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Summary: Not in Oz anymore
Review: I was hesitant at first to pick up this book. But once I did I couldn't put it down. There is just so much to take in at once. Not only is it a great read but it's a unique social commentary and so few writers are able to combine criticsm w/ entertainment and Maguire does it with ease. I loved it and since I don't believe in writing reviews that give the book away...but I can almost guarantee that you will never see the Wizard Of Oz at easter time the same way again.
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Summary: Wicked
Review: I can't put this book down! I liked "The Ugly Stepsister" but this one is fabulous!
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Summary: An amazing amalgamation of politics and myth
Review: Somewhere in the enchanting story of Oz, Maguire has managed to place one of the best Utopian novels ever written. Perhaps it is the characters we knew and loved as children, steeped in adult entanglement and removed from the black-and-white simplicity of the fairy tale. Perhaps it is the intrigue and mystery of that life that I admire most, the person with the convictions and the courage to stand for the right in the face of oppression, a person who overcame horrible obstacles. Perhaps it is just excellent story-telling. Whatever it is, this book is amazing.
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Summary: Great book
Review: A great book! Not the easiest read for casual readers, but very entertaining. It has a slightly off kilter style that I love, and yet still manages to stay on track without becoming irrelevant.I haven't finished reading the original 40 Oz books, but after finishing this I'm curious about all the references to the other characters and how Gregory Maguire has warped their psyche from the children's versions.
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Summary: What You Never Knew About the Green Witch
Review: This is a highly imaginative story about the Wicked Witch of the West we never knew, and her trials and tribulations growing up. It's a very different take on a story most of us are familiar with: The Wizard of Oz. I definitely recommend this over MacGuire's other adult novel, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, which I didn't find nearly as entertaining, (though still a worthwhile read).
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Summary: A Wicked Treat...
Review: This novel presents a disturbing and provocative view of Oz from the Wicked Witch of the West's perspective. Finally deemed worthy of a name, readers follow the life of Elphaba as she grows from a neglected infant to a much misunderstood woman murdered by a cold mercenary from Kansas. Author Gregory Maguire paints a bleak, cynical picture of Oz filled with secret police, racism, oppression, sadism and more. This isn't the fairy tale from your childhood... Overall the book is thought-provoking and extremely rich in language and imagery. It's a treat to read. The exploration of morality is compelling and the conflict between good versus evil is reduced almost to a debate between semantics. In some ways it's possible to compare Wicked to Lolita in the way the evil of the central character is humanized. Not so much bound together by a story, the book explores a darker side of Oz by outlining its history. Expect the book to offer a wealth of ideas and images rather than a page-turning plot. In many ways, the novel is poetic in nature. I enjoyed it thoroughly and recommend it. Oz is less enjoyable now that I am an adult and the debate Maguire raises in Wicked is more compelling, in some ways, than the black-and-white morally clear world Baum painted for my childhood.
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Summary: Who'd have thought you could cry for the villain?
Review: What Maguire weaves here is a masterful story inspired by, but not a bastardization of, the "Wonderful" world of Oz. As the plot progresses (albeit, I admit, a little slowly), what anyone who has seen the musical knows is revealed, bit by bit, from another angle. The Witch (Elphaba, from Baum's initials, L.F.B.) is a tragically misunderstood character with strong convictions and a clear view of the world that hates her. Opening the book, the reader knows the end, but rather than make the reading pointless, it makes it exciting: how will Maguire introduce the winged monkeys? And just who WAS the Wicked Witch of the East? Maguire turns any preconceptions about Oz topsy-turvy, driving one to read the original series. Maguire mixes into this wonderful fiction philosophical rhetoric; unanswered moral questions which are in the background throughout the book. Maguire is so set on the reader analysing the book that he even puts "discussion" questions at the end! Elphaba is at once the most sympathetic heroine and an antisocial rebel, just as Oz itself is both a magical world of fantasy and a totalitarian nightmare of a world. Maguire rips apart the fabric of Oz and reweaves it as something greater, with more detail and meaning. One of the most powerful and intriguing books that I have EVER read. Maguire takes a fantasy genre and, while creating a detailed universe, mixes in political drama, romance, and social commentary. Bottom line: AMAZING!
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Summary: a masterpiece to be read
Review: this book is one of the greatest i've ever read. Elphaba is my herione in the book i don't even see her as the villian, her story is so trageic and involving, the character's are very real and come alive with the imagination of maguire, he weave's their stories together brilliantly. his discripitive outlook on good and evil that elphaba constantly struggles to understand is so deep and involving that you find yourself right next to her trying to figure it out yourself. this book is a must read for all oz fans and people who want a unique look at good and evil.
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Summary: Well worth it.
Review: A tour de force in its way. Very creative thinking going on here. A world expanded, and, perhaps even annexed! Great, entertaining summer reading at the very least.
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Summary: Magically Creative
Review: Gregory Maguire reinvents Oz like you've never imagined it, following Dorothy's nemesis The Wicked Witch of the West. It begins with her birth and follows her life until her fateful encounter with the little girl from Kansas.Maguire instigates an entire discussion on the nature of evil with this book. The Wicked Witch, or Elphaba as she is known comes off as a heroine through alot of the book, and some of the other classic and cherished characters such as Glinda come off as merely a petulant spoiled brat. Part of the fun of the novel is how these characters beyond Dorothy's world interact, and how the land of Oz is designed with as much if not more political turmoil than what we know in our world. Richly imagined, I found the book fascinating although I did think it dragged a bit towards the end.
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