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

What exactly is wicked? Does a person become wicked? Do their life experiences make them such or are they born with the trait? This ongoing debate not only has far reaching sociological implications, in Gregory Maguire's "Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West", it also makes for a fascinating read.

A sort of prequel to the Wizard of Oz, Wicked chronicles the life of Elphaba, better known as the Wicked Witch (of 'I'm melting!!' fame). What makes Wicked is that Maguire makes Elphaba ? and all the inhabitants of Oz ? less of a caricature and more of a character. In Maguire's Oz, the wizard is wicked ? a corrupt politician bent on eliminating whole races. Glinda is less goodie-two-shoes (and more obsessed with finding the perfect pair of shoes). There is a stable of characters not mentioned in the original ? Elphaba's useless parents, the horrid headmistress at school, a young prince, and others. Elphaba is a green skinned person who, it turns out, is not that good of a witch.

The book covers a lot of territory ? from her birth and odd childhood, her days at boarding school & reluctant pairing with roommate Glinda, her loves and losses, her dysfunctional family relationships (she and the sister-soon-to-be-squished, for example, aren't exactly the best of friends) to her ultimate destruction by that 'Dorothy creature'. It also raises a lot of questions about perceptions of evil, discrimination and equality in societies, the rights and responsibilities - and decisions - of individuals when facing a corrupt government, and how the tragedies of an individual's life can snowball to make her almost unrecognizable.

This is not the cheery book you'd expect if you'd seen the musical adaptation (but then again, Frank L. Baum's original stories were less sugary than the film adaptation of the same as well). It's darker, deeper, less predictable and infinitely more interesting.

There were some weaknesses. I found it frustratingly slow in places, with much attention paid to even the most trivial of details and I also felt like Maguire was really hitting us over the head with some of the political preaching (totalitarianism = BAD!) ? but it remains an intriguing back-story to a beloved tale and a distinctly good book all on its own.