Thursday, October 23, 2008

Book Nine -- Wicked by Gregory Maguire


Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
by Gregory Maguire
fantasy
406 pages

Okay, so I lied about what my next book would be; in case it isn't clear, my book selections for this are pretty random and are aimed at me having not having to spend too much of my fixed income on books. I happened to be cruising our bookshelves and found this and, since it was recently reviewed, both on Pajiba and by one of my fellow cannonballers, I figured why not?

It's been a while since I read an Oz book, but back in the day, I read all 14 of L. Frank. Baum's Oz books and possibly some of Ruth Plumly Thompson's books as well. And here's where I pause and suggest that you get your hands on some of the follow-ups to Wizard of Oz and just look at them. John R Neill took over the illustration job with the second book and his work is just gorgeous.

So yeah, as a former Oz fan, I was looking forward to revisiting the world as an adult though an adult book but also kind of dreading it because, well, what if it sucked? Fortunately, it didn't suck; in fact, it's pretty damn good.

Basically the book follows Elphaba, later known as the Wicked Witch of the West, from her birth to her death at Dorothy's hands. It concentrates on five different periods of her life: her childhood in Munchkinland; her years at university where she meets, among others, Glinda the Good; her time in the Emerald City as a rebel against the Wizard; her time in the Winkie country, where she prefected her witchiness; and finally, the short aftermath of the death-by-house of her sister.

Maguire's Oz is Baum's Oz "through a glass darkly;" it's recognizable but full of things like specism (the talking Animals are treated as second class citizens), religious schism, class warfare and so on. It's an echo of the ills the Industrial Revolution brought along with it and caught up in all this is Elphaba, whose earnest desire to do good gets twisted until she's the Wicked Witch we all recognize.

It's not a perfect novel, but it's a fun one, even if the only background you have is the original Wizard of Oz movie.

Next up--probably--Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Maguire's take on Cinderella.

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