A Wicked Disappointment
Gregory Maguire must have gotten bored with his Wicked tale somewhere around Act V, because the politics of Oz, previously riveting, are suddenly a muddled mess, and the Elphaba we think we know loses all pride and pizazz. He never explains several characters, creates promising leads for others that are never pursued, kills many off in a most unnecessary glut of pointless violence, and disregards the course of events we know from the original story. I don't require a happy ending, but I demand a little redemption, and at the very least an explanation. Wicked is very beautifully imagined until a certain point; it began so magically, why couldn't it finish that way?
posted by A at
5:51 PM
2 Comments:
I know, huh? Fantastic for so much of it, and you're totally with it for a while, and then... um... it just kind of falls out from under your feet and gets kind of lame... I feel like he didn't try as hard at the end - maybe he thought we'd all be too excited about getting to a familiar timeline of events to notice...? I would like to read other books by him, though, as I loved the style for the most part. I've also decided I should check out the original Oz books - though 14 of them sounds overwhelmingly ambitious, even if they are for kiddies...
I do agree, the style was great, very fluid and surprising. And if I gave Annie Proulx a third, fourth and fifth chance, then Gregory gets one, too.
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