidden Line (Don Quixote) and We That Are Young (King Lear).

Violet wrote: "Zadie Smith's On Beauty is a reimagined Howard's End and impressive."

Huh?! Now I'll have to read it again :)

Stacia wrote: "Hogarth did a series of retellings of some Shakespeare works (of which The Gap of Time, which I mentioned previously, is a part):
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/se....."

I liked Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed (The Tempest) very much. I can't believe I haven't read any others in the series - yet.

I'm not particularly a fan of Ian McEwan, but I loved Nutshell (Hamlet).

Whitney wrote: "Tea73 wrote: "I loved The Meursault Investigation. I read it for a book club along with rereading L'Étranger along side a couple of the translations. My book club was not as enthusiastic as I was."..."

Thanks so much for the link. That was a great discussion!

Tea73 wrote: "Whitney wrote: "Tea73 wrote: "I loved The Meursault Investigation. I read it for a book club along with rereading L'Étranger along side a couple of the translations. My book club was not as enthusi..."

You are quite welcome! I think we were more enthusiastic than your IRL bookclub.

Violet wrote: "Zadie Smith's On Beauty is a reimagined Howard's End and impressive."
One of my most satisfying reading experiences was reading the 2 back to back a few years ago.

To the readers in this post who suggested Atwood’s Hag-Seed,thanks! I was able to borrow an eBook from my library and I’m reading it now. Funny and enjoyable, the reference to the Shakespeare Festival in Ontario is obviously a thinly disguised nod to Stratford , where, pre-Pandemic, I’d try to get to, usually annually and I’m guessing Atwood was a loyal audience member. It also reminds me of a fantastic Canadian tv series that ran for 3 seasons about 20 years ago, called « Slings and Arrows, » also a (loving) spoof on the Stratford Festival.

I'm late to the discussion, but loving all the books mentioned!

Bretnie wrote: "I'm late to the discussion, but loving all the books mentioned!"

Me too. This is such an interesting discussion. In some cases I'm feeling like a 'retelling' isn't always connected with one particular source, so much as it's connected with a recurring, almost Jungian series of retellings over the centuries.

I've been pondering all of the recurring stories about "the woods" lately and how so many stories and their retellings have this idea of civilization being bordered by a wild sunless place full of old trees, where anything can happen and it's usually bad.

Well, the forest certainly can be a place where bad things happen, as is often the case in fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel,and characters can lose their way or be waylaid. And in Lord of the Rings, there were malevolent trees like the old willow tree that captures the hobbits who have to be freed by Tom Bombadil. However, the hobbits later become sort of mascots for the Ents, the shepherds of the forest , and are well treated. So, it depends, and often depends on what lies in the hearts of the characters and their intentions. (Among other factors).

(On a side. note, Tolkien was brilliant in his use of landscape, and from a botanical and ecological point of view, there’s an interesting book called Flora of Middle-Earth: Plants of J.R.R. Tolkien's Legendarium that gets into great detail about his choices. Tolkien knew his plants for sure.)

Janet wrote: "Well, the forest certainly can be a place where bad things happen, as is often the case in fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel,and characters can lose their way or be waylaid..."

I love learning about Tolkien's deep knowledge, thanks Janet. I was surprised myself to learn that the names he gave his dwarves, that sound so comical to my ear, came straight from old medieval texts.

Bad and/or lawless things happen a lot in the woods in Greek myths. And Roman myths. The Epic of Gilgamesh has the Cedar Forest. And as you say, so many fairy tales--Snow White, Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, and my favorite example, "Iron Hans." And also Robin Hood, The Wind in the Willows, The Wizard of Oz. A Midsummer Night's Dream of course. Daniel Kehl writes about the 'wild wood' in Tyll. Also the weird woods in The Blizzard by Vladimir Sorokin, which Tamara just reviewed so beautifully in my timeline. They're everywhere!

I was also thinking about how when I was young it was very easy to go play in the woods. They were right outside. Then as I got older they became new housing developments. My kids couldn't play in the woods unless I drove them there.