The Complete Tales of Merry Gold

Kate Bernheimer's newest novel contains all the madness and exoticism of fairy tales, set in a contemporary urban landscape. Enchantment is everyday, villains are everywhere, and the dark woods always lurk in one's mind. A sequel to ""The Complete Tales of Ketzia Gold"", this novel follows the life of Merry Gold, the eldest and meanest of the Gold sisters, through poetry, pictures, and haunting childlike prose. Guilty about her destructive desires and longing for peace, Merry makes her way through design school and a melange of men. Throughout her bleak life as a seamstress, she returns to her family again and again, seeking solace. Merry observes her world with disarming honesty, methodically living out her days. Bernheimer conjures a troubling and beautiful setting that is representative of Merry's inner turmoil and explosive imagination. The story moves between past and present, marking the unhurried pace with a sense of fragility. ""In winter, the lesson room was freezing, and often my teeth would chatter to the rhythm of the music. I was a skinny, chattering doll in a freezer, gay piano music bouncing off the walls."" Bernheimer once again delves into the internal anguish of the Gold family and extracts a magical, carefully stitched tale of strange and happy fear.

“"Straightforward, matter-of-fact, and earthy."-Village Voice”

"Kate Bernheimer's fiction offers a unique and delicate gift, the tempting mirage of a grace that constantly escapes. The Complete Tales of Merry Gold is an exceptional, lovely book, beautifully enigmatic, speaking a language that mysteriously evokes the unspoken."--Lydia Millet

Kate Bernheimer, Assistant Professor in the Creative Writing Program at The University of Alabama, is the editor of Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore their Favorite Fairy Tales.

Obsessive, prudish, and cold, Merry Gold lives in denial of her own condition. This seamstress--the eldest and meanest of the three Gold sisters--possesses a tarnished past and faces a bleak and lonely future. Guilty about her destructive desires and longing for innocence, her inner turmoil and explosive imagination belie a disarming honesty. A sequel to "The Complete Tales of Ketzia Gold, "the novel follows Merry from her suburban childhood through design school and a whirlwind of lovers, and into a desolate adulthood. Beginning with a toy seal and ending with mushrooms, this fairy tale set in modern times creeps through cruelty and violence to its inevitable end. Reminiscent of a miniature, fragile ice sculpture, "The Complete Tales of Merry Gold "glistens with hard-hearted bliss. Kate Bernheimer has once again delved into the internal anguish of the Gold family to extract a magical, carefully stitched tale of strange and happy fear. Kate Bernheimer, Assistant Professor in the Creative Writing Program at The University of Alabama, has been the George Bennett Fellow in Creative Writing at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. She is the editor of the journal "Fairy Tale Review "and the book "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Women Writers Explore their Favorite Fairy Tales."

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