Book Review - 'Six-Gun Snow White' by Catherynne M Valente

Although this author has been on my reading radar for some time, this is the first book of Valente’s I’ve read.

‘A plain-spoken girl relates the history of her parents, a Nevada silver baron and his native American wife, Gun That Sings.
Her mother dies in childbirth, leaving her baby girl alone in a harsh world that offers no place for a half-native, half-white child. After being hidden for years, a very wicked stepmother finally gifts her the name Snow White, referring to the pale skin she will never have.’

Before I go into the review, although the cover is illustrated by Charles Vess, one of my favourite fairy tale/fantasy artists, I actually prefer this cover, which I believe is for the paperback edition.

I haven’t read many retellings of Snow White and I was excited by this one, especially as it’s set in the Wild West, one of my favourite settings.

The first part of the story is told in first-person, with Snow White as our narrator. She tells us how her father, known only as Mr H, an exceedingly rich mine owner, falls for her mother, a Crow woman with the name Gun That Sings. The way it’s described, it’s more lust than love; he craved her as something he could possess.
“The terrible covetous heart of Mr. H immediately conceived a starvation for the girl not lesser in might than his thirst for sapphires or gold. In the lamplight her hair had the very color of coal… Her dark mouth was a cut garnet, her skin rich copper, her eyes black diamonds…”

Although she rejected his advances repeatedly, she was eventually left with no choice but to become his wife.

When Snow White is born, her mother dies.

Only her father and some of his household staff know she’s his daughter; he keeps that fact hidden from the world at large.
“Mr. H found it more difficult to explain the sudden appearance of a daughter… and forbid me to leave the grounds of the slowly growing castle by the sea.”

As she grows older, he distances himself from her and travels a lot, leaving her with no friends, her only company her governess and the groundskeeper.

One of her prize possessions is “a revolver made to my hand”, given to her by her father. “It had a grip pounded of the first silver bars of Mr. H’s fortune… He had great big red pearls stuck into it like drops of blood spattered on the snow…”

One day, Snow White – who, to all intents and purposes is still unnamed at this point – learns her father will be bringing home a new wife; what she’s always wanted, a mother.

With instructions that she’s to remain hidden, she’s kept away from this new mother who’s described as so beautiful, “it hurt to look at her sometimes…”

The young girl isn’t even allowed to attend the wedding.

The newlyweds leave for their honeymoon from which only the new wife returns, Mr H staying on to see to his new business ventures.

The story then goes on to tell us how the situation develops between Snow White, so named by her new mother, and the strange woman who she desperately wants as her mother.

Things come to a head and Snow White decides it’s time for her to leave even though she knows she’s forbidden to step outside the grounds.

When she leaves, the narration changes from first person to third and, to be honest, I’m not sure why.

It isn’t a long story at all, more of a novella, without any unnecessary fluff. Matters progress in much the same manner as the fairy tale – the original, not the Disney version.

The familiar symbols are all present. Snow White’s mother dies, her father remarries, they live in a castle, there’s a magic mirror, a ‘Charming’ character, a huntsman character, the 7 who help her, apples, and even a glass box.

Valente certainly has the skill to weave those symbols believably into a Western setting. Interestingly, the chapter titles are reminiscent of Native American tales, like ‘Snow White Secures Fire’ and ‘Snow White Wears Her Insides on Her Outside’.

Valente also has a way with words, like this description of the mirror:
“It was like a door into nothing. The glass did not show the buttery light of the house behind me. It did not show the forest or the meadows. It did not even show me. The glass was so full up of dark it looked like someone had tripped over the night and spilled it all into the mirror.”

As much as I wanted to enjoy this story, I didn’t. I struggled to connect with the characters, even Show White. I didn’t feel much empathy for Snow White even when she was narrating her own story. Not even when I read the parts that spoke of her yearning for a mother, which surprised me when I thought about it later.

Reading of her life on the run, told in third person, I found myself caring even less. There was quite a disconnect with the characters, almost as if Snow White herself didn’t care what happened to her.

There’s one part of the story, to do with the mirror, that I have to admit I didn’t get. I could well be having a daft moment, but I didn’t see the point of it at all.

As for the ‘Western’ language, I didn’t mind it when Snow White was the narrator as I could imagine a young girl of that time speaking in that manner. Having read westerns like ‘True Grit’, I didn’t struggle with it, in fact, I rather like that charming hint of formality.

However, when it switched to third person, I did struggle. The sentences were choppy and peppered with ‘wild west-old west’ slang. Listening to it on screen is fine as I’ve never minded it in any of the Westerns I’ve watched but reading it – not so much. It didn’t flow naturally although I grant that may well be to do with me not growing up in America.

And then there’s the ending. Obviously, I’m not going to say anything about how Valente ends her story, but I found it hurried, anticlimactic and disappointing; almost as if she’d run out of steam and just wanted to end it.

Despite the disappointment of that read, I’m still going to read at least one more book of hers to get a proper feel of her writing. Maybe her original stories deliver more than this retelling.