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Title: Wicked: The Life and Times of Wicked Witch of the West
Author: Gregory Maguire
Published: New York: Harper, 2007 (1995)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 519
Total Page Count: 98,256
Text Number: 281
Read Because: preparation for seeing the musical, purchased at the Corvallis Book Bin
Review: This is not the well-known story of The Wizard of Oz, but other other side of the tale: the life and times of Elphaba, Wicked Witch of the West and Dorthy's eventual foe, and what came to make her so wicked. And Wicked does indeed cover an entire lifetime from birth to death, but its huge span is comprised of disparate, detailed episodes in Elphaba's life. This variety offers up plenty to like—but just as much to dislike, depending on the reader. Elphaba's childhood is intriguingly complex, boding well for future issues of the relative and uncertain nature of evil. School stories are a pleasure of mine, and as a combined academic fantasy of manners and coming of age story I enjoyed Elphaba's immensely. But later episodes had less personal appeal, and the timeskips between them create a disconnect: it's too easy to leave behind investment and interest developed in previous sections when jumping to the next, and so if the the current episode doesn't have independent appeal it may not have any appeal at all. Frequent headhopping exacerbates this problem: many sections are written not from Elphaba's point of view but from other characters's; investing interest in characters who meant nothing and may mean nothing again soon grows wearisome. And so while I initially found Wicked intriguing and quite delightful, the more I read the less interested I became—partially as a quirk of personal taste, partially because the book does all it can to deny its own momentum.
Wicked's delivery has similar strengths and flaws. Its style is larger than life and takes a humorous bent, combining vivid characters and fantasy setting with an eye for detail and large questions of fate and the nature of evil with wry self-awareness. This combination is initially approachable, original, and quite appealing, but in 500 pages the style loses it originality and grows repetitive—and (again an issue of personal taste) I'm not much of one for humor, and found that Wicked's came to grated on me. The book also sets out to tackle the nature of evil and subvert the witch's popular image, but while there are moments of brilliance, Wicked ultimately answers this question not by redefining evil—but by creating an even more exaggerated villain to overshadow the Witch. Elphaba is wonderful, a strong and nuanced character, sympathetic without being "good," and I adored her—but the book's themes don't do her justice. This isn't to say that Wicked is bad—it has flaws, flaws which for me largely grouped in the second half of the book, and so I found it disappointing. But I enjoyed the premise, liked some parts immensely, and delighted in Elphaba. With just a few changes, I may have enjoyed Wicked in its entirety; I suspect that I may find its derivative works more successful. But as it is, for me, Wicked wasn't all that it could have been. I recommend it moderately, for its strengths and potential, and because not all readers will share my personal dislikes.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Gregory Maguire
Published: New York: Harper, 2007 (1995)
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 519
Total Page Count: 98,256
Text Number: 281
Read Because: preparation for seeing the musical, purchased at the Corvallis Book Bin
Review: This is not the well-known story of The Wizard of Oz, but other other side of the tale: the life and times of Elphaba, Wicked Witch of the West and Dorthy's eventual foe, and what came to make her so wicked. And Wicked does indeed cover an entire lifetime from birth to death, but its huge span is comprised of disparate, detailed episodes in Elphaba's life. This variety offers up plenty to like—but just as much to dislike, depending on the reader. Elphaba's childhood is intriguingly complex, boding well for future issues of the relative and uncertain nature of evil. School stories are a pleasure of mine, and as a combined academic fantasy of manners and coming of age story I enjoyed Elphaba's immensely. But later episodes had less personal appeal, and the timeskips between them create a disconnect: it's too easy to leave behind investment and interest developed in previous sections when jumping to the next, and so if the the current episode doesn't have independent appeal it may not have any appeal at all. Frequent headhopping exacerbates this problem: many sections are written not from Elphaba's point of view but from other characters's; investing interest in characters who meant nothing and may mean nothing again soon grows wearisome. And so while I initially found Wicked intriguing and quite delightful, the more I read the less interested I became—partially as a quirk of personal taste, partially because the book does all it can to deny its own momentum.
Wicked's delivery has similar strengths and flaws. Its style is larger than life and takes a humorous bent, combining vivid characters and fantasy setting with an eye for detail and large questions of fate and the nature of evil with wry self-awareness. This combination is initially approachable, original, and quite appealing, but in 500 pages the style loses it originality and grows repetitive—and (again an issue of personal taste) I'm not much of one for humor, and found that Wicked's came to grated on me. The book also sets out to tackle the nature of evil and subvert the witch's popular image, but while there are moments of brilliance, Wicked ultimately answers this question not by redefining evil—but by creating an even more exaggerated villain to overshadow the Witch. Elphaba is wonderful, a strong and nuanced character, sympathetic without being "good," and I adored her—but the book's themes don't do her justice. This isn't to say that Wicked is bad—it has flaws, flaws which for me largely grouped in the second half of the book, and so I found it disappointing. But I enjoyed the premise, liked some parts immensely, and delighted in Elphaba. With just a few changes, I may have enjoyed Wicked in its entirety; I suspect that I may find its derivative works more successful. But as it is, for me, Wicked wasn't all that it could have been. I recommend it moderately, for its strengths and potential, and because not all readers will share my personal dislikes.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
