Briarley, by Aster Glenn Gray

[asakiyume]

Briarley retells the story of Beauty and the Beast, imagining what might happen if Beauty’s father was man enough not to let his daughter sacrifice herself for him. Instead, he stays in her place.

In this retelling, it’s World War II, and the father is a parson who’s also a veteran of the Great War, and the beast takes the form of a dragon.

You know this is going to be a different type of retelling by the parson’s initial reaction to the dragon’s dilemma:

“The curse says you must learn to love and be loved, does it not? Those are the only conditions?” The dragon nodded, his head still buried in his hands. The parson broke a piece off a roll and buttered it. “Then I suggest you get a puppy,” he said.

Nor is this mere flippancy: “I have seen shell-shocked soldiers make great, great strides when they are given charge of a dog,” he says, and adds,

“A dog is a more loving creature than man. All the things that we wish we were, dogs are: loyal, faithful, loving, and cheerful in the face of adversity.

And that’s the type of story this is: the parson musing on the nature of love, different types of love, in the company of the dragon, who’s at first haughty, vain, capricious, and entitled, but gradually becomes… well, somewhat less so. Gray resists the easy out of a dramatic personality transformation—the emotional equivalent of taking off the glasses and having a character become suddenly gorgeous. Real people are beloved despite being prickly and short tempered. In this story, the parson has reasons for feeling both deep pity for and a deep attachment to the young man that the dragon once was.

The two talk not only about love, but also morality, vindictiveness, compassion—so much. And lest I’ve made it sound like some kind of milk-soaked graham cracker of a story, let me quickly also add that it’s **funny** too, as when the dragon and the parson have this exchange:

“That’s not how you learn to love, not at all. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it does not kidnap – ”

“You’re misquoting,” the dragon interrupted. “Paul doesn’t say anything about kidnapping.”

The parson replies, “I believe the injunction against kidnapping is implied by all the rest of it.”

It’s an original, moving, surprising story—I highly recommend it. It's available on Amazon here.

Comments

[sovay]

Real people are beloved despite being prickly and short tempered. In this story, the parson has reasons for feeling both deep pity for and a deep attachment to the young man that the dragon once was.

That sounds lovely. At present I can do nothing about acquiring it, since it appears to be Kindle-only, but if it ever develops a paper form I will pick it up.

[asakiyume]

Perhaps the author will take note and consider offering a paper version. I know some small presses/self-pubs wait until something earns a certain amount, and then they offer a paper version.

[sovay]

I know some small presses/self-pubs wait until something earns a certain amount, and then they offer a paper version.

It is certainly something I would pay money for, and I don't have very much money.

[rachelmanija]

You can set up paperbacks via Amazon.

[kore]

Aww man. I think you'd really like it.

[sovay]

Aww man. I think you'd really like it.

I suspect I will, when it's in a format I can read!

[petrichor_pirate]

That sounds interesting! Maybe I'll actually remember to look for it when I go to the library next...

[asakiyume]

Alas, right now it's ebook only--although some libraries do lend ebooks nowadays.

[sartorias]

Oh, that sounds lovely!

[asakiyume]

It's lovely!

[genarti]

Oh my god, this sounds amazing. Thank you for posting about it!

[asakiyume]

You're welcome!

There are several other great reviews of it on Amazon, and this review, by missroserose

[genarti]

:D!

I may wait a bit to see if it comes off Amazon-only; I try not to buy from Amazon if I can help it, and I do have a kobo which means it's a couple extra conversion steps to read a Kindle ebook. (Unless I want to read it on my computer, but I pretty much never want to read an entire book on my computer screen.) But I will definitely keep it high on the TBR list.

[radiantfracture]

This sounds like something I would like very much.

[asakiyume]

I'm glad to have called it to your attention, then!

[amaebi]

Thank you! That sounds like great fun!

Is it Peter Beagle-ish?

[kore]

You know, it really kind of is.

[asakiyume]

Hmmm, I can't really say, about Peter Beagle and this. The only thing by Peter Beagle that I've read is The Lsst Unicorn, and it's hard to compare this to that.

[kore]

I read it and really liked it quite a lot. It is funny, and very moving, and the war background sharpens the point about love, too. It was charming and warm and not at all twee.

[asakiyume]

Definitely not twee! The dragon was all sorts of genuinely unpleasant, and the fact that there was a reason for it didn't make him less unpleasant--just maybe made me-the-reader understand him better. And the parson was a very good man, but not without flaws, and his goodness wasn't sanctimonious--even when he was quoting scripture. I liked the way conversations **returned** to a point, so that you didn't get just one consideration of a thing, but several.

[zyzyly]

That sounds intriguing. I don't really know the original story of Beauty and the Beast, but maybe I'll read this first, and treat the original as the retelling.

[asakiyume]

Beauty and the Beast is a fairy tale: a father (in the versions I know of it, he's a ruined merchant) plucks a rose from the garden of a mysterious estate to give to his youngest and favorite daughter (in some versions, like Disney's, his only daughter). The owner of the estate threatens to kill him for this if he doesn't bring back his daughter to stay in the estate in his place. He goes home and tells his daughter and says she mustn't go; he'll go back and die, but the daughter insist she be allowed to save his life. It turns out the beast is under a spell--the exact spell in this story. From there, the fairy tale has typical ups and downs and a typical ending for that type of fairy tale.

[minoanmiss]

I want to read this beautiful story and I'm so glad I read this discussion.

[asakiyume]

I think you will like it--and yeah, people are bringing all sorts of great thoughts and comments! Check out missroserose's review over on her blog. The first review up at Amazon is also excellent.

[amaebi]

I have finally finished it, and I am as sure as I can be that you will indeed love it.