"OZ prequel stirs mixed emotions"
Wicked by Gregory McGuire is a look behind the scenes of
the Oz books.
While most people will tell you it's Elphaba's (the Wicked
Witch of the
West) story, in truth, you don't see her POV until about
3/4 of the way
through the book. Rather, it's told from every POV BUT hers
until that
point, sometimes focused on her and sometimes on the wider
world of Oz.
With the popularity of the soundtrack and the stage play,
and by
extension the book, I thought I'd give this one a read. To
be fair to
the author, I can give this book a mediocre score. If
you're reading it
to fill in the holes in the play or soundtrack, don't
bother. The play
is very LOOSELY based on the book. The playwrights seem to
have played
footloose and fancy free with the characters and added
quite a bit to
the tale that bears no resemblance to the facts of the
book. I could
give examples, but that would be giving spoilers for the
book. The author's strengths are in building the complexities of
Oz. There is
a lot of religious tension and political scheming. If that
isn't to your
tastes, you're going to get annoyed with the book. The
machinations of
the Wizard and his minions are excellent. I could see why
he was doing
things and where it would lead, because McGuire is good at
that portion
of what he writes.
He has a lot of really annoying weaknesses, though. Among
them is his
timing. You spend CHAPTERS on things that are fairly
mundane, neither
here nor there in the grand scheme, before you get to
something of
essence. He has a very meandering style of storytelling
that many people
find annoying. Another problem is his punctuation. If you
catch errors
like that, it's going to drive you nuts in the process.
And, last but
not least, I found his characterizations and personal
motivations
lacking. It's not that he doesn't do a good job of building
his
characters, but he doesn't stay true to them once made; his
characters,
even the decisive ones like Elphie, tend to do things out
of character
and wobble in their personalities.
It is definitely not appropriate for younger readers, much
to the dismay
of my YA reader. Just a warning. This book, unlike Oz, is
not
appropriate for children and YA readers. I would hazard
that it's
appropriate at about that age one starts to read sensual
romance.
Is it worth a read? For the political intrigues...yes. Is
it a life-long
keeper? I'd have to say no. I am interested to see what he
did in second
book. Yes, there is a second book to this that follows
after Elphie's
death. But, I think I'd rather borrow it from the library
than buy it. Reviewed by Brenna Lyons ~ Copyright ©
2006
For
PNR Reviews
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted October 30, 2006
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