Book Review: Wicked by Gregory McGuire

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Written by: Gregory McGuire

Published: 1995

Synopsis: When Dorothy triumphed over the Wicked Witch of the West in L. Frank Baum's classic tale, we heard only her side of the story. But what about her arch-nemesis, the mysterious Witch? Where did she come from? How did she become so wicked? And what is the true nature of evil?

Gregory Maguire creates a fantasy world so rich and vivid that we will never look at Oz the same way again. Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability, and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to become the infamous Wicked Witch of the West, a smart, prickly, and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.
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“People who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us... It's people who claim that they're good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of.”

I bought Wicked on a whim after reading Michael's review back in August. It was right around the time I saw Maleficent and I felt a desperate need to see a "reimagining' of a classic villain done right. Or at least I hoped it'd be done right - having not seen the musical I had to hope that all of the fan worship and stellar reviews weren't about to shoot down my hopes.

And guess what guys - my hopes are intact!

In case you've been living under a rock, Wicked is the untold story of the Wicked Witch of the West. Rather than simply be a retelling of The Wizard of Oz from her perspective though, it actually chronicles a much larger time frame - from birth to death. The book can roughly be broken into four time periods in her life. Childhood, university, her post-university anarchist lifestyle and self-imposed exile/Dorothy's era. The entire narrative exists to not only subvert the very well known journey Dorothy takes through Oz and Elphaba's role as the evil witch but to also bring a weighty reality to this supposed technicolour wonderland. It is as much about the politics and morality of Oz as it is about Elphaba, or rather it is through Elphaba's tale that we are forced to remove our rose coloured glasses and realise that perhaps the Wicked Witch isn't the worst thing in Oz.

Before she was the Wicked Witch of the West she was Elphaba (and Elphie), a quiet child with green skin. Her father was a preacher and her mother an unhappy woman, and Elphaba's birth didn't make either of their lives easier. Her father saw her as punishment for his failings, her mother saw her as yet another disappointment in life. Be that as it may, they still loved the girl. Even if their love was maybe more of the stand-offish, hard to tell variety. In order to guarantee her next child wouldn't also be green, Ephie's mother took pills procured by her nanny in the Emerald City. When Elphie's little sister Nessarose is born she isn't green, but she also doesn't have arms. This family and good luck do not go together so well.

Elphie doesn't have an easy life, but neither does anyone else in Oz. The make-up of this imaginary country actually reminded me a great deal of the world in The Hunger Games. The majority of people in Oz are struggling. There is bigotry and new religions clashing heads, poverty and drought, building plans to eliminate the remaining natural landscapes. But in the Emerald City there is wealth and extravagance, and the people in the high society are completely removed from the issues facing the rest of the community. They dance and drink and flit around in expensive outfits, and at the centre of all of this is the wizard. The Wizard is actually quite a lot like he is in the film. He hides behind various masks and stand-ins and has created a mythology about himself that keeps everyone in line. But in the novel he's far more manipulative, pulling the strings of the majority of storylines that fill the book, although very few people seem to notice his presence.

I really adored the way McGuire used Elphaba and her notorious skin as a way to deal with issues of morality and bigotry. Elphie was held at arms length as a child and teased all through her life because of it. As a result she became withdrawn, quiet and struggled to trust any of the "normal" people she encountered. She was never a bad person but she was different, and for some people that's the same thing. So was Elphaba destined to be bad (if she can ever categorically be defined as such) or was she made that way because of the way people treated her? Was her sister (the witch of the East) destined to be born armless or did the pills her mother take transfer a greenish hue for the lack of appendages? How much of our lives is left to fate and how much is decided by our environment? Do we have any say whatsoever in what happens to us? If we're born green are we destined to tread the yellow brick road alone under the suspicious gaze of everyone else?

“One never learns how the witch became wicked, or whether that was the right choice for her~is it ever the right choice? Does the devil ever struggle to be good again, or if so is he not a devil?”

There are a lot of other interesting pieces in this novel. The good witch who is maybe not as good as everyone thinks (but hey, at least she isn't green right?), the slow de-evolution of Animals into animals, magic brooms and familiars and forbidden loves who return to haunt us. This book manages to pack a punch with its social commentary while also just being an entertaining fairytale retelling. You could very easily enjoy this book outside of the feminist, socio-political or moralistic themes, although I think you'd be missing a hell of a lot of the story. I haven't read any of the original novels so I don't know how much this book build onto themes or storylines from the original, but it didn't feel like McGuire was taking any shortcuts. I will say though that the first section of the novel was a little slow for my liking and McGuire does have an unfortunate obsession for occasionally sprinkling in commas, placed every, couple of, words, for, some, reason. There were also a few points in the narrative that felt off - like McGuire wasn't sure how to tie up certain loose ends or bridge two different points. But really, they were very small drops in a very large bucket.

Now that I've finished the book I'm kicking myself that I didn't buy tickets to see the musical when it came to Brisbane last year. It's no wonder it managed to sweep audiences away with its funny, heart-warming and thrilling tale of love, partnership, identity and morals. Not to mention a wicked dark wit.

“I shall pray for your soul,' promised Nessarose.

I shall wait for your shoes,' Elphie answered.”

Book Review: Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi

Boy, Snow, Bird

Written by: Helen Oyeyemi

Published: 2014

Synopsis: In the winter of 1953, Boy Novak arrives by chance in a small town in Massachusetts, looking, she believes, for beauty—the opposite of the life she’s left behind in New York. She marries a local widower and becomes stepmother to his winsome daughter, Snow Whitman.

A wicked stepmother is a creature Boy never imagined she’d become, but elements of the familiar tale of aesthetic obsession begin to play themselves out when the birth of Boy’s daughter, Bird, who is dark-skinned, exposes the Whitmans as light-skinned African Americans passing for white. Among them, Boy, Snow, and Bird confront the tyranny of the mirror to ask how much power surfaces really hold.
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“... it's not whiteness itself that sets Them against Us, but the worship of whiteness. Same goes if you swap whiteness out for other things-- fancy possessions for sure, pedigree, maybe youth too... we beat Them (and spare ourselves a lot of tedium and terror) by declining to worship.”

It isn't often that I go out and buy a book a blogger recommended and read it immediately. In most cases I add it to my never-ending list and then when I'm at the library I'll pull out my list and see what's available. But for some reason Emily's mini-review of Boy, Snow, Bird captured my attention and when I happened to see the book in a bookstore the next day I snapped it up and started reading it on my bus ride home.

Boy, Snow, Bird is a sensationally written book that deals with some extremely heavy subjects. Not only does it examine race in 1950's America, but it really digs into feminist issues of the time, marriage, abortion, gender roles in the workplace, gender identity and same-sex relationships. And while these issues could make it a seriously dense and depressing novel it's actually the complete opposite. Because all of these issues are tied up with the families and relationships in the narrative, it ends up a sombre story, sure, but it also has this sense of strength that stops it from being a depressing mind-swamp. Not to mention that it's almost entirely populated by female characters that are so full of life it's worthy of a god damn celebration! They're complicated and nuanced and they make shitty decisions based on the times and unfairly judge some people but oh my god, they are all wonderful. The men have important roles (especially Arturo, father, son, husband) but the story is ultimately about women, about matriarchs, about female rebellion and female sexuality. It's about women who don't fit into the time they were born and buck tradition and women who are strong but don't feel strong enough to stand up to a system that seems unbreakable and immoveable. I am 100% ready to bow down and worship at the alter of Helen Oyeyemi. Did I mention that she's still in her 20s? How do you even construct such a complicated and inspiring and effective story when you're that young? I am in awe, seriously.

There's a lot of talk about this book using Snow White as a jumping off point. If you look at some of the reviews on Goodreads it's clear a lot of readers were expecting a modern-day retelling of the fairytale, rather than a story which takes some thematic elements and weaves it into a new narrative. Yes there's a character called Snow, yes there's tension between her relationship with her step-mother, but it's nothing like the fairytale so make sure you leave that preconception aside when you pick up this book. One stark similarity though is the role of mirrors in both the fairytale and Boy, Snow, Bird. The mirror in Boy, Snow, Bird doesn't speak, but it reveals a great deal. It becomes analogous for the broader concepts of trustworthiness, deception and hiding in plain sight. The scenes with mirrors flit between reality and fantasy with a feel of Jeanette Winterson, and while on paper I'd say that it seems incongruous with the utterly (and at times heartbreakingly) realistic narrative, these small fantastic touches seem completely at home with Bird, Snow and Boy and the story of their relationships.

My only problem with the book is the ending. Not only is there a twist-type reveal that comes very suddenly (as in the last 4 pages) without any real sign-posting but it also feels incongruous with the thrust of the novel. I can't really discuss it without major spoilers, but I can't help but wonder what Oyeyemi wants us to take away from it. How does it fit with the rest of the book? Is it deliberately meant to feel separate or disparate? If you've read the book I'd love to discuss this with you in the comments. But while I don't think I was a fan of it as an ending, it also doesn't take anything away from the brilliance of the preceding pages.

I've started to notice this book popping up on more and more blogs so it probably doesn't really need my endorsement to gain well-deserved attention, but I'm going to endorse away anyway. It's really rather brilliant, literary and intelligent but grounded enough to appeal to any reader, distant enough to discuss lofty or troubling topics objectively while also feeling completely accurate and emotionally hard-hitting. I finished it feeling like I'd read a call to arms. A call to arms for what exactly I'm still not sure. Family bonds? The Sisterhood?  The dissolution of bigotry in our lifetime? Recognition as full and complete people regardless of how we identify? Perhaps that'll depend on the reader, or perhaps it's a little bit of all of the above. Either way, it's a stunning book and a must-read.

Graphic Novel Mini-Review #15

Kill Shakespeare: The Tide of Blood (Volume 3)

Written by: Conor McCreery, Anthony Del Col; Illustrated by: Andy Belanger

Published: 2013

My Thoughts: If you've read and liked Fables, you will probably love Kill Shakespeare because it's a very similar concept but with Shakespearian characters. This volume takes place on Prospero's island and I looooooved all of the magic and double-crossing and twisty-twist-twists. The art style and colouring is gorgeous, and the writing is consistent, although I'm kind of hoping this is the last volume. As much as I enjoy it, it is a little gimmicky and I think it'll be a very quick switch from enjoyment to eye-roll inducing. Make sure you read the volumes in the correct sequence for continuity.

Fables: Storybook Love (Volume 3)

Written by: Bill Willingham; illustrated by: Mark Buckingham

Published: 2004

My Thoughts: I really, really dig this series and it just gets better with each volume. Generally I'm pretty bleh towards remakes/reboots/reimaginings but when they're done well, as Fables is, they're fantastic. Yes you know the characters, but it's because you know them that it works. It's brilliant to see these darker or disappointing versions of our Disney heroes and heroines, because we're always complaining about how dreary and unrealistic the Disney effect actually is. But it's not just gritty for grit's sake, there's a complex story unfolding within these smaller narratives and I am so excited to see where it goes. This volume is all about our exile's falling in love and struggling to make connections and I can't tell you how gratifying it is to read about Prince Charming actually being a manipulating asshole, or to learn that the Big Bad Wolf's father is the North Wind. I mean COME ON, that's awesome!

Ten Grand (Issues #2-4)

Written by: J Michael Straczynski; illustrated by: Ben Templesmith

Published: 2013

My Thoughts:  This series pulled me in from the start, but I found it stagnated a little in the centre before finally expanding the story to a place where I really connected with it and the characters. But even when I wasn't actively engaged (and how disengaged can you really be about a former mob enforcer who is returned to life by an angel every time he dies so he can carry out demon slayings on Earth?) Ben Templesmith's art provided the emotional resonance the writing was lacking. God damn he's good at what he does. I've heard that Templesmith isn't going to be involved in the rest of the series, which makes me a little conflicted. I love this series, it's really pretty solid, but without his distinctive art style I'm not sure if it'll be the same. Wait and see I guess.

Movie trailer: Hansel and Gretel (2013)

I'm a little on the fence about this one. On the one hand it could be ridiculously bad (think Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) or it could be a kick-ass retelling of a well-known fairytale. I'm not sure the trailer really points one way or another, but I'm hoping for the latter - if only to preserve Jeremy Renner's streak of good (if not always great) roles.