Wicked by Gregory Maguire
- Mar 5, 2017
- 3 min read
It is official! I have finally read the book and seen the musical for Wicked. I knew the music for the musical years before I ever had a chance to see it. I've been waiting almost as long to read the book. So, for my Reading Challenge, I chose to read Wicked to fulfill the "Book from Rory Gilmore's Reading List" prompt.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Wicked, let me enlighten you. Wicked is the story of the Wicked Witch of the West; yes, I do mean the one from the Wizard of Oz. The book goes, pretty much, from conception to that fateful moment when Dorothy dumps the bucket of water on the Witch, named Elphaba. This book is a very political book talking about government corruption, religion, human and animal rights, prejudice, and even determining what constitutes a human. For our lives now, that can parallel the debate of whether a fetus is considered a human and, therefore, whether abortion is murder. However in the book, there are some Animals that have a spirit, that walk and talk and work just like a human; Elphaba assists a professor in trying to prove that there is no scientific proof that Animals and humans are different. Same as proving that blacks and whites are the same, just different skin color.
This book had many surprises, but none were as surprising as the fact that the musical is almost nothing like the book. Yes, Elphaba does go to school with Glinda and become friends with her. Yes, she is concerned and fighting for Animal rights. But other than that and a few small details, the musical is completely different. Unfortunately, since I saw the musical first, that made the book rather disappointing. Not to mention, I liked the plot and story arc of the musical better than the book. I see why the musical cut out Elphaba's story before she went to Shiz; those chapters were rather boring and went on for a very long time. In all honesty, those beginning chapters almost had me put the book down, never to pick it up again.
When you separate the book from the musical, making them two unrelated entities, things look much brighter for the book. For example, I found it interesting that the book showed Elphaba as a gruffer character than in the musical. No, she wasn't evil or even wicked, but she was stand-offish, bad with people, and (as a child) prone to unprovoked violence. She isn't good with people; she even has a tough love outlook toward the people she likes. I liked this. It shows that it wasn't a stretch for her to be wicked. She is an unpleasant person that doesn't really care if people like her; we all know people like that, and they aren't bad, just hard to get along with. It sets a much darker tone to the book than just making her be a misunderstood introvert like the musical depicts.
I really liked political aspect of the book. Espionage, sabotage, revolution, it is all there! In some ways, it is Elphaba against the world. She sees the true evil and the crimes against humanity. She fights for the good and freedom of all. I like that the book delves in to the different states (per say) of Oz and the racial discrimination and hierarchy that is common even in our world. The books runs a surprising parallel with our on world when it comes to social and political issues.
If you are looking for a tale of how the Wicked Witch came to be, this is the book for you. If you are looking for a book that tackles political issues and fighting for what is right, this book may be the book for you. However, if you are looking for the book version of what happens on stage, this is not the book for you.
While I did want to know how the Witch became Wicked, and I do enjoy a well written political book, what I was really looking for was the story I saw on stage.
Because of this, I have to rank the book a C-
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