Book Review: Gregory Maguire - Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Sorry, I just don't get it. I don't understand why there ever was such hype on Gregory Maguires Wicked.
You see I'm going to be honest. I bought this book simply because I loved the charm, the glitz, and the glam of Oz after watching the movie back when I was a child.

When I learned that this was a tale from the wicked witches point of view, I knew I had to grab it up and indulge my mind within its pages.

The first page in the book was a crudely drawn map, pointing out all of the different lands in Oz. I figured this would be like a neat Lord of the Rings type of adventure.

I was at first a little confused by the book. The author speaks of Munchkinland in the first chapter, a land inside of Oz. However for me the lack of description about these little people just stunk.

Munchkinlanders they're little, about 4 feet tall. Some could be 5 feet tall. Yet the image that is set in every single readers heads is that from the movie. The small jolly happy, beautifully decorated munchkin people.

In the book however that charm is taken away, the munchkinlanders are spoken of as if they are just regular Joes walking around a cruddy dirty little town.

After your introduced to Munchkinland your thrown into this confusing clock tik tock tower. Trying to understand why, or the point of the tik toc tower will just give you a migraine. It sees the future, and is animated, as in the tower puts on these mini puppet shows within itself. This is where Elphaba (the future wicked witch of the west) is born.

Its no big surprise here as to what the problem with this baby is going to be. Elphaba is born green, and she's got sharp jagged fangs for teeth; she bites the first person that tries to touch her. There is a small discussion of killing her, due to her being green and deformed.

After this, you're put into the setting of Elphaba and her mothers relationship.

Its weird, off, and semi sick. Sometimes it seems as if her mother loves her, and wants to protect her, then there's other times where she calls her daughter a wretched thing, a disgust to the eye, embarrassment, and every other mean cruel thing a mother could call a child. So you never really know where the relationship stands. You're left confused and scratching your head.

After the birth of Elphie we learn that her mom is a lonely woman who cheats on her husband who is barely ever home due to his religious preaching he does all around Oz. So while he's gone she invites a traveler in by the name of Turtle Heart. She does whoopee with him and she ends up pregnant.

The birth of Elphabas sister happens shortly after you learn of her mom's infidelity. However this child is beautiful, only she's missing one major detail... she lacks arms.
 
A few years later her mother has another child. A son. Not a whole lot of word is spoken about this fellow throughout the whole book. I'm sure they'll be another boring part 2 explaining this character more in detail.

So now there are 3 children, one green, one missing arms and another that doesn't seem to exist, are you following?
 
You never know whom the father of who is in this book, as it is left a mystery till the end.
Anyways after all of these boring events, the book gets even more boring. Elphaba goes to college.

This is where she meets Glinda, at first Gllinda hates her, and then she adores her. Elphaba also gains a few friends here. However she's mean to all of them, and honestly as a reader you're left wondering how they're friends with her at all.

Here is where she decides to join some political fight against animal rights with professor Dillamond who is, by the way, a talking walking teaching goat.

But then there's some big huge conspiracy that unless you've read every line word for word you won't understand, and believe me, you certainly will be page surfing while reading this boring material. The goat is murdered.

(Oh wait they also threw some colored pictures from the Broadway show in this area)

Soon Elphaba's sister Nessarose also comes to the college. They rejoin outside and have a few words. More boring put you to sleep dialogue. This is also the part in the book where finally the ruby slippers are spoken of. Their father sent Nessarose a pair of shoes that he had made himself with the help of glass blower Turtle Heart. They are beautiful with handmade beads of red glass. At first Elphaba pays no interest to them, but you get the feeling she is a tad bit jealous.

Elphaba then leaves the College without notifying anyone of her whereabouts; even you as the reader get confused in the boggle of where she has gone. You however discover shes become a part of some secret political fight against the Wizard of Oz who has taken away the rights of all animals that can speak and think freely.

You never really know what the secret society is as she is sort of a one-man army.

Soon the story takes on a new lame twist. Fiyero, a friend from her college finds her years later. He stalks her, and then becomes her lover. He has a wife and a buch of kids at home though.

Elphaba ends up then trying to work out a plan to kill either the wizard or an old school teacher she feels responsible for the death of Professor Dillamond.

The plan fails and in the end, and for some reason Fiyero is killed by Oz soldiers.

Then as odd as that chapter it gets even more bizarre. Elphaba tracks down Fiyeros wife, and ends up living there. Yeah this is where your left scratching your head saying what the hell!?

Elphaba wants to tell Fiyeros wife how she's responsible for his death and all this mumbo cheating jumbo. However his wife wants to hear nothing of it, and ignores Elphaba for the most part while she's staying there.

Next you learn of the death of Nessrose. Finally! Dorothy's house came tumbling down on her head. Glinda gives Dorothy Nessaroses ruby slippers, and when Elphaba learns of this she goes out after Dorothy for the slippers back, but before catching up with Dorothy she kills the teacher from her college that was responsible for killing Dillamond, then she sends out to get Dorothy.

We all know how it ends. But while reading this you never understand why Elphaba didn't just tell Dorothy how they were her sisters, and ask for the shoes back. You also never quite grasp why suddenly Elphaba feels the shoes are powerful. They just are, you however just don't know why.

There is no secrect behind the scene information during the ending of the book. It is a little disappointing. Not only did the dialogue between Elphaba and Dorothy lack, but also in the end you almost get a sense that Elphaba is just stupid. She went from being this smart intellect, to all of a sudden in less than 2 chapters a crazy. In the end she dies, and that's the story of the witch.

IN MY OPINION:
Sadly I know someone else could of written this much better. Wicked, lacked in so many aspects it makes you want to cry or hit yourself for reading it.

Gregory Maguire in my opinion just ripped all of the charm and magic right out of Oz, and made it seem more like an everyday dump alley that you could find while walking the streets of New York City.

Not only did he shred Oz of it's beauty and glory but throwing in all of these boring politics and religious chapters seriously put me right to sleep. The author in my opinion has a hard time describing characters in detail. He just jumps into the story without explaining enough information about the character. You never get a feel, or a connection with any of the characters in the book. They're just there.

His lack of physical features on the Munchkinlanders just sucked the beauty right out of them. He describes them more like they're just little people walking the alleyway. He fails to mention their round cherub faces, rosy red cheeks, flaming red hair, or green hair.

Most of the time when there was a Munchkinlander involved in a scene you as a reader didn't know it.
The yellow brick road was used a few times throughout the book. However the absence of its beauty, or the beauty of the land of Oz, just made it seem like a regular town.

What about the tin man, and the lion, or the scarecrow? The lack of physical features for these main guys was also shredded down to almost human like descriptions, just because he is referred to as the lion, does that make him a lion? A little more description would of perhaps made this book a tad more enjoyable. A little less politics and religion would of also made it easier to read, and not as boring.

Now I know a lot of people have been impressed with the Broadway show Wicked. However they must of missed reading it before seeing the show. I myself haven't seen the show, and after nearly falling asleep during the book, I don't think I would. The best thing this book had to offer was the pictures that the book had in the middle from the Broadway show.

If you're interested in learning a lame behind the scene story from the witches point of view than dig in. However you're going to be disappointed. Not once will you as a reader feel like you're in Oz.
You can get the same story out of a history textbook during World War 2.

This review can be found on epinions as well. This review was at one time much more detailed. However that was not good enough, so it was cut down to this sad little version. I still wished I saved the original.
 
Anyhow...
 
I don't recommend it. The book was the longest, most boring political book I have ever read.