Was the Wizard a charlatan, a fraud, a despot of merely human power and failure? Did he control the Adepts–Nessarose and Glinda, and an unnamed third, for it surely wasn’t Elphie–or was it only put to him by Madame Morrible that he did, to assuage his obvious ego, his appetite for the semblance of power? — Wicked, p. 326
Gregory Maguire’s Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked With of the West is one of those books that I find I cannot read unless I am in the right state of mind — or an appropriately wrong state of mind. I tried to read this book once before, when I was in high school and my Wizard of Oz fanaticism was at its peak (to this day, I regret the loss of my Dorothy watch), but I digress… I remember checking it out, and I remember chucking it back into the return bin because I could not get past the first couple of chapters. I realize now that while some books help you grow, others need to wait until you’ve reached a certain point — whether this be the result of experience, or increased cynicism. For Wicked, it was probably a little of both. Three days of can’t-put-it-down fervor and I found a new favorite.
Reading Wicked is almost like discovering fairy tale apocrypha. With it’s questions on the nature of good and evil and intent, it reveals the world of Oz in such a way that Baum’s series starts to take on a whole new meaning, one that may have just been waiting for Elphaba’s story to shine its green light on. Through Wicked I I found my passion for Oz again, a jumbled world that I shelved away years ago.
Tags: books, gregory maguire, wicked
That’s interesting! I tried to read it (on a very high recommendation) when I was nineteen or so, but found the same thing – I couldn’t even get through the 1st chapter and I was totally disappointed in it. However, maybe after seven years of percolating I should give it another shot!