Title: Wicked
Author: Gregory Maguire
Illustrator: N/A
Discs: 17
Genre: Fiction
Dewey Decimal: CD F Mag
ISBN: 978-0060876326
Cost: $0
I really dislike writing bad reviews. I feel like I have failed the author by not "getting" their story. I know they put so much into each novel that sometimes it feels like the reader owes it to the author to enjoy what they have written.
But in the end writers are entertainers and artists. Some I can appreciate more than others. And unfortunately, Mr. Maguire falls into the group of authors that I just did not enjoy. I gave it my best and even made it to disc 13 (out of 17). But to be honest, I stopped paying attention to the story and used it as background noise around disc 7.
What's the story about? Based on what I'm able to get out of it, it is a reinterpretation of the Wizard of Oz as told from a behind the scenes/prequel setting. But what really lost me was the whole thing about the evil witch (that's the green one) being a hermaphrodite. Which means I was pretty lost early on in the book.
And while I hesitate to even call this a review since I didn't finish the book, I did my best to enjoy the book and I'm sure there's someone out there that wll enjoy it. In the meantime, I have another depressingly poor review to write.
5 comments:
Wicked was okay. It wasn't as "mind blowing" as a lot of people said it was. I'm eager to see the musical though!
You know, I might enjoy the musical better. It might give me a hint as to what I'm clearly missing in the story so far. Maybe the local dinner theater will get a chance to do it in the future.
Yeah, after your review I'm feeling even more mediocre on it than before. It will likely remain unread on my shelf...possibly forever.
Suffered through the book which was tedious and quite perverse. Obviously Maguire tried to infuse a political side to the story, much as Baum did with the original series; however, he created a baffling storyline which was difficult for most readers to wrap themselves around to even enjoy. If you read the book thinking you'll have a greater understanding of the musical, you'll be sorely disappointed. Much better to read the actual libretto and the original series that Baum wrote.
My knowledge of Oz is limited to the original movie and vague references on Stargate. I think I was just hoping for this to be a "big" story since I had heard talk of it for years. And a musical adaptation tends to lend weight to the story. But from what I went through with the story, I think I'd rather see CATS instead.
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