These poem-stories are a strange retelling of seventeen Grimms fairy tales, including Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, The Frog Prince, and Red Riding Hood. Astonishingly, they are as wholly personal as Anne Sexton's most intimate poems. Her metaphoric strength has never been greater -- really funny, among other things, a dark, dark laughter (C.K. Williams).