Unrest for the Wicked

[spectralbovine]

Since the musical is coming to San Francisco, I thought it was a good time to finally read Wicked, by Gregory Maguire. As everyone knows, it's the story of the Wicked Witch of the West, and the book assumes familiarity with the basic story of The [Wonderful] Wizard of Oz, if not all the details. I've never read the book, but I want to now to see

Comments

[duchessdogberry]

I was the one at the Dragonfly that wanted to hear your thoughts on the book.

That said, I'm surprised to see you and so many people actually admire the writing. I hated this book so much it made me feel ill as I forced myself to try to continue to read it. The stuff while they're at school was interesting, but it just went off the deep end after they see the wizard. And, yeah, the stuff in the tower at the end is just full of "What the fucking fuck?!" and so on. Also, I got the distinct impression that Maguire has a fascination with urination. It seemed to come up a bit more often than I'm used to.

But I adore the musical. Normally, I don't go for the fluffier version of a story if given the choice, but I definitely prefer the cut-down and focused world of the musical to the muddled over-written crap of the novel. I finally felt for Elphaba rather than wanting to strangle her, although the characterizations of Fiyero and Glinda do suffer some major simplifications in order to make Elphaba easier to relate to and to put more comedy

[spectralbovine]

It sounds like I'll probably like the musical more than the book! I'm looking forward to it.

But I'm amused by your feelings on the book. I think if I wanted to, I could have hated it, but that's not how I'm wired, as you know.

[duchessdogberry]

Once you see the musical, I'll link you to the five or so LJ entries I wrote in 2006 about it with mentions of how I felt about the book.

[outforawalk]

HA! See? I just commented above that you are least likely of my whole flist to hate something! It makes me laugh. We'll all be miserable gits about it and you are all, "But they are so committed to sparklemotion!" Or whatever.

[spectralbovine]

Now, I will say that I really liked his book Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister.
But according to glasseseater, it only has four good paragraphs! Maybe they were REALLY good paragraphs.

The only other book of his I've read is Lost and I loathe that book with the fire of a thousand suns. I'd rather gouge out my eyes than read that again.
Eep. Funny, I was under the impression most people liked Gregory Maguire's books.

[gymble]

I think Wicked is a book I admired more than I enjoyed.
Yes, this exactly (along with everyone else, I think). The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is one of my favorite childhood books, and while I could sort of appreciate what Maguire was trying to do, I didn't like the extremes with which he messed around with it. All the political commentary kind of fell flat for me, and the Dorothy section felt positively shoehorned in.

I'll agree with corbeau though - I really enjoyed Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. I think that Maguire does better when he has the looser framework of a fairytale to work with. I haven't read anything else by him though, so maybe that book was a fluke.

Also, did I see correctly that you haven't read the book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? ARGH. What is wrong with American youth? Movies are not books - even when the movie is wonderful in its own right. Which reminds me, I need to go harangue my husband about reading that book again

[spectralbovine]

I didn't even see the movie until college. It was totally cracked-out. I do want to read the book now.

the Dorothy section felt positively shoehorned in.
Heh, yeah. I think that only works because you're expecting it as part of the story. Otherwise, it's a terrible narrative choice.

I've been trying to see the musical for three years now, dammit, and keep not being able to get tickets. Drat.
Come up here and see it with me!

[redflora]

The first time I tried to read this book, I was so put off by the writing style that I gave up pretty quickly. When I tried again a few years later I was able to finish by virtue of the fact that I became impressed by the uniqueness of Maguire's style - the originality of the premise and his perspective, and even the clinicality of the storytelling - but I certainly never got personally invested in the story. The musical's a kind of halfway point between the original "Wizard of Oz" (well, original book and technicolor world of the classic movie) and Maguire's novel - it works off of Maguire's premise but definitely skews much lighter and brighter. Eh, you've heard all this - I'd guess you'll like the musical, especially seeing as you already know it's not really all that much like Maguire's book. I look forward to seeing your review!

Oh, and I heard recently that "Elphaba" is an amalgamation of the initials of the original author, L. Frank Baum. Cool, huh?

[spectralbovine]

Yep, I discovered that at the end with the "Book Club Questions" that told me that I'd been pronouncing her name wrong the whole time.

There is a certain clinicality to the storytelling, now that you mention it, but I think it's dressed up enough that it's not as dry as it would be otherwise.

[punzerel]

You should read the original Oz books. They are deeelightful.

I kind of liked Wicked, but not in a way that I would now pick it up again and read it for fun. It's a bit of an effort. I thought it was much much easier to read than the other ones I tried (definitely Mirror, Mirror, possibly Confessions of an Ugly Step-Sister). His children's book What the Dickens (about a tooth fairy) is surprisinglu adorable, though.

[spectralbovine]

I think I'll try to read the original Oz book before I see the musical. I mean, I really ought to, especially given how much it's featured on The Sarah Connor Chronicles!

I kind of liked Wicked, but not in a way that I would now pick it up again and read it for fun. It's a bit of an effort.
Yeah, it is.

[spectralbovine]

*comes back from Wikipedia*

Sweet Jesus, there are a lot of Oz books.