Rating: 
Summary: Wickedly frustrating
Review: Like some of the other reviewers I thought this was one heck of a premise and I was very anxious to read the book, especially in light of the musical running on Broadway. What a disappointment. Usually books of this nature tend to start slow and end up closing with a fury. This one is just the opposite. After a very interesting first half, the second half just goes absolutely nowhere. It's boring and repetitive.Gregory Maguire seems to be going for something between science-fiction and fantasy and he succeeds a little. He's painstakingly re-created a land of Oz from the Baum books that rivals that of Tolkien's Middle Earth and is filled with tremendous detail, but all he ends up with a haphazard narrative that doesn't really do anything to engage the reader, let alone expand so profoundly on the nature of evil, as the book tends to promise. It is intriguing to more or less switch the roles of the Wicked Witch of the West and the Wizard so that she is the "good guy" and he is the "bad guy", but there are literally dozens of hints, dropped none too subtly I might add, that seem like they are building up to a grand revelation or significant plot point and it ends up being nothing. Maguire seems caught in that trap where alluding to something often enough means the reader automatically gets it, through osmosis I guess. I thought this was particularly annoying, especially because he managed to re-capture my interest with one particular plot point involving the Wizard (I won't give it away) and then just let it go. It was never resolved. The book is filled with passages like that. Great amounts of time and space are given to things which, from these allocations, must mean they are important but then they practically become afterthoughts or footnotes. The entire middle section of the book (in my copy from page 200 to about page 300) is more or less a tangent that did absolutely nothing for me. I persevered because, knowing the original story so well as so many of us do, I was interested to see how Maguire would tie in the action from when Dorothy lands in Oz. Some of the ways in which Maguire made the connections were interesting, but not enough to satisfy me. Unfortunately, Wicked falls into the category of a great idea gone badly wrong.
Rating: 
Summary: Very creative and enjoyable
Review: I think the concept of this book is facinating. Maguire creates a whole new cast of characters to help explain how someone might become a "wicked witch". He humanizes the players of the story and brings a fresh and creative new perspective to a classic story. It is a bit long but if someone was telling the tale of your life, wouldn't you hope for something over 100 pages? I thought is was very enjoyable and a great vacation read.
Rating:
Summary: Too Bad...
Review: I loved the "idea" of this book, and after trudging through the beginning, was finally pulled along by some really clever writing...but man o man after "Shiz," it was sluggish and I, unlike the reader who didn't want it to end, could not believe I was still turning pages and the damned thing wouldn't! The same story could have been written in half the words. And it could have been tighter. We still never understood who exactly Yackle was, whether Grommetik murdered the Goat, if Fiyero was still alive. And we were left in the cold with undeveloped characters like Nor and Liir and even Glinda. There were so many questions and allusions that kept me reading in hopes of some resolution, long after I was ready to call it quits. But they were never answered! In sum, this story was like a sieve, the good and the bad all mixed together but in the end falling through the holes like so much sand.
Rating: 
Summary: If you like Jerry Springer then you will love this book
Review: On the basis that there is a grain of truth to every myth this author applied that truism to a well-known fictional character. In doing so he went perhaps a bit too far. Everything that was enchanting about Oz became perverse. Characters took on opposite personalities, and became guilty of every petty motive or moral debauchery possible. The author seems to have exploited every sleazy device to tell this story; rape, adultery, murder, manipulative personalities, animal cruelty, social snobbery, political machinations, and on and on. The story went on forever and became more and more depressing.
This story, like others by Maguire, is dense with interweaving plots, too many characters and events, some of which are never fully explained so the significance to the story is questionable. The result is convoluted, sluggish and self-absorbed. I don't recommend this book at all.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting idea for a book, but too drawn out
Review: I hadn't heard of the play that was inspired by this book when I picked it up recently. While I would still like to see the play after reading this book, I was disappointed in what I read. At first, I was very drawn to the detail of Elphaba's life, but about half way through the book the detail started to detract from the story line. I like the references to the "Wizard of Oz" movie (not having read the book) and enjoyed the change in perspective, but the politics got to be too much after a while.
Rating:
Summary: Very Interesting plot, Waaaaay Too Much Detail
Review: This book was an excellent idea, and MacGuire does a very good job making us sympathize with the characters, and giving them all their own personalities. However, despite these two important good aspects, the book really does dwell on some kind of disgusting things. There's plenty of violence, a lot of sex, and even some just old-fashioned unappetizing details about urninating etc. It's not that these things just pop up from time to time either, he spends pages talking about them throughout the whole thing. I wanted to know what happened, but the book was getting so nauseating that I just didn't want to put up with it anymore. Also, it becomes a little bit hard to take it seriously sometimes as the tone gets more and more tragic even thought it's taking place in MUNCHKINLAND. Again, Elphaba is a very likable and interesting character, the idea was inspired, I really want to see the musical, but the book just goes too far, and takes itself too seriously.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful Novel!
Review: This book was an incredible story behind The Wizard of Oz. It made me understand Elphie so much better and the reasons for what she did. The descriptions of Oz through the years where very colorful and vivid. But I will admit at times it was a hard read but well worth plugging through to the end. I can't wait to read "Confessions of and Ugly Stepsister"!
Rating:
Summary: a dense read but absolutely satisfying
Review: This would have to be my favorite book of 2004! Maguire takes Baum's original characters and gives them a thoroughly contemporary yet timeless spin that's attractive to any age reader. As a lover of L. Frank Baum's original stories I was happy to see another dimension of the land of Oz, one whose politics and even religions are completely developed, if slightly different from Baum's original presentation.
Elphaba becomes a person to be admired for her revolt against the norm, and as a social perriah rather than a doer of evil. Of course the Wicked Witch of the West must have had a back story, and this book provides ample explanation.
The spin with which Maguire presents these beloved characters is equally exciting. From Glinda's snobbery to the "Wonderful Wizard's" manipulation of Oz, Maguire transforms Baum's land into a place of depravity and general upheaval. By the end of the book I was convinced that the original story was merely one of propaganda (which it was) and that "Wicked" was the true retelling.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loved the original Oz stories and to all who love fantasy. Although the book is quite long (and it does take a bit to get into it) Maguire's story is a refreshingly modern backstory of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz".
Rating:
Summary: Read it only if you are seeing the Broadway Show.
Review: The concept is unique, creative and I was so excited to read this book. Also, I was seeing the show on Broadway. But the book was slow and even the brilliant sections (and they were there) were minimized because of the frustration I felt awaiting those jewels. If you aren't seeing the show I don't recommend the book. If you are seeing the show then I think it is worth the investment of time (this is not an easy read and will take your valuable time!). The show takes the very best parts of the book and runs with it. But reading Wicked was painful. No doubt about that.
Rating:
Summary: Fun With Fiction
Review: Suppose the "Wizard Of Oz" movie presented in 1939 was actually the result of the propaganda machine of a Joseph-Stalin-like regime, where all the significant facts (Dorothy, sibling witches, house falling on one witch, etc) were spun in a manner most sympathetic to the Wizard. Then, as it actually happened with Joseph Stalin's regime, the truth eventually came to light. This story is that "truth". Very, very interesting.
|
