Lost: A Novel (Paperback)

~ Gregory Maguire (Author) "said the attorney-type into his cell phone..." (more)
Key Phrases: slashed cross, pantry wall, chimney stack, Jack the Ripper, Wendy Pritzke, Rudge House (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Before he broke onto the adult bestseller lists with his irreverent interpretations of the Cinderella story (Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister) and the Wizard of Oz (Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West), Maguire wrote children's books with titles like Six Haunted Hairdos, Seven Spiders Spinning and Four Stupid Cupids. His latest is a virtual literary paella of adult and children's fantasies: Jack the Ripper, A Christmas Carol, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Exorcist even a wafting glimpse of Dracula. The result is a deftly written, compulsively readable modern-day ghost story that easily elicits suspension of disbelief. American writer Winifred Rudge, whose mass market book about astrology has been far more successful than her fiction, is in London to research a novel linking Jack the Ripper to the house in Hampstead where her own great-great-grandfather rumored to be the model for Ebenezer Scrooge lived. But as Winifred discovers, there is no evidence that the Ripper ever visited Hampstead, let alone buried one of his victims inside the chimney of a house there, and his presence in the story is a red herring. Much more interesting is the mysterious disappearance of Winnie's cousin, John Comestor, the latest resident of the family house. Moreover, something is making an infernal racket inside the chimney, and soon there are other bizarre manifestations of some unseen force. A Dickensian assortment of neighbors (one dotty lady is called Mrs. Maddingly) variously obfuscate and hint at strange events. Maguire's prose is both jaunty and scary; he knows how to mix spooky ingredients with contemporary situations. By the time a spirit called Gervasa begins to speak through Winnie, readers will be hooked.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Children's novelist Winifred Rudge flies from her Boston-area home to London to pay a visit to her distant cousin and old friend John. Instead of receiving his guest open-armed, John is nowhere to be found. His office staff is evasive in fielding Winnie's calls, and Mac and Jenkins, a pair of superstitious home remodelers hired by John to work on the kitchen in his absence, begin behaving strangely, as eerie symbols appear on the wall and inexplicable noises issue from the walled-up chimney space. That Winnie is not alone in her victimization by an otherworldly spirit is a good sign she's not having a breakdown. Maguire, who already has two best sellers to his credit (e.g., Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister) makes the supernatural chillingly real. Setting the story in Winnie and John's ancestral home and filling the neighboring house with John's intimidating new inamorata, Allegra, makes us root for the self-destructive Winnie, a most unlikely heroine. An essential purchase and a substantial Halloween treat. Margee Smith, Grace A. Dow Memorial Lib., Midland, MI
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (September 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060988649
• ISBN-13: 978-0060988647
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (192 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #40,832 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 95 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hrmm, July 26, 2005

By	Terry Mesnard (Bellevue, NE) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)

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.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Ouch, this was terrible, February 25, 2006

By	Cristina R. Carter (South Bend, IN) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was halfway through this book before I got fed up with the fact that there is no focus for where the story is going. It seems like Maguire had a sudden, great idea for a story and then lost steam and interest as it went along. I enjoyed Wicked and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister immensely, but this was just awful. Can I give out no stars???

39 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing, May 3, 2003

By	lb136 "lb136" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)

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"Lost," which examines, deconstructs, and riffs on English children's stories (to say nothing of Dante's Inferno) begins with a blocked hack writer named Winifred Rudge leaving her native Boston for a visit to her step-cousin's flat in London-a flat in a house that, we are told, was built by one of her ancestors, a man who may have been the inspiration for Dickens's Scrooge.

On her arrival Winnie finds her step-cousin absent and the apartment in the possession of two looney contractors, who are building an illegal stairway to the roof.

Winnie tries to cope, ordering the contractors about and making myriad and unsuccessful efforts to find her step-cousin, John Comestor, and meeting a series of eccentric people. Unlike the "Alice" stories, however, Winnie is less mentally competent (and far less likable) than Lewis Carroll's practical little girl, while the professor of medieval history, the spiritualist, the dotty old lady, and the woman who casts children's hands for a living are clever for the most part, and more than somewhat sympathetic. And, if this weren't enough, the place is quite possibly haunted. And the ghost is possibly Jack the Ripper's.

Well now!

Author Gregory Maguire, best-known for his clever "Wicked," a re-write of "The Wizard of Oz" told from the witch's point of view, ventures forth here without a safety net, concocting a story that's all his own. Without the constraints of having to hew to the plot lines of a tale familiar to us all (he couldn't have let the witch survive, now could he?) this time out Maguire creates something that's all his. And in doing so he manages to make what at first seems hauntingly terrifying in the end quite explicable, if no less disturbing. It frightens, but maybe not in the way you'd expect.

Notes and asides: The cover design and illustrations by Douglas Smith are stunning. Yes, this edition comes complete with the now apparently obligatory reader's group questions ("in what way is fantasy a distraction from the real world?"). Those of Maguire's readers who complain that this book is _not_ like "Wicked" would be advised to recall Joni Mitchell's famous admonition that nobody ever asked Van Gogh to paint "Starry Night" again.