If you don't feel like reading the entire summary, scroll to the last paragraph to see my rating and reasons why I gave it what I did.
So, the first review will be over the book Wicked by Gregory MacGuire. This tells the story of the infamous Wicked Witch of the West from the storybook land of Oz. The first thing you need to know about this book is that it is NOT based off the book version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum; instead it is based off the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz.
*SPOILER ALERT* (This won't tell you everything from the book, but enough to have the plot covered, scroll to the end if you just want my rating)
Wicked starts out with Frex and Melena, who is pregnant with the green-skinned girl at the time, at their home in Munchkinland in the east. We learn that Frex is a very religious man and ministers for the Unnamed God. He gets a letter from his brother, who’s also a minister, telling Frex about the Clock of the Time Dragon. Basically it is a puppet theater on a wagon, shaped like a clock tower. On top of this tower rests a large dragon. He tells Frex about how the puppet shows it puts on are very vulgar, and causing people public humiliation and others to believe the Clock is a prophet. Frex goes to the town nearest him when he hears the Clock is coming, but can’t convince the people not to believe it.
While he is gone Melena has her baby, Elphaba, who is green and has sharp pointy teeth. Frex comes back to see the child, but then, due to his failure with the Clock of the Time Dragon, leaves to find himself spiritually. Melena, now alone, lives at their home before meeting Turtle Heart, whom she “has relations” with. Frex comes home, and it is soon implied that he also “has relations” with Turtle Heart.
Now we meet Galinda. This is Glinda from the movies, but with an “a” in her name (don’t ask me why). She is from a rich area in the north called Gillikin, and at the time traveling toward the center of Oz to a city called Shiz to go to college. While at Shiz she gets forced to room with Elphaba. She tries to bargain her way out of it with Madame Morrible, the Head of the girls’ college, but cannot. Elphaba and Galinda don’t particularly like each other due to their many differences and bicker.
Before I go on, I find it necessary to explain to you what exactly Animals are, and how they are different from animals. An animal is just your plain old animal. It is any living thing that is not a human or plant and has no ability to talk. An Animal (notice the capital “A”) has the ability to talk like a human, and walks on two legs (if they have legs). To show the difference between an animal and an Animal you capitalize the first letter in their name (i.e. an elephant becomes an Elephant), or when talking, emphasize the first syllable of the name.
Over the summer at Shiz, Elphaba helps a Goat, Doctor Dillamond a professor at Shiz, do research in what makes Animals different than animals. He is doing this research because the Wizard, the ruler of Oz, has started making laws about how and where Animals can travel. Think of it like racism in the age of MLK. Elphaba becomes very attached to him, having her friends steal scrolls from the library to help him with his research, and also becoming involved with Animal rights activism herself.
Flash forward a few months and Doctor Dillamond is found dead, apparently by accident, but Elphaba thinks he was murdered by somebody against Animals, like Madame Morrible. Due to some unknown cause with the Goat’s death Galinda changes her name to Glinda, and becomes a friend with Elphaba, against all other things that have happened to them.
For the next semester Elphaba’s sister Nessarose comes to Shiz, with her Nanny, who was also Elphaba and Melena’s Nanny. Nessa was born without arms and must get help to walk around. One day, Madame Morrible invites them to her office and tries to recruit them as Adepts for the Wizard, spreading his power to all corners of Oz. She wants Glinda to go to the north, Nessarose to the east, and Elphaba to the west. Elphaba refuses and walks out. As the semester progresses, she chooses to study life-sciences, and Glinda chooses to study sorcery.
Flash forward a few years now. Elphaba is in the Emerald City and has met an acquaintance from Shiz named Fiyero, from the tribal country of the Vinkus. Even though he is married he and Elphaba “have relations” and he soon gets killed by the Wizard’s troop. Elphaba then becomes a maunt (basically a monk) for the Unnamed God, even though she is against all religion.
Years later she travels to the Vinkus to try to apologize to Fiyero’s wife, Sarima. Sarima never lets her talk about Fiyero, and she doesn’t have a chance to apologize before the Wizard sends troops to kidnap Sarima, her seven sisters, and her children. Elphaba then becomes very obsessed with a book she and Sarima found called the Grimmerie.
Now comes the story of Oz you know. A twister, never before seen in Oz, carries a house that falls on Nessarose, the leader of Munchkinland (called the Wicked Witch of the East by her enemies) and Elphaba flies on her broom to go to her funeral, bringing a page of the Grimmerie to see if her father can help her decipher it. He cannot, but the Wizard is there and she brings it to him. He offers her Sarima’s daughter, Nor, who he’s enslaved in exchange for the book. She refuses, and the Wizard takes back the offer.
While in Munchkinland Elphaba meets Glinda who has reverted to her old bubbly self. She tells Elphaba about Dorothy and how she gave her the shoes Nessa was wearing. Elphaba gets angry at this because her father made the shoes, and Nessa promised that she would get the shoes when she died. She journeys back to the Vinkus alone, and soon hears word of how Dorothy was sent by the Wizard to kill her.
Through some unfortunate event Elphaba accidentally lights herself on fire and Dorothy trying to save her throws a bucket of water on her. Throughout the book MacGuire shows us how Elphaba is afraid of water, even as a child, and now we know why. This kills the Wicked Witch of the West (she has taken this name in remembrance of her sister) and ends the story.
*SPOILERS OVER*
I give this book a 5/10. It’s alright, but I don’t think it was extraordinarily good. It is very adult, and at some points excessively so. Many things remain unexplained at the end, and it leaves many gaps in character development. All in all it’s an OK book. But, if you like it, there are two more books by Gregory MacGuire in Oz; Son of a Witch, and A Lion Among Men.
~Good Reading
David
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