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

I've had an interest in reading "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" for some time now but my interest was piqued even further after seeing Wicked the musical a couple months ago in Tulsa. I finally had the opportunity to pick up the book while visiting Borders Sunday afternoon.

Wicked was published in 1995 and written by Gregory Maguire. It is the first of (currently) three books involving "The Wicked Years," a revisionist take on L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and other works. The two books to follow Wicked are "Son of a Witch" and "A Lion Among Men."

The book follows the life and times of Elphaba, later to be know as the Wicked Witch of the West, starting with her bizarre birth all the way to her untimely death at the hands of an out of place 12 year-old Kansas girl, Dorothy Gale. In this retelling we meet familiar faces and see familiar places from Baum's books and MGM's 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz" as well as all new characters. I won't go into too much detail other than to say the people and goings on in the story are not nearly so wonderful in the wonderful land of Oz.

The book was amazing. I've been meaning to read it for years but I always forgot to buy it or borrow it from friends when offered. Be warned, though, while the musical adaptation may be based on the book, the two are hardly similar. They share common characters and themes but about a third of the way into the book I knew I was in for something different from what I had witnessed on the stage. This both surprised and eventually delighted me. The book is dark and (to me) tragic and sad with many themes to ponder: wickedness and goodness, perception and reality, religion and atheism, and destiny versus choice among others. I have considered these arguments the book lays out for the past couple of days. It's always nice to read something that makes you think a little. Highly recommended.