Customer Reviews

WICKED, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST

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2 star:		(198)
1 star:		(326)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

(Note: I agree completely with Bruce Aguilar's review below.)

I was excited to read this book; I expected a great read.

Wicked relies on a gimmick. Though the result could be worthwhile, and I expected it would be in this case, it's not. There's just the gimmick.

Wicked is too long by at least a hundred pages - though the story could easily have been told and done, and the reader is feeling done with it, we're still left slogging along.

Just as the story is building to what turns out to be the (aborted) climax, halfway through, the author suddenly, jarringly, shoves the protagonist into a convent (though she's a complete non-believer), and then has her do absolutely nothing for the next several years (well, she cleans some floors or something).

Though we're still left a couple hundred more pages to wade through, the book is over right there. You keep hoping, expecting, it to somehow start up again, but neither the book nor the characters will every have any interest in anything again. It's over.

The story has, at that point, somehow become a political thriller (Wicked zigzags all about without ever finding an identity). Perhaps the deadness of spirit in a once-impassioned radical, after she's lost faith and/or hope, would have been a worthwhile exploration.

Instead, the story just ends. For some reason, the author keeps writing more pages. For no reason, really.

(The Nature of Evil theme is so incredibly weak and puerile in its rendering as to be nothing more than a tedious distraction from the plot. The characters basically step outside the story for a bit, discuss it, and then go back to whatever they were doing.)

If this were a book of paintings, it would go from lush oil at the beginning to somewhat interesting (dark) watercolors in the middle. After that, there'd be a few nicely shaded drawings, some sketches and finally just stick figures. And that's what you're left with.

It never answers its own questions, never bothers to resolve all the threads that just trail off (and much of what keeps you reading, long after the book has clearly died, is some hope of seeing those resolved - they won't be).

Cruciallly, Elphaba never becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. The author just crams her into that role as abruptly and jarringly as he crammed her into the convent, and suddenly has her say words that have nothing to do with the character we've seen for the past zillion pages.

It's like she was suddenly turned into a puppet, just so Dorothy can accidentally kill her, as if the author forgot she was supposed to be the Wicked Witch of the West and suddenly cut-and-pasted in a brief bit about that so he could have this gimmick to sell it. (That's the climactic confrontation we've been anticipating for 400 pages?)

It's your standard workshop-fiction type of book - lots of attention the phrasing, self-important symbolism, Meaningful (capital M) conflicts, one or two words that might send you to the dictionary - but there's no real fire here, and the author not only doesn't have much of a story to tell, but fails to explore his characters and theme.

If this weren't an alternative view of a familiar character, nobody would read it. There'd be no point. And though that marketing hook will pull many a reader in (as it did me), ultimately there isn't any.

I've read many of the reviews of Wicked and I just don't get it.

So many, even when they revile the plot, the content, the story itself, deem Mr. Maguire a "literary genius" with words. I see none of that. In a great story, especially one of fantasy, we should feel swept away by the tale, captivated by the writer's language and enveloped by every sentence. Instead of creating this safe haven for us to enjoy by making his words RELATIBLE, he seems to go out of his way to show us what fancy verbiage he can pull off, regardless of whether it improves the story for it's reader or not. It doesn't.

I'm not impressed by Mr. Maguire's vocabulary. In fact, it is one of the most annoying parts of an amazingly annoying book.

These are my complaints, along with the verbiage issue:

1) Mr. Maguire makes the book excessively complicated by adding in made-up factors which are essential to the plot, but which he never explains to us,
regardless of how verbose he is.

For example, by the time I was 2/3 of the way through, I realized that I still didn't understand the "time dragon" or any of the religions or basic politics that are so crucial to his story. He never bothers to explain these things, but carries on long, boring conversations between his characters that revolve around them. It's like sitting down to a meal with 20 people speaking a foreign language. After a while it just exhausting and mind numbing.

2) Mr. Maguire jumps around - usually just when things are getting good.

We spend goodness-knows how many pages dealing with Elphaba and her family before she even utters her first word and then, just when the plot FINALLY goes somewhere...*poof*....she 17 and off to college. This happens continually. I kept thinking that it was going to become some sort of cliff-hanger where he goes back and we get to REALLY hear the good stuff. Nope. He moves on and that's it. Where's the payoff for the reader? We put up with all of that blah, blah, blah and then he just SKIPS ahead when it gets good?

HE DOES THIS EVERY SINGLE TIME. Beware. You have been warned.

3) He skips the interesting characters and spends pages and pages on the ones that you could care less about.

In another one of his jumps, we never know what happens to Elphaba's TRUE father because it just ends with all of the characters in limbo, then, in a passing phrase, we find out that he was murdered - something to do with that 'ole time dragon again. Then he's on to something else. Hundreds and hundreds of words and pages have gone plodding by, and one of the more interesting things gets nothing more than a passing reference.

4) He spends pages and pages on THINGS that you don't care about, describing them into minutia with his wordy, verbose language.

I think that if I had had to read one more word about Elphaba's journey to the castle, I was going to tear my hair out. The description went on and on and was so boring and wordy. Blech. Skip that stuff! Geeze - tell us the GOOD stuff. Tell us exactly how they killed Fiero. Oh, I forgot, he skipped that part.

5) Elphaba is nasty, annoying and never grows emotionally.

Get some therapy, Elphi. Her POV was just annoying, hardly sympathetic. Obviously, after she learned to speak , she simply became a teenager and never grew past that.

6) The sex scenes and the violence are dull. Just because there is sex between humans and other species doesn't make it good reading or erotic. It's been done before and CERTAINLY done much better.

and the very worst thing:

THERE IS NO PAYOFF. NONE! I hung in there, and hung in there hoping that he would wrap things up and explain things at some point and give SOME sort of emotional satisfaction for having dealt with pages and pages and hours and hours of his slog, and he just rushes through the Dorothy part and it's over. I'm furious.

Overall, I hated it. I'm astounded that so many liked it. I regret picking it up. Unlike others, I wish that I could give it "no stars" - the writer's ability create an imaginary world should be a given and he gets no credit for that from me.

SEE THE SHOW: The broadway show is wonderful and amazing. It is everything that this book is not. However, don't go thinking that they have much in common, because they don't. The plot in the show makes sense, is interesting (far more interesting than the plot in the book), creates characters with whom you really become involved AND gives you a GREAT payoff in the end, explaining things in a MUCH better way and giving you a WONDERFUL and different point of view of the whole story of Oz. The show is one of the best that I have ever seen, and I have seen quite a few. Don't miss Julie Murney as Elphaba, if you get a chance.

THE SHOW: 2 THUMBS UP, 4 STARS, DON'T MISS IT!

THE BOOK: 2 thumbs down, 0 stars, skip it.

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 bought the soundtrack for the musical of "Wicked", and fell in love with the story outlined through the lyrics. I feverishly planned to get my hands on tickets to the Broadway Show. Then I sat back, and reminded myself to read the book, almost certain that I would love it. I rushed online to place a hold on it through the library, and waited in suspense for it to be returned. When I finally got it, I ignored everything else I had to do, and finished it in a day.

It was a strange, strange book.

No doubt many other reviews have touted this piece of literature as a revolutionary examination about the nature of evil, and that of perspective. Maguire does raise several interesting questions. As sung by Kristen Chenowith, "Are people born wicked? Or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?" This is the major question addressed in this story, but Maguire goes further. In a complex flurry of Ozian politics, through Elphaba he questions the nature of authority, and not-so-subtly adresses such issues as growing racism (speciesism, towards the Animals, as well as to Quadlings). Moral values that I believe are predominantly valued in American society - prominently fidelity - are also addressed. The careful reader can catch several political slurs aimed at government in general (as opposed to any particular modern-day administration).

To give credit where it is due, Maguire does a good job at "realizing" Baum's fantasy land of Oz, turning it into a country one would expect to see on a map, with its different providences and a governmental system. And he does flip the notion of "wickedness" on it's head.

My next statement is not intended to preach, but an effort to explain why parts of this book just didn't sit right with me. In an era where terrorism is a reality, and wickedness is not just a matter of perspective but a matter of right and wrong, Maguire's sometimes flippant attitude toward terrorism is incredibly disturbing. Much of this book is substantiated by a complex political backstory with liberal tones. Maguire clearly wants to make readers think about right and wrong in this story and juxtapose it against what many of us have seen, as children, in the movie "The Wizard of Oz". But he doesn't truly raise any thought provoking questions; he simply tells the story from a different point of view, one which convincingly shows that the 'Wicked' Witch was not truly so wicked at all - just another one of us, with quirks, foibles and faults. There is no question that what is being done by the antagonists is wrong, that the movie didn't show us as much as it claimed to and that there IS life and reality behind Oz.

So no, I would have to say that while the perspective is unique, there is nothing especially remarkable about the remainder of the story. In fact some aspects are just plain . . . wierd.

To warn the unwary - there is no delicate, or PC, way to say this, so I'll just come right out with it. Everything pertaining in even the slightest way to sex in this book is just strange. I'm not talking about Elphaba's parents both having an adulterous relationship with the same man - but in a way, I am. Infidelity abounds throughout the novel. There's also a strange sex club, the "Philosophy Club", that is mentioned in detail at one point, making the unprepared reader wonder nervously if there is any such thing as regular, 'normal' (and if you want to be picky, 'unkinky') sex in Oz.

Lest you think me a sheltered prude at this point, I wish to point out that these aspects of the book are clearly created to emphasize, yet again, Maguire's point about wickedness and perspective. But to those expecting something that rated about the same as "The Wizard of Oz" (movie) on the 'tameness radar' - this book qualifies quite easily as Rated R. NOT for anyone under seventeen, at the least. While not on the standards of any one of your dime-a-dozen, fun-yet-trashy romance novels, this book is surprisingly blunt and crude - all in part of Maguire's style and main theme.

The chronology in this book is also strange, jumping without warning and leaving the reader warily searching for some, ANY time reference to tell us when (not to mention where) we are in Oz. After the Prologue, we zip back in time almost forty years for a few chapters. Then we skip all of Elphaba's toddler-to-adolesence stages, and meet her again in school, from Galinda's point of view. There is, twice, the disappearance of almost a decade from Elphaba's life, and the reader is left with vague statements like "I spent one year in a deep sleep". (The fact that Elphaba could have brought a child to term and delivered it in that year, another point of concern brought up by characters in the book, makes the vague hedging all the stranger. This parallels as well to her mother, Minerella's, odd tale of not knowing the father to her child - as she apparently took up the Oz equivalent of marijuanna, and had sex with any traveller who stumbled up the path, make no nevermind who they were. As I said before - strange.) The first time a seven-year span disappears from our protagonist's life, we are left to assume that she spent it quite silently as the equivalent of a nun. The second time this happens, we are led to believe she spent it searching for Fiyero's (her lover's) actual wife, sisters and children. (More adultery, in case you hadn't noticed). This action serves twofold purpose - it installs "The Wicked Witch of the West" in the castle familiar to us all from the film, and proves to readers the depth of Elphaba's need to confess her sin to her lover's wife and find the path to forgiveness. This belated theme appears to be the most important in the book, pertaining to definitions of relative wickedness; especially as when Dorothy arrives nont-to-gracefully in the castle, she is also seeking forgiveness - but this from Elphaba, for accidentally killing her sister NessaRose (or, The Wicked Witch of the East). Overall the chronology of this book is sporadic, and a tripping spot for the unwary.

In addition, Maguire's character treatment leaves a little to be desired. While he does not lack in development, the reader is many a time given the impression that many of the things he writes in this book are done purely so that he can maneuver his characters into where they need to be for the movie/original book. And while generally faithful to the actions encapsulated in Baum's original and the movie as well, there are places of clear deviation. For example, didn't the wicked witch arrive on the scene of her sister's death and find out about the shoes in person? That's the way it happened in the movie . . . but after being so true to what is there, Maguire slips at times. In this instance, Elphaba finds out about the shoes from Glinda. He also doesn't quite explain how Glinda's words to Dorothy about the Wicked Witch of the West being so evil fit in with Glinda's friendship with Elphaba. It is brushed off, and the reader is left to uncertainly assume that Glinda did it because she was, and still is, more concerned with appearances than anything. It's a bit of a sad drop for a character portrayed as undeniably socialite but not irredeemable, in her youth.

Back to character - several times, the reader is given the impression that Maguire didn't quite know how to proceed, so he randomly chose a character he had created to 'fill space', and gave that character several thick chapters from their sole, 3rd person point of view. Case in point - Fiyero. This man, married at the age of six, and trained as a hunter and prince of his people, comes to Shiz for an education. His much-touted bravery (expanded upon later, in the stalking scene where he follows Elphaba as if tracking a wild animal on the hunt) is immediately completely absent - as he collapses in a weeping heap after being set upon by a set of magicked antlers. Yero, my hero, indeed. Then, Fiyero is mentioned as part of "the gang" that Elphaba, Glinda, and company hang around with, and simultaneously they all work together to gather information in furtherance of a murdered professor's greatest work; ultimately leading Elphaba in an attempt to usurp the government. Only not quite. In the book's chronology, five (missing, again!) years after the group's last night out partying together, with no more than mere mentions, Fiyero finds Elphaba and becomes her lover. The reader at this point is a bit befuddled, as apart from his devastatingly wimpy intro scene, Fiyero's had nothing but cameos. He gets an intense fifty pages or so, before he is killed. Or is he? It seems clear to the readers, but then there is a question raised later in the book, and it is never satisfactorily answered as to whether or not Fiyero IS dead.

The wizard is well-thought-out, but also contradictory as every other character portrayed within this book. While at a point one can assume that he is from our world - after all, how many "No Irish Need Apply" universes can there be? - there are also aspects that make readers doubt this tale. I personally have not come across any serious, actual Grimoires containing information on the capturing and taming of dragons. We are led to believe that, far from being a charlatan of the fourth class, the wizard actually was studying the arcana here on Earth. Make of that what you will - I didn't find it particularly believable, as it was never completely explained, and nothing was even properly implied.

In short, this book is charactarized by loose ends, jumping timeline, and rife with such obscure subplots as the brainwashing of the youth, racism, strange sex, random characters, and a general feeling of incohesiveness. It was an intriguing and disturbing read, but nothing truly especial. If you want a heart-rending story about the true nature of wickedness, I reccommend "I Am Mordred" by Nancy Springer. It's a poignant tale, much more thought-provoking than "Wicked: The Life & Times etc.", and as an added bonus, it's also shorter.

This most wonderful, magically inventive novel details everything you could have imagined life in Oz was like before the great tragedy of Dorothy's arrival. We learn about Elphaba (the little green girl who would become the WW of the West), her physically deformed sister, the WW of the East, Nessarose (whose ruby red shoes caused all this trouble in the first place), Elphaba's college roommate (!), Glinda (whose bouncy blonde curls make her unforgettable as the Good Witch of the North), etc... One reviewer says, "Wicked is a punchy allegory that alludes to everything from Nazi Germany to Nixon's America." Another writes, "This book is a glorious frolic, a feast of language, a study of good and evil, and a massive history of the fabulous land of Oz." I loved it and couldn't help wanting more and more detail on every aspect of Maguire's tale. Although I came to admire and understand Elphaba (he does a wonderful job of making her the typically misunderstood villain) I was somewhat disappointed by the chapters leading up to the end (which we all know from watching the movie) only because they seemed rushed where I wanted to luxuriously bathe in more.

*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).

To start, I have not seen the Broadway Musical and did not even make the connection between it and this book until after finishing the book. I chose to buy and read this book based solely on being intrigued by its cover [Marketers: I should say the cover image was a grand success]. As I read the story, I became intrigued enough with the world of Oz, I ended up buying and reading the original "Wizard of Oz" texts from Frank L. Baum. In this way, too, the book deserves some applause. Before reading "Wicked", my concept of this fictional universe was based solely on the 1939 MGM movie.

Regarding the content of the story, the book started slowly. It also seemed to me to jump and lurch from point A to point B in Elphaba's (later known as "The Wicked Witch of the West") life. I kept wanting for more details and was often disappointed. For instance, the tantalizing mention of some monster cradling her briefly during her youth begged for greater importance in the character's overall moral evolution. Further, the issue of her sharp biting teeth that simply fell out to be replaced by more normal teeth seemed unnecessary to the overall story, but an inordinate amount of time was spent on it at the beginning.

As the text progressed, its pace quickened. So, my interest increased and was finally snagged by the end. I suppose I would have liked to have seen greater detail in each section, something to have tied it together more fitfully. So many ideas were just hinted at, never fully explored,... If anything, the story suggested a demon child who grew into a human adult, whose flawed sense of ethics was her downfall. I think I might have felt more sorry for her plight, though, had she been less dreadful and monstrous as a child. Green skin could be likened to any sort of human disfigurement, but the sharp biting teeth and aggressive inborn temperament left me immediately unsympathetic, and my sympathies were never fully regained as the story progressed.

I am not sure the ultimate aim of the author, but I did not enjoy the book enough to read his other works. I tend toward books where all the loose ends are better explained. In my opinion, this book left too many still hanging and was not 100% internally consistent.