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When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum’s classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil? Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to be the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil. … More >>
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If you can find a better bang for the buck than Wicked, please let me know. I picked up Wicked, knowing nothing except that its subject matter was the Wicked Witch of the West, to be drawn immediately into Maguire’s splendidly imagined world of sentient animals, multiple societies, and unique physical laws. Wicked is an enthralling, great read, hugely entertaining. On top of all this, Maguire has Bradbury’s gift for creating atmosphere. The pages are heavy with dark, mysterious magic; its moral laws are ultimately incomprehensible.
Apparently doomed at conception, Elphaba is a truly terrifying infant. Razor-toothed and preternaturally intelligent, she is shunned from birth as a freak and a curse. She is nonetheless the tale’s most complex, human, and compelling character, possessed of high moral sense and great courage. But neither of these qualities enables a single one of her brave, ethical actions to succeed. What are we to conclude from this?
How is it that Dorothy, the sturdy little nobody from nowhere who committed manslaughter as she landed in Oz, skips down the Yellow Brick Road impervious to danger while Elphaba strives and plots to reap only negative results?
Why is one protected while the other is doomed? Read Wicked and you will learn how the witch’s monkeys became winged, where the rubies for those slippers came from, and, indeed, why the witch’s skin was green. But you will wrestle, long afterward, with Maguire’s moral pessimism and the snarl of grace and doom that underlies this novel. I know I will.
After hearing so many sparkling comments and reading stellar reviews, I was eager to begin Gregory Maguire’s novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. As I began the story about little Elphaba and her promiscuous mother, her zealous father and the world they lived in, I waited patiently to get to the meat of the story, and the history of a timeless character. Unfortunately, I waited, and waited, and then finally reached the back cover and realised I was still waiting!
Even early on, I had trouble connecting with a single character. I found myself not really caring what happened to any of them, but I pressed on. As I did, it became clear that the reason I felt so disconnected was that the characters were equally disconnected. There was no feeling, no devotion, no love, no admiration, no hatred, no disgust. I knew that people were friends because I was told. I knew that Elphaba felt kindly towards Galinda because it was in black and white in front of me. Relationships came forth like Juno from the brow of Zeus; no development of any kind, simply born whole and unquestioned.
And Love. Love, the fifth element (if I may be so bold), has no boundaries and follows no set rules. But it has to be nurtured as it’s as delicate as it is strong. All true loves are disected and picked apart in an attempt to see how they work. Not so with Elphaba and Fiyero. They simply love. We don’t get the chance to know about that first flutter in Elphaba’s breast, or the stirring in Fiyero’s heart. We have no opportunity to question his infidelity with Elphie, but not with his sisters-in-law. What about this woman makes her so special to him? We’ll never know.
Nor will we ever understand how Nessarose, the much loved younger sister, is displayed as a tyrant in her world. One moment she is giving out awards at some public event (a very untyrantlike thing to do I add), and the next moment she is a splat on the pavement with a house on her head. Her shoes, her blessed shoes, red and glinting in the sun, a symbol of…what? We’re not sure. Certainly the wizard could tell us, but he doesn’t.
On and on the story goes, dropping characters in willy nilly without so much as a blurb about their importance. We never meet Shell, the youngest and most complete sibling. Nor do we get a firm sense of Liir and the other (more legitimate) children that Fiyero fathered. And while the subject is touched on, no real reason for HOW the Wicked Witch of the West became just that is ever given.
What we are given is a healthy dose of politics. Politics that go no where, and compare to nothing.
Over all this novel reads like a poorly written assignment handed in by a college freshman who has no experience to draw on or emotions to invest.
“Class, today you will select a person from literary history and give them a new life! Make it 300+ pages, to be handed in by semesters end. Hop to it.”
At the end of the day, I felt no richer for having read this book and appalled that it had gained so much praise. But then I felt perhaps some of the blame had been my own. The title is: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. It implies a straightforward, telling of the happenings and events in this one characters world. It was simply my mistake to assume I’d discover a vibrant flesh and blood character brought to life in these pages.
I’ve learned my lesson. You can tell a book by it’s cover, or in this case, it’s title.
If you go into this story with expectations of a retelling of the classic “Wizard of Oz”, then you may be disappointed…but enter with an open mind and a desire to be fully entertained, you’ll find yourself incredibly satisfied by the end of this “Wicked”-good book.
Gregory Maguire sets out on an ambitious journey into the story that we grew up with, but by giving it a clever twist and fleshing out the characters we never got to know in the original. Yes, we all know about Dorothy and her annoying little dog…the twister, the house… But, how much were we told about how Oz came to be, or Munchkinland, or the Wizard himself? We were expected to accept these places and things as they were, without any explanation, and as kids, we did. We accepted that Glinda was the good witch and that the Wicked Witch of the West was evil…but why? Well, when you read “Wicked”, you get the story, warts and all! You find that perhaps the Wicked Witch of the West (born Elphaba) wasn’t entirely acting out of pure evil at all, nor was Glinda acting on behalf of all that’s good. You find that perhaps there was a lot more going on in that particular world than you ever imagined…but luckily for all of us, Maguire does an excellent job of imagining it for us! The politics, the treachery, the origin of The Wiz himself…all of this included in this highly readable, immensely likeable book!
Don’t start it expecting to read another take on Dorothy or her adventure in the “wonderful Land of Oz”. She doesn’t even enter into the picture until the very end! What you will find is an incredibly imagined story, for adults, that you’ll find yourself thinking about for a long time after you’ve finished reading it!
I must start this review by saying that it is certainly not a book you can take lightly. It takes some serious effort to stick with it, particularly once you get about half way through and the more light-hearted experiences of Elphaba, the wicked witch, at Shiz fade into her darker, secretive experiences at the Emerald City. After two failed attempts to tackle to book, fascinated by the subject matter both times, I finally got through it, inspired to read it because of the Broadway musical based on the book that I found myself mesmerized by (go see it, despite how different it is).
The book is a richly textured account of the life of the Wicked Witch of the West, here given an actual name, Elphaba, as she moves from student at Shiz University, an outcast and roommate to G(a)linda, to secretive activist in the Emerald City, to maunt (nun), to Auntie Witch, later to become The Wicked Witch of the West.
Throughout, the detailed religion, culture, and government of Oz supplement the narrative beautifully, adding depth to what could have been simply an unfounded story of what could happen to some flatly portrayed green girl from Oz. This story really makes you care for the witch and understand that even the most evil of people could simply be the victims of chance.
I thought the book began and ended very strongly, but the narrative sagged a bit in the middle, particularly as Elphaba becomes a nun and travels rather boringly across the desert to the Winkie stronghold of Kiamo Ko. The story stays rather low-key for a while, but picks up when some more familiar characters, such as Nessarose, Elphaba’s sister, Elphaba’s father, Frexspar, and Glinda, reenter the novel. From this point out, the novel receives its well-deserved finale, in which it goes out with a bold glory rarely seen in novels.
Of course, no life is without its dull moments, and even these are not completely flat. The prose is witty and never becomes to boorish. What really mesmerized me was fitting together the story in this novel into the context of the original Oz book and movie of the same (revised) name.
I would reccomend this to someone who has quite a bit of undistracted time. It’s important not to take very long breaks in reading this novel, as the details become more important toward the end, when the witch begins looking back upon her life. The novel should be a very interesting read for anyone familiar with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum or the movie from MGM. Its richly detailed characters and interesting plot choices make for a wonderful read that you’re surely not soon to forget. Tough it out through the middle so you can finish this great book.
*S P O I L E R S* BELOW…
Gregory Maguire took a very interesting concept for a novel, and turned it into a truly boring and rambling story that can best be described if you listen to the song, “Is That All There Is?” by Peggy Lee. After I read the last page, I think I became a book-burning sympathizer.
Elphaba starts out as a very complex intuitive character, who progresses to the point of being part of a huge network of rebels who are trying to assassinate the Wizard (due to his Nazi-like running of Oz). For reasons not truly explained well, she abandons everything she believes in and morphs from a well-rounded interesting character you could empathize with, into a flat character with no motivations and no interests. This transformation lasts through the end of the novel where the eventually becomes a lunatic who causes her own death. (question for those who enjoyed the book: She starts off with this network of “terrorists”, yet when she gets back in the game and aligns herself against the wizard again, where has this network gone?)
Major characters you assumed would have important roles in the book were discarded randomly (i.e. Boq), and others were brought to the forefront without any sort of development (i.e. Fiyero). And speaking of random silly characters with no point, can someone please tell me why she spent 1 year with Fiyero’s family in a rambling useless 100 pages worth of agony? And can someone else tell me why she spent 6 years screwing around the castle doing nothing after Fiyero’s family were kidnapped? One might think they meant nothing to her (As not a single attempt to free them was described), but then you come to her meeting with the Wizard where she pleads through tears to get them back.
One would think that her possession of the magic book would make her somehow stronger or more magical, but you would be incorrect in assuming so. IN fact, Elphaba doesn’t really do anything Witch-like except ride a broom that apparently anyone can operate. Does that make everyone else a witch too?
Lastly, with all the tyranny in the land, her life and her death meant nothing and changed nothing, which is the thing that pissed me off the most about this book. It served no purpose, and if the writer was attempting to discuss the origin or nature of “wickedness”, he did a piss-poor job.
For every issue and non-answered question I listed above, there’s 100 more. Do not buy this book. IF you must read it, then go to the library or borrow it from a poor chump who has bought it already (i.e. like me).