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books, fantasy, fiction, Gregory Maguire, Wicked, Wizard of Oz
Wicked
The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
by Gregory Maguire
This is going to be a complicated review, so bear with me. I had certain expectations for this book when I started reading it which greatly tainted my opinion when it failed to stack up. Let me start there.
Expectations
I thought it was going to be The Wizard of Oz told through the point of view of the Wicked Witch. It was not. For one thing, it covered more time, starting before the Wicked Witch was born (didn’t bother me). For another, it altered the personalities of the Oz characters (bothered me very much). Lastly, it wasn’t even in the POV of the Wicked Witch for the entire book! Come on “the life and times of…” you would think it would be written like a biography, but no. Some of the book I really enjoyed, and other parts I REALLY didn’t, which makes it very had to assign a point value, but I’ll do my best to describe everything without spoilers.
The opening scene
HATED it. The opening scene fit my assumption of the book… ish. It starts with the Wicked Witch spying on the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man, Dorothy, and the Scarecrow, but I had trouble suspending my disbelief long enough to accept that my beloved Oz characters would use the language the Witch accuses them of using as she eaves drops which in many ways voided the validity of the rest of the story.
Gregory cuts to a flashback…
The Early Years
I enjoyed this part of the story very much. It was well written with the occasional obscure word thrown in. I was flipping pages and soaking it up, excited and fascinated learning about Elphaba (the to-be Wicked Witch), her parents, and her childhood.
The school years
Everything was rolling along. I had almost forgiven Gregory for ruining the original Oz characters in his interpretation… and then I got to this part. This is where I completely lost interest in the book and had to take a break. Entire chapters of the book where written in the POV of other characters, scenes where Elphaba wasn’t even present. While I don’t mind sex scenes in my books (preferably when I’m reading romance, but I don’t mind it slipping into my other genres) erotica level sex scenes that do not progress the story at all do not belong outside of erotica novels and I was mortified to find them in this section. On the off chance I want to read something that graphic, I have to be in the right mood, not blind-sighted by it.
I’ve put the book down for now as I’ve lost interest in it, but I don’t want to give it a ranking until I’ve finished it, so even though I’ve now started In Leah’s Wake, I’m reserving further judgement until I complete the novel.
-Eliabeth
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Ermilia 
Hmmm … this just shows how everyone reacts differently. I personally loved this book. I really liked the concept and how it was presented as a political commentary in many ways, but then I looked at this more as a “reimagining” of the story and less as the same story from a different POV.
I read the sequel and loved that too.
Ah yeah, “re-imagining” is a very different expectation and understanding… had I thought of it that way before, it might have been different.
“I had certain expectations for this book…”
That’s really so important isn’t it? How you feel about a book depends so much on whether it meets your expectations. When you pick it back up again, your expectations will have drastically changed. It will be interesting to see if that changes how you feel any.
After that one scene, I just don’t think it’s going to happen. It doesn’t push the plot forward, and it’s just way too outside my comfort zone. But you’re right, the expectations have alot to do with how you feel about the book. If you go in with low expectations it surpasses, you feel much better than if you had higher expectations it failed to meet even if your enjoyment was at the same level as if you had no expectations to begin with.
Let’s just hope The Hunger Games doesn’t flop now that I’m really excited over it.
I felt the same way when I read it but for some reason I made myself finish the book. I don’t understand why it was so popular when it came out.
Possibly because it’s a relatively new concept to tell the same story from another POV. Then, you have all of the built in fans from the Oz books as opposed to having to build a fan base from scratch. Frankly, now that I’m no longer querying the agent who reps the novel, I doubt I will be finishing it.
Your review pretty much reflects my own experience. By the time we get the to the school years, I was starting to wonder when something we going to actually happen. The beginning seemed encouraging–I was expecting the Wizard of Oz for grownups. It did give me ideas on how I would do it, however.
Interesting, as others have said, how differently people reacted to the book. Some seem to love it.
I was actually talking to my manager today (I’ve started a new job this week) and he hasn’t read the book, but he has seen the musical and he reported that the movie was wholesome and fun, very much the Oz story through new eyes. Other people don’t remember the scene at all.
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