Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
By Gregory Maguire
Completed June 19, 2007

Wicked asks an important question: What is evil? Is it something one is born with? Or is it something one learns? Equally important, is something considered evil only because you disagree with it?

As I read Wicked, I didn’t have an answer to any of these questions, but the exploration was a good exercise nonetheless.

We learn about the Wicked Witch of the West, named Elphaba, who is a counterrevolutionary fighter. We learn about the Wizard, who is a tyrant, and that the Wicked Witch of the East and the Wicked Witch of the West are sisters who can’t stand the sight of each other. And depending on which side you’re on, Elphaba is good or evil. As the reader, you get to pick.

Overall, I thought Wicked was a good book but certainly not without its flaws. First, it was too detailed– paragraph descriptions about hills just are not my cup of tea. Second, I really did not feel attached to any of the characters. Maguire did not draw these characters out fully, and as a result, many of the characters became simply forgettable (in fact, I can’t even remember some of their names). Finally, I prefer my social commentaries to be subtler. You could easily interchange many of the names and groups in Wicked for real names and groups of our recent history. It all was very blatant, very Orwellian.

If you read nothing else, invest time in the last chapter of the book. Here, Maguire draws the connections between the Wicked Witch and Dorothy. Fans of the movie will like this part as you become re-acquainted with Toto, the Lion and flying monkeys. Interestingly, it’s those darned ruby red slippers that become the root of the Witch’s downfall. This chapter, more so than the entire novel, offers a new perspective to this familiar fairy tale. ( )