(Cue Wicked Witch Theme From The Wizard of Oz)

 (#2) Read 25 books

1. Room by Emma Donohue
2. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
4. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
5. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
6. A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin
7. A Feast for Crows by George R. R. Martin
8. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
9. The Shack by William Young
10.The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
11. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
12. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
13. Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
14. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
15. Wicked by Gregory Maguire 

I'll admit that a large majority of my enjoyment in this book came from reminiscing about The Wizard of Oz, which is one of my top 5 favorite movies of all time. I became fascinated by the thought that the Wicked Witch of the West, who literally used to make me turn away from the television in terror when she appeared in a puff of orange smoke, could actually be a real person and not that wicked at all. Mind blown.  Also I should mention that every time Ronnie saw me reading he did the wicked witch theme (den di den di den diiii diiii) so now it is stuck in my head for the rest of my life.

For the record, I have read L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Wicked stays closer to that storyline in a lot of cases. But I prefer the movie.  This has happened maybe three times in my life (The Notebook, and The Help come to mind).

To Nicholas Sparks' credit, it is pretty hard for words to compete with this.

Anyway a lot of the humor in the book also comes from comparing the story to movie, such as Elphaba's skin being green due to a rare skin condition (not to her witch-dom), Nessa wearing the famed silver shoes (aka ruby slippers) to keep her from toppling over because of the unknown fact that she is armless (a fact hidden from us by Dorothy's house being on top of her), and Elphaba and Glinda starting out as enemies then becoming friends then becoming frenemies. The winged monkeys are actually created by one of the Wicked Witch's crazed animal experiments.

My reaction to all of this was something like "Imagine that! I guess that could have been the case all along..." Thereby getting my gears turning and increasing my interest level throughout. Since I'm guessing this was by Maguire's design, I'll still give him credit for producing some interesting writing.

I also love that no one is really evil or good in the novel. While we do come to sympathize more with Elphaba than we do with the original Wicked Witch of the West, she certainly isn't a traditional "hero" in this novel. She make some very questionable choices and considers herself to be literally soulless.

Conversely, Glinda is not quite the picture of goodness we expect from her, nor is she traditionally evil. Both are just women making their way in the Land of Oz, sometimes doing what is right and sometimes just doing what is easy, just like most real women.

Nessa (the Witch of the East) seems to be the most evil, but that could be because we don't get to know her as well. Dorothy without Judy Garland is just kind of annoying.

The book was a bit of a struggle to get through at parts- there was a lot of made up politics and impossible science. I do think I might enjoy the show though. Anyone out there have any feedback on it?