Wicked (October 1995)
November 28, 2007
The Witch could wait. They would meet again – Excerpt from Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The book is quite literally about what it says it is about: The life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Seriously, that’s what it is about. The book centres around the life of Elphaba, the green-skinned, sharp-featured and sharp-tongued girl who would one day be the Wicked Witch of the West, and who would be felled by a young girl from Kansas. The book is split into different stages of Elphaba’s life and seem more like snippets rather than entire sections. I had to admit that I was skeptical about what this book could possibly provide for me, but at 519 pages (at least my copy was) it had to be saying something.
As it turns out it says an awful lot, and for the most part it does so with page-turning entertainment. It touches on many topics that though Elphaba seems to be intertwined with, is not the direct cause of. Topics such as segregation, political intrigue, affairs, oppression, and depression. Though these topics may be old hat to those who pay attention to the world around us, it must still be noted that these very topics are so casually and seamlessly integrated into the book that I didn’t even realize how well a job Mr. Maguire had done until I was nearly done the book. The writing style is both smooth and easy to follow and doesn’t get bogged down with the multitudes of detail that plague many fantasy novels.
Mr. Maguire does a very good job of building a world that mirrors what was originally made, but adding his own touch of realism to it. Gone are the sing-a-longs and the joy joy feelings, and in their places are real characters, a depth to the different peoples of Oz, and an underlying tension within the societies. Characters are given as much back story and development as is needed, which may sound like a bit of a cop-out, but it isn’t. The characters don’t seem shallow, but neither are there pages dedicated to needless character introductions when they do not play a major role.
As previously mentioned, the book is cut into sections which dictate the happenings throughout Elphaba’s life within given points in time. This is a double-edged blade, as there are sections that I wanted to continue reading, and others – namely the last – that I wished to be shorter. I admit that there must be a cutoff point for each section, lest the book move more into the 3000 page region, but still. I will say that i liked the book for the most part. All sections excluding the last were enjoyable and drew me in. Gregory really knows how to make you feel for people.
Then the last section comes along, and it gets very meta-physical and sort of fizzles out. The book ends much as one would expect, but I found the ending to be rather weak in comparison to the rest of the book. It left a sour taste in my mouth and had me wishing that I had stopped reading a couple chapters before the end. This is easily the novels major problem. The rest of it is a solid read it’s the ending that takes away from it all.
A good read, and worth reading at least once to say you have (it makes those Sunday talks in the knitting circle that much more cultured) and I’ll still end up reading at least Son of a Witch.
7/10
Categories: Book Reviews
Tagged under: 7.5/10, book, Book Reviews, Gregory Maguire, Reviews, Wicked, Wicked Witch of the West