BRIAR ROSE by Jane Yolen

Jane Yolen, Briar Rose (The Fairy Tale Series; Tom Doherty Associates, LTD, 1992). 190 pages. Paperback. Republished in 2014.

Available as audiobook.

Available to read on-line at http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/eng/briar_rose_(novel) and https://epdf.pub/jane-yolen-briar-rosec70ae669571acc809584246d1984737673650.html.

Historical fiction

Recommended by Wilda Morris

            How do you add together an old fairy tale and a historical event virtually everyone knows at least a little about, and transform them into something new, creative and gripping? Jane Yolen accomplished that feat in her novel, Briar Rose, published in “The Fairy Tale Series” created by Terri Windling.

            Becca and her two older sisters grow up under the spell of Gemma, their grandmother, who repeatedly tells the story of Briar Rose (Sleeping Beauty), but never seems to share much about her own story. Her version of Briar Rose unfolds as her granddaughters grow up and the novel progresses. When Gemma dies, Becca finds a box of mysterious pictures and papers with clues to her grandmother’s early life.

            Becca’s sisters think she is crazy to try to unravel the past. Becca, who has become an investigative reporter for a local paper, is encouraged by Stan, her editor, to explore the story, using the skills she has developed while probing local issues. At times it seems hopeless, but Becca finds the help she needs as she traces her grandmother’s journey back to Fort Oswego. Records from the National Archives furnish further clues to her identity.

            I don’t want to give away too much, so I will just say that the story of Briar Rose is effectively woven together with events of the Holocaust as Becca searches for Briar Rose, the prince and the castle of the fairy tale her grandmother so often told.

Becca’s grandmother was “only a part of a very large tale” (p. 129), says Josef Potoki, whom Becca meets in Poland. In the process of reading Briar Rose, I learned more of that larger story. I had not known that almost 1,000 European Jewish refugees were brought from Italy to Fort Oswego, New York, in 1944. Nor had I heard of Kulmhof (Chelmno), an extermination camp in Poland that used vans to gas and dispose of Jews.

            The story is lightened by some humor, especially in the relationship between the three sisters, as well as the developing relationship between Becca and Stan. Fascinating characters add interest. Because of the artistry of the author, the book is gripping. The author knows, as does Magda (Becca’s Polish guide), “Sometimes living takes more courage than dying” (p. 181). But, although Briar Rose revisits the evils of the Third Reich and the attempted “Final Solution,” it is also a book of hope.

            I encourage you to read it. As Magda also said (p. 182), “it is better to be fully awake, don’t you think?”