Tachyon Publications: Can't Catch Me, Michael Cadnum


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			Michael Cadnum

			Visit the Michael Cadnum website.

	Michael Cadnum has been a National Book Award Finalist and a Creative Writing Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts. He was twice a finalist for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award as well as a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award. A dramatic monologue based on the "Can't Catch Me" story was staged along with a play by David Mamet in Chicago in the Spring of 2003. The Dragon Throne - the third book in the Crusader trilogy that includes The Book of the Lion and The Leopard Sword - was published in the summer of 2005 by Viking. A new novel, Nightsong will appear in November, 2006. Cadnum lives in Albany, California with his wife Sherina and his parrot Luke.

Can't Catch Me

by Michael Cadnum

Cover art by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law; Cover design by Ann Monn

This collection of deftly rearranged myths and fairy tales rekindles the excitement of reading adored childhood stories. These witty, perceptive stories from an award-winning children's author cleverly twist, turn, and veer off into unexpected, enchanting territory. Twice-told, the familiar tales are newly revealed through the unusual perspectives of their supporting casts.

There's the giant's wife who simply wants Jack to bugger off so she can continue collaborating on poetry with her sweetly oafish mate. A bratty, unrepentant Gingerbread Man sounds off on overprotective parents, meddlesome neighbors, and untrustworthy foxes. Suitable for young adults and grown-ups alike, this new classic features five original, previously unpublished stories.

Can't Catch Me And Other Twice Told Tales by Michael Cadnum is an outstanding collection of interesting and insightful lore drawn from history and retold with a modernized and compelling philosophical perspective of contemporary wisdom and collective post-situation knowledge. Diligently feeding its readers with advice and worldly understandings of these once ancient tales of long ago and far away, Can't Catch Me gives the reader an intriguing compendium of new-age tellings. Can't Catch Me is very highly recommended for general fiction, philosophy, historical, myth, folklore enthusiasts for its adroit grasp of these ancient "twice-told" tales.
-Midwest Book Review

...turns the familiar on its head, from basilisk to gingerbread man, and makes you forget, for a few charmed moments, that these aren't quite the tales you thought you knew.
-Patricia A. McKillip, author, The Book of Atrix Wolfe

Concise writing cuts to the heart of the matter in this droll collection from National Book Award-finalist Cadnum (The Book of the Lion), whether it be a certain gingerbread boy's overbearing parents in the title story or a ghostly Ophelia bent on her own secret revenge in "Or Be to Not." Even the most urbane bears can be brought low when entrapped by a crusading pro-human Goldilocks in "Bear It Away," while a certain giant's wife manages to create a happy ending after a young thief escapes by beanstalk in "Mrs. Big." "Medusa," "Daphne" and "Give Him the Eye" offer stark insight into the behavior of Greek gods and goddesses as well as the brutal side of love. Meanwhile, elves, no matter how gifted, find little welcome when faced with human suspicions in "Naked Little Men" and "Elf Trap," while "Together Again" gives the truth behind that old nursery rhyme about a lord named Humpty Dumpty. Both adult and YA readers will enjoy this quirky assemblage of 18 traditional tales with a modern edge. -Publishers Weekly

Cadnum delves more into the psyche of the protagonist than fairy tales ever do. -Bookloons