Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Wicked Years) [Paperback]

Gregory Maguire (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 29, 2009 | Series: Wicked Years (Book 1)

This is the book that started it all! The basis for the smash hit Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, Gregory Maguire's breathtaking New York Times bestseller Wicked views the land of Oz, its inhabitants, its Wizard, and the Emerald City, through a darker and greener (not rosier) lens. Brilliantly inventive, Wicked offers us a radical new evaluation of one of the most feared and hated characters in all of literature: the much maligned Wicked Witch of the West who, as Maguire tells us, wasn’t nearly as Wicked as we imagined.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With a husky voice and a gentle, dramatic manner that will call to mind the image of a patient grandfather reading to an excited gaggle of children, McDonough leisurely narrates this fantastical tale of good and evil, of choice and responsibility. In Maguire's Oz, Elphaba, better known as the Wicked Witch of the West, is not wicked; nor is she a formally schooled witch. Instead, she's an insecure, unfortunately green Munchkinlander who's willing to take radical steps to unseat the tyrannical Wizard of Oz. Using an appropriately brusque voice for the always blunt Elphaba, McDonough relates her tumultuous childhood (spent with an alcoholic mother and a minister father) and eye-opening school years (when she befriends her roommate, Glinda). McDonough's pacing remains frustratingly slow even after the plot picks up, and Elphaba's protracted ruminations on the nature of evil will have some listeners longing for an abridgement. Still, McDonough's excellent portrayals of Elphaba's outspoken, gravel-voiced nanny, Glinda's snobbish friends and the wide-eyed, soft-spoken Dorothy make this excursion to Oz worthwhile.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

From School Library Journal

YA?Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West, has gotten a bum rap. Her mother is embarrassed and repulsed by her bright-green baby with shark's teeth and an aversion to water. At college, the coed experiences disapproval and rejection by her roommate, Glinda, a silly girl interested only in clothes, money, and popularity. Elphaba is a serious and inquisitive student. When she learns that the Wizard of Oz is politically corrupt and causing economic ruin, Elphaba finds a sense of purpose to her life?to stop him and to restore harmony and prosperity to the land. A Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, and an unknown species called a "Dorothy" appear in very small roles... The story presents Elphaba in a sympathetic and empathetic manner-readers will want her to triumph! The conclusion, however, is the same as L. Frank Baum's. The book has both idealism and cynicism in its discussion of social, religious, educational, and political issues present in Oz, and, more pointedly, present in our day and time. The idealism is whimsical and engaging; the cynicism is biting. Sometimes the earthy language seems appropriate and adds to the sense of place; sometimes the four-letter words and sexual explicitness distract from the charm of the tale. The multiple threads to the plot proceed unevenly, so that the pace of the story jumps rather than moves steadily forward. Wicked is not an easy rereading of The Wizard of Oz. It is for good readers who like satire, and love exceedingly imaginative and clever fantasy.?Judy Sokoll, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; 1 Reissue edition (September 29, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061862312
• ISBN-13: 978-0061862311
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2,059 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,974 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gregory Maguire received his Ph.D. in English and American Literature from Tufts University, and his B.A. from the State University of New York at Albany. He was a professor and co-director at the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children's Literature from 1979-1985. In 1987 he co-founded Children's Literature New England. He still serves as co-director of CLNE, although that organization has announced its intention to close after its 2006 institute.
The bestselling author of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Lost, Mirror Mirror, and the Wicked Years, a series that includes Wicked, Son of a Witch, and A Lion Among Men. Wicked, now a beloved classic, is the basis for the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical of the same name. Maguire has lectured on art, literature, and culture both at home and abroad.
He has three adopted children and is married to painter Andy Newman. He lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#57 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#97 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

#57 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy

#97 in Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Fantasy

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

812 of 897 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Raises disturbing questions about nature of evil November 26, 1999

By Growllingbear

Format:Paperback

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.

73 of 80 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars We're off to see the Wicked Witch of the West! January 10, 2008

By Crystal Starr Light VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I saw the advertisements for the play Wicked and was intrigued by the poster and the premise. So I took the opportunity to take a peek into our favorite Witch.

Plot:
Elphaba is born to a minister and an adulterous mother. Being green and intelligent excludes her from having a very normal life. She goes to Shiz University where she meets up with Galinda/Glinda and begins to fight against the dictatorial Wizard of Oz. Unfortunately, she is unable to perform her task and goes underground after her lover is executed. Events proceed until the movie "The Wizard of Oz" (WoO) takes over in the last fifth of the book.

Good:
Gregory Maguire is capable of writing in a manner that keeps you hanging on and wondering what is just behind the next page, even when he is in one of his political or religious rants. There were many times where I wanted to put this down, but something that Maguire would say would keep egging me on.
The sections I most enjoyed were the first and second with parts of the fourth and fifth. The first section was an interesting way to begin, but as the story progresses, not much that takes place during this time that seems meaningful. The second section about Elphaba at Shiz University was especially good--probably what I and others had hoped to see from this book. The pacing is good, the characters are pretty solid (Galinda is well-written as a society girl, Elphaba as a social outcast and yet a dissenter, Boq as a typical college boy and so on), the events are quite exciting--typical college life, Animal rights being revoked, a murder, and so forth. Although most of the events are never really resolved in this section, Maguire writes this section well enough that a person, such as myself, really wants to know what happens next.... At the end of Section 4, Elphaba reunites with her father and her sister, Nessarose, and reminded me why I was reading this book--to learn about the history behind the Wicked Witch of the West. Section 5 continued this evolution.
Further, Maguire has built this Oz very carefully, filling in intriguing details and describing scenes and incidents very well. His elaborate map is only one instance of this; he also painstakingly describes Shiz, Emerald City, the trip to Vinkus, and other surroundings so that you are there where the action (however small it may be) is.

Bad:
As I continued to flip pages (and there are a lot, mind you), I kept thinking and thinking and thinking...what, in one short sentence, is wrong with this book? Was is the characters, the plot, Maguire's writing, the events? When I got halfway through the book, I realized what the problem was: this is not Oz from the classic 1939 movie. This is Earth in some other reality. Countries experience extreme drought. Oz has destitute people. The political climate could have been America during an election. The racial segregation and civil rights movements are plum out of the 60's. The dictator Wizard could have been Hitler, Saddam Hussein, or practically any other leader from history. College life is just like Earth--sororities, fraternities, boys sneaking to girls, libraries, lectures, drinking. Homer went to Oz and wrote the "Oziad" instead of the "Illiad". People are just like those on Earth, just from differently named cities/towns. Even the religions are practically the same! Unionism is probably Christianity, replete with the zealots. Worship of the Kumbric witch may represent Wiccan. Heck, even this Oz has a Christmas--disguised, not so cleverly, as Lurlinemas. Both are equally as commercialized. These uncanny similarities might not be so much of a problem, but I think most people wanted to read about Oz, not Earth disguised as Oz. I mean, that's kind of what I had in mind when walking into this. If I wanted to read about despotism, about vying religions, about college life, a commentary against commercialism in holidays, I would have chosen a different novel than this.
Further, this book is touted as analyzing what is wicked and what is not. Really? I didn't notice. I mean, the characters did occasionally bring up the subject--between pages upon endless pages about religions that are never fully explored, political viewpoints, Animal rights, and lots and lots of twisted sex between half-hearted characters. Where is the great debate about what is good and bad? Where do we see that the line is blurred? It appears for about two pages at the end, cloaked as it was behind all the fluff.
And was there fluff! Pages upon endless pages are spent talking about religions that have names and little else, politics that never do anything, and yards of unnecessary sexual situations. Many questions arise during this course but are never answered. What exactly do Unionism, Lurlinism, pleasure faith and others entail? Where did they come from? What function does the Time Dragon serve and why is it so respected? Who is the Kumbric Witch and why is she respected? What else does the Wizard do that is so bad? Where did the terrorist come from and what happened to them afterwards? Why do Fiyero and Elphaba fall in love? What is the purpose of the puppet scene? What happened that was so terrible at the Philosophy Club? How did it impact everyone? Are all the sexual scenes really necessary to describe what is going on (especially since they are thrown in helter-skelter and just drag the plot)?
Further, the characters are no where near what I have come to know them as and show little signs of being the people from the movie. How does Glinda become the sweet, good Witch of the North from a society diphead? How does the Wizard appear cruel and immoral and yet is so kind and stupid around Dorothy? And I thought he said that the people of Oz instituted him as Wizard, not that he came blazing with all guns on his balloon loaded and took over Oz. The Tin Man is said to have suffered from domestic violence--something that is revealed in the last 15 pages of the book. And Elphaba herself comes across as pathetic, powerless, and unable to care for herself. How does she become the manipulating, fear Wicked Witch of the West?
As if this weren't bad enough, characters on the whole appear and disappear as if cars on a highway. In the beginning, we have Melena, Elphaba's mother. But after section 1, she dies, never to be heard from again. Galinda/Glinda appears to narrate much of section 2 with Boq, a good character that abruptly drops of the face of Oz. Then, section 3 segues into the viewpoint of super-duper minor character mentioned twice in the previous section, Fiyero, who suddenly and without good reason has an affair with Elphaba. And then I realized that Elphaba's point of view doesn't even appear until Sections 4 &5 and even then only sparsely (between Nor and Oatsie)! I'm like, huh? Isn't she the Wicked Witch of the West that the story is supposed to be about? Why do we not get to see in her head until over halfway through the book? Was Maguire afraid of writing from her point of view? If this book is about the Wicked Witch of the West, why are more points of view about people other than the Wicked Witch of the West?
Relationships between above characters suddenly end up in something that was never expected or alluded to. Where did Fiyero and Elphaba's affair come from? She barely knew him in college, meets up with him because he follows her (why, I have no idea. Did he have a crush on her in college? I, for one, would have liked to know), talk a few times, and then have sex that is rather graphic and detailed.
Other plot points are brought up (Madame Morrible's offer, Dr. Dillamond's death, the resistance movement, the scene at the Philosophy Club, etc.) but suddenly disappear, never to be heard from again. With the way the parts are sectioned, I get the impression that Maguire actually wrote several short stories and blended it into one anthology. I just wish he would have worked some more on the short stories--they are pretty bad. The sections hop around in time, skipping over some really interesting events alluded to and concentrating on events that are really non-events.
Lastly, once Dorothy arrives, absolutely none of the events you see in the movie occur. Elphaba doesn't confront Dorothy in Munchkinland, she doesn't bewitch her on the Yellow Brick Road, no "pansies" cause Dorothy and friends to fall asleep, no message above the Emerald City, nada. It's like Maguire decided to construct his own version of the "Wizard of Oz".

Dialogue/Sexual Situations/Violence:
Wow. The f-word is used--didn't know they had that one in Oz!--along with da**, he**, etc.
The sexual situations in this book are most definitely adult. Kids definitely should not be reading this. Some of the sexual situations: Melena commits adultery. Elphaba sleeps with the married Fiyero. There encounters are described rather vividly. The Philosophy Club includes a scene between a Tiger and a man that is very disconcerting. Sarima's sisters are always vying for a man's (sexual) attention. And these are only a few.
Violence is comparatively "mild". Elphaba bites off the hand of a midwife after she is born. People are out to kill Frex and his wife after a show from the Time Dragon. Elphaba joins a resistance movement. Several people--an Animal, a young boy, Fiyero, and an old, sick woman--are killed.

Overall:
So many people have reviewed this book both positively and negatively. So what can I say about "Wicked" that will be new or at least a different angle?
Probably not much. I found the book a letdown. What I had hoped to find was more insight into the Wicked Witch, but really didn't get what I wanted. Instead, I got a heap of depression (better'd get my Valium!), more politics than a November election, characters that slip in and out of the story and do things that are never really explained, plot points that are really intriguing but are never explained or discussed again, and some of the best sleep I have ever had. At the end, I ask myself, "Is this the Wicked Witch of the West?" Because the movie portrays her completely differently.
If you are wondering whether or not to buy this book and want my opinion, here it is: Don't buy. Don't borrow. Just take out a pen and paper (or a computer) and write your own story about the Wicked Witch of the West. I'm sure you can come up with something just as good or better than Maguire.

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140 of 162 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing idea, anyway. September 13, 2005

By Kneel

Format:Paperback

(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. Read more ›