The fairy tale is alive and adapting well to the modern world. Tiffin (humanities, University of Cape Town, South Africa) defines the basic elements of the fairy tale, including the patterns in the narrative, the absence of much back story and the willingness to suspend disbelief. She then examines the work of contemporary authors and how their work functions within the fairy tale genre and also uses the formulae to revise the patterns. Authors such as Angela Carter, A.S. Byatt, Terry Prachett, Sheri Tepper and James Thurber, the lone American, are shown to have a firm grasp of the metafiction of the fairy tale. Tiffin ends with recent film fairy tales, which also, Like Shrek both conform to the pattern and satirize it. Tiffin's grasp of the theories on the fairy tale and its modern forms is excellent. Her work is both scholarly and interesting. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)