Gregory Maguire
Son of a Witch (2005)
Author: Gregory Maguire
Genre:Fantasy (Secondary Worlds)
Plot Summary:
The novel's protagonist is Liir, a young boy who was in the same castle as the Wicked Witch of the West when she was killed by Dorothy. The novel begins with a caravan led my Oastie Manglehand finding Liir on the way to the Emerald City in the world of Oz. Liir is very close to death and the members of the caravan don't know who he is. The caravan brings Liir to the Cloister of Saint Glinda to be taken care of by the maunts who live there. After Liir is put into the custody of the maunts, the caravan leaves the Cloister of Saint Glinda. The Superior Maunt decides that Liir will be taken care of by a young girl named Candle, who's been staying at the Cloister. Then the novel goes back into the past, when the Witch has just been killed by Dorothy and Liir goes on a journey with Dorothy, the Lion, the Scarecrow, Toto, and the Tin Woodman to see the Wizard of Oz. During their journey they run into Princess Nastoya, who is half elephant and half human. They find out that she was a friend of the Witch and she demands that Liir find a spell or some other kind of magic that will turn her into a complete elephant before she dies. At the end of the journey, Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Lion meet with the Wizard and Liir's journey with them is over. Then the novel goes back into the present and Candle is taking care of Liir and relaxing him with her musical instrument, the domingon. Throughout the novel, Liir has memories of the past which include the Scarecrow, Lady Glinda, the Witch's brother Shell, Trism,and others as well.SPOILER:During the novel we find out that Princess Nastoya dies, Nor is still alive, Candle and Liir end-up having a child, and much more.
Geographical Setting: The World of Oz
Time Period: Present day (2005)
Series: sequel to Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Appeal Characteristics:
This is a very detailed and elegantly-written novel that holds the readers attention. The tone of the novel is generally serious and sometimes quite dark. The author has created many well-developed characters, including Liir and Candle. The setting of Oz is also very important to the novel, and is fleshed out with great detail and care. The plot is crucial to the novel and it's well drawn out and interesting throughout the entire novel.
Read-alikes: If you want to read another detailed fantasy novel about a journey, I suggest The Innamorati by Midori Snyder. The novel is about four companions who take a long journey across an imagined Renaissance Italy to reach a labyrinth. If you enjoy novels dealing with the idea of good and evil and magic, I suggest The Halfling's Gem by R.A. Salvatore. The novel is about a dark elf named Drizzt Do'Urden and a barbarian named Wulfgar, who go to Calimport to save a friend and his stolen gem from the vengeance of Pasha Pook. If you want to read more titles by Gregory Maguire and learn some more background information about Liir, the Witch, and the rest of the residents of Oz, I suggest Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire. The novel tells the life story of Elphaba,also known as the Wicked Witch of the West, in the world of Oz. If you enjoy literary fantasy novels about other worlds and the concept of good and evil, I suggest the Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling. The novel is about Harry Potter, a young wizard, and his companions, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasely, and their adventures at Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Finally, if you enjoy novels that are retellings of classic fairy tales and that are filled with magic, I suggest Beauty: a Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley. The novel is about Beauty, who learns to love the Beast, while being pushed to live with him in his castle.
Red Flags:This novel may be confusing to readers, who have not already read Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, since this novel is it's sequel.
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (1995)
Author: Gregory Maguire
Genre: Fantasy (Secondary Worlds)
Plot Summary:
This novel presents the story of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, from her very strange birth to her death at the hands of Dorothy Gale, the tornado transported girl from Kansas. However, Maguire’s Oz is in no way the same cheerful little land of Baum’s tale. Instead, the not-so-kind Wizard has turned Oz into a dictatorship where people live in fear and are persecuted for being different. It begins with the birth of the main character, Elphaba (who eventually becomes The Wicked Witch of the West) and follows her life. With her distinctive and mysterious green skin (which her preacher father blames on his failure to protect his flock from paganism), she grows up to attend a prestigious college named Shiz, where she is assigned to be roommates with a naïve blonde social climber named Galinda. At college she becomes passionate about Animal equality (Animals being animals that have souls and can talk) and despite her circle of devoted friends, she drops out of school to become an anti-Wizard anarchist Animal rights activist. SPOILER: When her passionate love affair with an old classmate Fiyero leads to his death she enters a convent to purge her grief but fails to convert to the religion of the Unnamed God. As an alternative she goes to Vinkus with Liir, who may or may not be her illegitimate son with Fiyero, to beg forgiveness from Fiyero’s wife, Sarima. She is never able to confess her secret and instead becomes a part of the family until Sarima and the children are kidnapped and presumably killed by the Wizard’s soldiers while Elphaba is visiting her father and intensely devout sister Nessarose who rules over Munchkinland. She holes up in Vinkus trying to learn from a magical book, the Grimmerie, to save Fiyero’s children but over time becomes reclusive and a little crazy. When a tornado drops a house (complete with Dorothy and Toto) on her sister and Galinda foolishly gives away Nessarose’s magic red shoes, Elphaba begins trying to track down Dorothy and while questioning the nature of good and evil until the girl inadvertently kills her.
Geographical Setting: Oz, an imaginary land
Time Period: Sometime in the Past
Series: there is sequel, Son of a Witch (2005)
Appeal Characteristics:
The foremost appeal characteristic is the lush setting of Oz, which Maguire largely borrows from Baum’s Oz books, adding a dark complexity to the political landscape. The rich and intense detail of the political structure, social customs, and geographic map of Oz are vital to the story. Next, the strong main character of Elphaba drives the plot of the story, however secondary characters are strong and develop in unique ways over time and pop up again in the book after long absences. In particular the character of Yackel, who may or may not be an aspect of the goddess Lurline and may or may not be controlling Elphaba’s fate, might be appealing because she weaves mysteriously through the book. The themes present another strong appeal element as that this novel deals heavily with the effects of religion, society, and in particular, politics on the souls of people, as well as the struggle to do good in an incredibly corrupt and complicated setting. With deliberate pacing, Maguire slowly builds complex story line, which are both dramatic and graceful, giving the reader a captivating glimpse of life from the point of view a supposed villain. This book takes place over a lengthy period of time. The book is extremely witty and approaches social/political satire in places but is not fundamentally about skewering real American politics and culture.
Read-alikes: After reading Wicked, you may be interested in the Maguire’s sequel, Son of a Witch . This novel is the story of Liir, the adolescent boy who is last seen hiding in the shadows of the castle where Elphaba died. With no magical abilities, but in possession of Elphaba’s cap and broom, Liir sets out to find answers to his questions, such as is he really the son of the witch and was his father the prince of the land of Vinkus. In the same vein as Wicked, Son of a Witch is a complicated, multilayered story that explores social injustice, religion and the human condition. Of course, if you are interested in exploring or re-exploring the Land of Oz and the original characters, you may want to read The Annotated Wizard of Oz: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, produced for the 100th anniversary of the publication of the original children’s novel. Edited by Michael Patrick Hearns, this volume contains character sources, contemporary references and inspirations behind the 1990 classic, along with color reproductions of the W. W. Denslow’s illustrations for the first edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. If you would like to explore another take on of L. Frank Baum’s tale of Dorothy and the inhabitants of the Land of Oz, that is quite different from Maguire’s novel, you may want to read Was by Geoff Ryman. Ryman develops his story around 1870 Kansas and a real Dorothy Gael who was orphaned and abused. When Baum meets Dorothy while he is a substitute teacher at her school, he creates a story for her that ends up being the 1939 movie. As Ryman intertwines the lives of Baum and Dorothy, he adds to the equation a young Frances Gumm, also known as Judy Garland, and carries the connections through to the 1980’s were a young man volunteering at a nursing home runs into 70 year old Dotty, who claims the Wizard of Oz is her story. A bit of a history lesson and another exploration of the human condition, this novel touches more on the classic images of Oz created in the movie than on Baum’s book. Readers enjoying Maguire’s writing style and fondness for rewrites of classic tales who are looking at his non-Oz work might want to start with Confessions of an Ugly Step Sister which tells the classic Cinderella story from the point of view of one of the ugly step sisters. If it is the densely written style and multiple story lines you enjoyed, you may want to read Marion Zimmer Bradley Mists of Avalon. This retelling of the Arthurian legend presents another well-known story through the eyes of women who are often portrayed as wicked. The novel follows the life of Morgan le Fay (here Morgaine), Arthur’s half-sister, who is the priestess of Avalon, not an evil sorceress of traditional tales. Although Morgaine is the character that links all the tales, this 800-page novel is divided into four books and retells the legend through the eyes and voices of the women who are as instrumental in creating the world of Camelot as Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Another possible readalike by Bradley is Heartlight, which contains an elaborate yet familiar setting and the themes of religion in the context of a political struggle between good and evil. In Heartlight, Bradley's protagonist is a young psychic caught up in 30 years of American politics as he attempts to rid the country of evil and corruption and meets with mixed success. If you’re interested in more stories derived from legends or fairy tales, but are looking for a lighter read, you may want to read Francesca Lia Block’s The Rose and the Beast: Fairy Tales Retold. The nine short stories of this collection are set in modern day Los Angeles, which Block has turned into fantastical world of fairies, angels and charms. Some of the stories are updated versions of the originals, while others are takes a more fantastical turn. Originally marketed for Young Adults, older readers will enjoy Block’s use of magical realism and her ability to weave very real modern issues like drug addiction, rape and suicide into stories of strong heroines who take control of their own fate. The Preservationist by David Maine contains a similar wit and biting political satire as it retells the biblical story of Noah (Noa) and the Ark. This book also focuses on strong secondary characters besides Noa. There is a Tony Award winning musical based on this book that provides a natural “listen/see-alike” for this book, focusing more on the relationships between the characters (particularly Galinda and Elphaba) so readers who adored their relationship might enjoy the musical immensely while readers looking for the philosophical aspects will find the musical lacking. The soundtrack for Wicked the musical is available as is a book about the show titled Wicked: The Grimmerie, a Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Hit Broadway Musical by David Cote.
Red Flags: A few sex scenes and some violence
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