Gregory Maguire - Wicked

Parallel Literature...a new term for me...is how this book is described. Telling an adult tale using the famous Oz characters from Baum's classic child's novel, Maguire leads us to a new "revisionist" tale of the infamous green witch. Obviously I am reading this having seen the play. Guess I am sucker for cross marketing! First off before the book, I have obviously seen the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz, and of course then I saw the play. So before reading a single page you sort of have a feeling like you know the characters. And basically because of this you get incredibly frustrated reading the novel. Which I guess is good but it really is tough. Fascinating how the author reveals a much deeper and politically intriguing world of Oz (now of course I will have to read the Oz books to see if such a back story is warranted). The book is a biography of sorts of the Green Witch with the story essentially trying to define what "evil" is and whether the Green Witch deserves such a title. The play was more simple in that it simply showed an alternative tale and makes the viewer wonder if Wicked Witch of the West was simply misunderstood and that the real evil was Glinda the Good Witch. The book isn't as cut and dry. I also found the writing to be very blunt. Not for sure if it was a male author writing a female character or perhaps how "male" the Green Witch is written. One does feel for the Wicked Witch but throughout the novel I found I still saw an "evil" streak in her. Her sharp biting teeth has a baby, her joining a terrorist organization, her dealings with her lover, her absolute non-motherly way with her son, and finally her triumph of murdering her old school supervisor. But then in the end she starts to questions "evil" and how evil surrounds here yet she does not seem to see her lack of passion. An interesting quote about religion and the need for evil to make religion work. Overall a good book, lots of big themes, almost felt like I was back in school because the book made me think.