Wicked by Gregory Maguire
November 1st 2009 11:30
Wicked Novel Cover
I finished Wicked by Gregory Maguire yesterday afternoon and I've spent a day trying to figure out what exactly I wanted to say about this novel. I still don't know 100% but we'll give it a go and see how it goes.
I'm going to begin by saying most of us know of Wicked as the multi-award winning Broadway Musical that burst onto the scene winning it's leading ladies Idina Menzel and Kirstin Chenworth Tony awards in 2004.
I picked up the book, a massive fan of the soundtrack of the musical and pleased the musical had finally made it to Sydney. As yet I still haven't seen the musical, but based on conversations with a friend of mine who has seen the show let me start by saying, the only thing the novel and the musical have in common is the title and the character names.
Wicked begins with the birth of the green-slkinned Elphaba, whose destiny is to grow into the Wicked Witch of the West. Spanning 38 years, we witness Elphaba as a new born, teenager, young woman in her 20's and finally as a woman of 38 whose dreams are shattered and lying around her in ashes edged with guilt.
As a child Elphaba, her unionist Minister father and sexually free mother leave Muchkinland and head to Quadling Country in order to convert the heathens into the service of the Unnamed God. It's in Quadling Country Elphaba's mother births her sister, Nessarose, whose destiny is to become the Wicked Witch of the East.
Section two opens in The Shiz, as 17 year old Elphaba arrives at Crag Hall and her room mate is the socially conscious, self-obsessed beauty queen Galinda. The death of a beloved professor, followed by the death of Galinda's Ama send the two heroines of the story onto their pathways to the story outcome we know so well.
It is in the second section of the book that see's Elphaba's political consciousness open and her believe in Animal Rights comes to the front and see's Elphaba run away from school to join the Animal Liberation Army in the underground of Emerald City. Five years later she runs into a school chum who soon becomes her lover. It is when Elphaba is on her way to assassinate an enemy of the Animals that the lover is murdered and Elphaba disappears into the safety of St Glinda's Maunts for 7 years.
Section 3, see's Elphaba re-emerge into the general populace, now with the tall black hat and multi-speed broomstick that are to become her trademark. With her is a foundling Liir, and along the way Kiamo Ko, the home of her dead lovers wife Elphaba collects bee's, crows, and a monkey that will give birth to the winged monkeys so famous in the Wizard of Oz.
The Elphaba of Gregory Maguires imagining isn't wicked. She is politically powered, fighting injustice where she see's it. She is a woman with convictions, who gives herself the title The Wicked Witch of the West in response to the Munchkinlanders feeling for her sister Nessarose, who uses the political upheaval in Oz to break Munchkinland free of the power and control of The Wizard of Oz. It is Nessarose, who is the witch in the family, covering her spells behind sanctimonious prayers to the Unnamed God. It is Nessarose in the novel who is the Wicked sister and Elphaba the sister wracked with guilt over the death of her lover.
Even Dorothy's triumphant "bucket of water" moment is nothing more than an accident. Actually I was quiet annoyed with the ending. Having spent 500-odd pages reading about Elphaba, growing to care for her and wish she'd just open up and let live happen to her for a change, I felt cheated when everyone and everything she loved turned on her or died because Dorothy had arrived at Kiamo Ko.
The novel of Wicked is part political commentary, part bodice ripper, and part human rights expose. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting the in-your-face sex and adultery I found in it's pages. The discovery of Elphaba's biological father is rather interesting. Fluid sexuality, unrequited love, meaningless, drug induced matings between characters of human and Animal persuasians, I have to say a broadway musical wouldn't have been the first thing I thought of when I read this book, and it explains why there are so many changes in the storyline between the two products.
If you've seen the musical, there are enough difference - everything - that you would be able to read this novel without an preconceived notions, and if you haven't seen the musical reading this book isn't going to give away the outcome, we already know Elphaba get's a bucket of water to the head. And that's all you'll know.
Gregory Maguire is the author of several novels based on classic children's stories including Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Mirror Mirror. For further information on Gregory's novels click here Gregory Maguire's Wesbite
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