The Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, had a remarkable effect on the author's under-standing of her childhood nightmares. The Grimms' stories were important in the way that nature worked and somehow combined cunningly with Bible stories. Both are rich in macabre warnings of a fate in store for the unwary unless there is a proper understanding of the dif-ferences between good and evil. There is also a whimsical quality to the Grimms' stories that withstands the callowness of youth. The tales in their original form have become dated in at-titudes that would not pass today's rules of political...