by Gregory Maguire (406 pgs)
Rating: 3
Elphaba is a cursed child born with green skin and scary teeth. Someday she grows up to be the Wicked Witch of the West and troubles the life of Dorothy, a young hapless girl from Kansas. But this story only briefly meets up with Baum's classic. Instead, the book tracks the childhood and young adulthood of Elphaba and traces, ostensibly, how she came to be so very wicked.
I have mixed feelings about Wicked. On the one hand it's fairly well written, engaging, and develops the world of Oz splendidly. On the other hand, Maguire indulges on a fair bit of philosophizing and religious satire. Both of these things are acceptable given that Baum's original work is in many ways a satire of the contemporary political climate. Yet, some how it seemed ponderous.
I recommend this to Oz fans and people who like their armchair philosophy.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment