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).