Tallahassee writer Melanie Rawls bends fairy tale genre to address grief | Book review
"Once upon a time . . . and they lived happily ever after” is the formula of the fairy tales and nursery rhymes that are stored in the treasure chest of our childhood memories. When our own children say, “Tell me a story,” Cinderella, Puss in Boots and Goldilocks all live happily in their dreams.
These beloved tales have an ancient lineage. Scholars think that “Beauty and the Beast,” for example, may be 5,000 years old. We have an innate need to tell stories about who we are and where we’ve come from. Myths and fairy tales endure because they encode truths about the human condition.
Still, as grown-ups, we may dismiss stories of talking animals and fairy godmothers as imaginative entertainments for children. Make-believe and magic are illusions that don’t belong in the disenchanted adult world of work and struggle. We can’t live happily or unhappily ever after, because we die.
The reality of death is exactly where local writer Melanie Rawls’s adult fairy tale begins: “Of course, they could not live happily forever after.” “Yes, of course,” we think, as we turn the page, curious to find out what happens next.
"After, Ever After, A Story for the Long Lived," just published by Apalachee Press and beautifully illustrated by Carol Lynne Knight, is a wise and serious delight.
Rawls, poet, short story writer and essayist, holds a master’s degree in rhetoric and composition from Florida State University and taught composition at Florida A&M University for over 20 years. Rawls is deeply rooted in the literature of folktale and fantasy, particularly the work of Tolkien.
Her collaborator, Carol Lynne Knight, is a Tallahassee artist, poet, editor, and teacher.
Barbara Hamby, poet and professor at Florida State University, comments, ”The paintings in this book are ethereal and earthy at the same time and transport you into the world of Melanie's tale.”
Rawls plays with the conventions of the fairy tale genre in ways that will surprise and charm her readers. There is a kingdom, naturally, but the great-great-grandfather king is devastated by the death of Beauty, his beloved queen.
Inconsolable grief drives him into the forest and renders him, well, beastly. His howling keeps the babies awake all night and disrupts the whole community. His huge extended family (characters from familiar tales, books and songs) searches for him, but he roars and refuses to come home. Finally, the pleas of the children persuade “Grampy” to return.
But the king just sits by a window and stares out at Beauty’s grave. His exasperated eldest daughter, now the queen, rebukes him. “Now, Papa, you must stop all this. You know Mama would not approve. And it isn’t good for the children!”
The family cares for the old king in his depression, and the children’s persistent affection gradually restores him. But not forever, and not ever after. This is an adult fairy tale.
In her aptly-named afterword, Rawls writes, “My story is about loss and grief. It is the tale of how one might survive the deaths of loved ones and of how, perhaps, one faces the prospect of one’s own end.”
"After, Ever After" is a fairy tale about very real things — birth, death, sorrow, change, hello and goodbye. Together, with gorgeous images and poetic prose, Rawls and Knight tell us a true story about the transformative power of love.
Marda Messick is an emerging Tallahassee poet who lives in Indianhead Acres. Her poetry chapbook, "Feral Princess," will be published by Apalachee Press in September 2024.
If you go
What: Book reading with Melanie Rawls for "After, Ever After"
When: 3 p.m. Saturday, June 1
Where: Midtown Reader, 1123 Thomasville Road
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee writer bends fairy tale genre to explore grief
