Gregory Maguire quickly rose to fame with his apparently creative look at the Wicked Witch from Oz when he wrote Wicked. Since then, more books distorting or looking at fairy tales differently have been written (including a sequel of sorts to Wicked due out this year) by Maguire. After hearing about the novel and the musical Wicked, I decided I would check out Maguire and see if I would enjoy him. The bookstore was out of Wicked but they did have Lost.
I almost wish they didn't. Not just because I didn't like the book but because it made me almost not want to read Wicked.
I did not care for this novel. Lost was interesting in the beginning but it quickly lost any sort of momentum as it progressed. It begins with an eye-catching scene of a car accident that the protagonist Winnie sees and tries to help. Then it quickly moves to an adoption service Forever Families and we briefly meet families both in the traditional and non-traditional sense who are in the process of trying to adopt. Then we're off to England where Winnie is supposed to meet her step cousin and "friend" John Comestor. But when she arrives, he's nowhere to be seen, the house is being worked on, there's a loud pounding coming from the chimney, no one wants to really talk to Winnie and weird things are happening.
The problem for me was that Maguire seemed to gloss over everything. He keeps the reader distanced from the characters. Not once did I feel like I got to know Winnie. On one hand this was partially intentional as Winnie herself is a very distanced character who retreats into her writing when faced with a situation she doesn't want to acknowledge. Ironically enough, the one area that Winnie was a bit too revealing involves a "plot twist" I guess. I hate to call it so because it is the ONLY thing that was concretely and blatantly obvious.
But on the other, Maguire's own writing was distant, glossed over details so that I had to reread passages to make sure I wasn't missing things. Its as if Maguire is attempting to write in the vein of minimalism. I love minimalistic novels when done correctly. I'm an avid reader, I read a good two books or so a week on average and nothing grates on me more when I have to reread something because the writing was vague. I don't know how to convey this point, exactly. Some of my favorite novels are vague, but effectively vague. They let you decide how to view the plot and don't hold you by the hand. It's as if Maguire was trying to do this, trying to write a post modern or minimalistic novel and failed. Does that make sense?
Part of the problem is also that Maguire is trying to balance too many balls at once. Because not only is all of the things above happening, but there's also the story of Jack the Ripper's remains that may or may not be a part of the story, the fact that Winnie's ancestor may or may not have been the basis for Scrooge, the fact that Winnie may or not be crazy, her cousin may or may not be dead and the whole place may or not be haunted. That's a lot of may or may nots to have in a novel that's 335 pages long.
I do think Maguire could be a decent author. He has a way with metaphors and similes that do well in conveying either symbolism or what is actually happening. The problem, for me, was that there was not a spine to this novel. It felt as if it were trying to be too many different things at once and the story got away from Maguire. I do want to try another of his novels because I do think he probably is a good author; there were some great passages and sequences that were highly entertaining and weird. For instance, the neighbor living downstairs with the cats and who has to leave herself notes was perfect. Great character and a great sequence. The problem is that the plot as a whole left much to be desired.
The end result to me was such a wishy-washy mess that when all of the story threads "came together" I didn't care. The last third of the novel I read to have a conclusion and get it over with, not because I genuinely cared. It's hard to care about a character you don't ever get to know. The end result is that I should have listened to the reviews here instead of the critical praises saying "A brilliant, perceptive, and deeply moving fable about loss...". I'd recommend you do the same. Here's hoping Wicked is much better.
