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Title: Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
ISBN: 0060573767
Author:
Gregory Maguire
Publicate Date: 2003-08-01
Publish: 2003-08-01
List Price: $39.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Audio Cassette
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $13.00
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $7.95
Amazon Merchant Price: $26.37
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Foul, Boring, Pointless, Self-Indulgent Tripe
I shall paraphrase the most striking part of this novel:
"You should become a witch," said the Elephant.
"All right!" said Elphaba. "Sounds cool!"
I sat and read it over again, and then I back-handed the book. I will always remember this as the laziest transition ever written.
In my experience, there are some authors who can effortlessly work together thought provoking issues with fiction, keeping it entertaining at the same time they shock. Then there are some who are no good at entwining storytelling with depth and stick to writing for entertainment's sake. I think that Maguire falls into the second category, but just doesn't know it. He just tries too hard and he falls flat on his face. The end result is a book that suffers heavily from trying to figure out which side of its dual personality it wants to be when it grows up.
Unfortunately, it never does.
Maguire can write well. I found the first part fascinating; I looked forward to reading about Elphaba's childhood. Oh wait! Skip that! Instead we pass to college-bound Elphaba! Which leads me to another problem with this book: since Maguire can't figure out whether he's writing to explain a "deep riveting philosophical theme" (pfft!) or an entertaining story with a plotline, every bit of information he presents seems no more or less exciting or important than anything else. If this was written for entertainment, I would be looking for a plotline here (there is none). If it is written for a deep philosophical meaning, it is merely a setup.
In fact, this entire book is a setup. It sets up, and it sets up, and it sets up, and it comes to no conclusion at all. Is there a plot, or some adventure? Well, wait a bit, says the book. Is there some promising deep thought waiting in the wings, asks the reader? Wait a bit, says the book. It's almost like a practical joke with the perpetrator laughing his way to the bank.
Also, it's worthwhile to note that Maguire has an unhealthy fixation on sex and (ugh) urination (really, why?). He has a remarkable skill for writing sex scenes. I suppose that's nice, but when he was describing a traveling party going up into a pass between two mountains and compares those mountains to a woman's "inviting open legs" I realized the man was past obsessed. Ah, X-rated geology. That's one thing I'll probably never forget, if only for the fact it was the moment I experienced a striking realization: that I hated this book and I wanted to burn it. Frankly, if you can see sexuality in the landscape you are watching too much porn.
Nevertheless, this book is fascinating in a way I can't quite explain; I honestly wanted to find out why the Witch was the way she was. I thought the idea was clever. Instead we get hackneyed characters (all of whom are unlikeable), and a dreary Oz more akin to a third-world dictatorship than a fantasy fairytale land. All the magic is removed. Nobody really "loves;" the only character I even halfway liked was Boq (poor fellow, what a name, what a life). It's a sick and dreary and nasty story that left me feeling depressed and foul, like I had just taken a leap into an open sewer. It has nothing new to present, no plot to speak of, and the Witch's and Nessarose's lives don't justify their "larger than life" personas. They're just too bland, too mild, almost stupid. Why did the Witch gain her reputation? Honestly, the book doesn't present any good reason why. I was wondering to the very last page.
Maguire really wants this book to be an exploration of the notion of evil. It's really just an exploration of how not to write. Whole sections of this book should have been knocked out. Many characters should have been excised. Characters were mostly two-dimensional and boring. The sex was all pervasive, foul, cold, and selfish. Avoid. this. book. Don't even start it. Just don't. Yes, it'll suck you in. Yes, it will promise you a fascinating ride. But it's no good, it has no point, and it's downright filthy in a myriad of ways. Get it at the library if you must.
The story's "idea" is so excellent that I often hope an ambitious writer will re-write this premise and knock the socks off of this particular pretentious piece of garbage.
I dare you, whoever you are. Go for it.
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2: Wicked, maybe. Dull, definitely.
"Wicked" is the story of Oz as might have been narrated by Karl Marx, by which I mean it is boring and filled with dull proletarian propaganda. Why did Gregory Maguire take a charming fairy tale and turn it into a history of genocide and the struggle of the masses against their oppressive rulers? His "Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister" was an appealing historical novel--no magic, but an interesting variation of the Cinderella story.
I was expecting the same from this novel, especially after I saw the musical version of "Wicked" which was both charming and funny. The musical had a great ending that tied various references to L. Frank Baum's Oz into a unified story. It's hard to believe that the musical was taken from this turgid, dull biography of the Wicked Witch of the West.
The witch, Elphaba (her name is fashioned from L. F. Baum's initials) is born rather promisingly in the Clock of the Time Dragon, and immediately bites a finger off of one of her midwives. Does this mean that she is evil from birth? She is green with pointy baby teeth, but she isn't evil. Elphaba is kind to her handicapped sister, makes good friends in college, and subscribes to all of the right causes (Animal rights, for instance). She takes up the proletarian fight, falls in love, bears a son (probably), and joins a nunnery. She goes on a long, difficult journey to apologize to her lover's wife.
Then her sister is squashed by a falling house and Elphaba becomes paranoid and obsessed with her dead sister's shoes. Readers of L. Frank Baum's story can guess how "Wicked" the novel ends (the musical is much more upbeat).
It is true that Elphaba was mean to her (probable) son, desecrated a corpse, alienated her friends, and performed radical, experimental surgery on monkeys. However, she seemed more miserable, and toward this story's end, crazy rather than truly wicked. If she were featured on that cable T.V. show about evil, I think she'd end up as maybe a six on a scale of one to twenty-two.
I'd recommend "The Prince of Darkness" by Jeffrey Burton Russell for readers who are struggling with the enduring problem of radical evil. For those of us who are interested in the story of Oz from the Witch's perspective, go see "Wicked," the musical.
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3: Perfect Condition
book came in perfect condition. i had read this by borrowing it from my cousin and had enjoyed it so much i wanted a copy of my own. also lead me to get the sequel(son of a witch). amazing story, most recommended for fans of OZ.
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4: Oz Growns Up
How do you describe this book?
You can't just use one word! This is a literary masterpiece that has inspired a whole generation in more ways than one! With cutting edge description, boiling conflict and a sense of good vs. bad, we get to return to Oz as we never knew it!
Gregory Maguire added a bit of sex and politics to this childlike fantasy world, not only making it a best seller but making a more relatable story for teenagers and young adults. This book is going down as a classic forever.
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5: Dreary and disappointing
I really wanted to like Wicked, and in fact, I assumed I would. I love the premise and expected great things. I was extremely disappointed in it - and worse than that, I was incredibly bored by it. I didn't care at all about any of the characters, including Elphaba, and since it is episodic rather than plot-driven, unsympathetic characters are fatal. I kept waiting for something to happen, for some narrative arc to unfold, for some conflict to be resolved, for some revelation in Elphaba's life - nothing. Just dreary little misery after dreary little misery, adding up to nothing much.
The Oz that Maguire creates just didn't interest me, either. There's all this allusion to its complicated social and economic history, and it all came off as...boring. I either needed to know more in order to get engaged, or hear about it less. I expected the kind of imaginative reworking in which the original content gets new facets and is revealed to be more complicated, more ambiguous, and more interesting - did I mention I was disappointed?
I could not wait to finish this. I found myself reading it faster and faster, not because I was so caught up in it, but at first because I couldn't believe it wasn't going to suddenly get far better, and then because I couldn't stand it and just wanted it over.
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