Author: Michael Berman and Ketevan Kalandadze
Publisher: O Books, 2010
Price: £11.99
Isbn: 9781846942792

I was unsure whether this collection was aimed at folklorists or the general reader, given that relatively basic terms (intertextuality, call and response) are explained, yet Huichol shamans are dropped in en passant; and very general remarks about the history of folktales rub shoulders with, for instance, a throwaway reference to Bakhtin. I suspect it would irritate both equally.

The book gives the impression that initial jottings somehow ended up as a typescript, which was accidentally published completely unedited, with material that should have been in footnotes (or omitted completely) left to clog up the text. To give one of rather too many possible examples: “Once the prince quarreled Note: You can’t change this to American English spelling as it was originally published in British English with his comrade…” Editors exist for a reason. And he’s wrong, in any case. The typo­graphy makes separating stories and commentary almost imposs­ible. Still, the illustrations are charming.

Having got the gripes over and done with, some of the material is fascinating. A three-page article about exorcising batonebi (demons that cause various illnesses), lifted verbatim from the Brosse Street Journal, though with the wrong date, was gripping.