Son of a Witch (Gregory Maguire)
A tale told forward and backward. The backward bits are in somewhat suspect memory or possibly dreams of Liir, who may or may not be the son of Elphaba; the frontwards bits focus in turn on several additional people. And at least two of the characters about whom the story turns are more or less not even there, except that what is past is still with us, whether that is comfortable, loving, bitter, intelligible, forward-thinking... or not.
Not always easy to tell precisely what's happening, and often less easy to understand why, or what is not said. I wanted to smack some of the characters for being so obtusely apathetically chicken. Some were peculiarly evil, and some you expect to see again, but in the ways they did reappear, really.
I wished I'd read Wicked more recently, especially during the first third, but I didn't go rummaging in books-in-storage anyway. This one is worth re-reading, even if I don't find the prequel.
I rather enjoy this muddier, confused, peculiar, lost Oz.
#2 for the year.
Not always easy to tell precisely what's happening, and often less easy to understand why, or what is not said. I wanted to smack some of the characters for being so obtusely apathetically chicken. Some were peculiarly evil, and some you expect to see again, but in the ways they did reappear, really.
I wished I'd read Wicked more recently, especially during the first third, but I didn't go rummaging in books-in-storage anyway. This one is worth re-reading, even if I don't find the prequel.
I rather enjoy this muddier, confused, peculiar, lost Oz.
#2 for the year.