“A mile above Oz, the Witch balanced on the wind’s
forward edge, as if she were a green fleck of the land itself, flung up and
sent wheeling away by the turbulent air. White and purple summer thunderheads
mounded around her. Below, the Yellow Brick Road looped back on itself, like a
relaxed noose. Though winter storms and the crowbars of agitators had torn up
the road, still it led, relentlessly, to the Emerald City. The Witch could see
the companions trudging alone, maneuvering around the buckled sections,
skirting trenches, skipping when the way was clear. They seemed oblivious of
their fate. But it was not up to the Witch to enlighten them.
She
used the broom as a sort of balustrade, stepping down from the sky like one of
her flying monkeys. She finished up on the topmost bough of a black willow
tree. Beneath, hidden by the fronds, her prey had paused to take their rest.
The Witch tucked her broom under her arm. Crablike and quiet, she scuttled down
a little at a time, until she was a mere twenty feet above them. Wind moved the
dangling tendrils of the tree. The Witch stared and listened.”
From,
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked
Witch of the West, by Gregory Maguire
Maguire’s brilliant imagining of the life of Elphaba,
the Wicked Witch of the West, before the story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Dorothy is told, has become itself a
classic novel and phenomenal musical.
This is a book for adults. Its themes and language are
for those who welcome imagination and are open to reading something completely
different about a subject as familiar and prized as Dorothy and the Wizard of
Oz.
There are many familiar characters in Maguire’s novel
but the one who hoists the story into literary history is Elphaba. Green
skinned, socially awkward, misunderstood, and mistreated, Elphaba develops a
tough exterior and learns to fight for herself. She is a heroine of
extraordinary gifts. She longs for tolerance. She champions the rights of
animals. She defends loners and misfits, which she knows all too well
about.
This novel has been welcomed by enthusiastic fans of all
ages and backgrounds since it was first published in 1995. But what we clearly have
here is a book for older girls and young women in the throes of heartbreaking
issues: body image, self loathing, defeating inner voices, fears of enormous
power, and the urge to simply belong and be accepted without cruel and demoralizing
demands from others.
Elphaba rises above these defeating emotions and lives a
life, though troubled and attacked, with intrepid courage and a relentless pushing
of herself to overcome.
“I don’t cause commotions,” says Elphaba, “I am one.”
This book is right at the top with all of my favorites.
