Title: Great Idea, Dull Book
Review: If only a really special and interesting author had had the idea that Gregory Maguire had, to write a novel about the early years of the Wicked Witch of the West. Alas, the idea was had by Gregory Maguire, who seems to have a lot of really good ideas but no real idea of what to do with them.There are a lot of interesting ideas in Wicked, from recasting the Wizard of Oz as a Hitlerian Machiavellian political schemer and tyrant to having Glinda and the Wicked Witch be childhood pals. Unfortunately, the ideas remain ideas, and Maguire never makes the book take off into anything special or memorable.If Angela Carter had written this, it would have been an unforgettable adventure into fantasy, terrible and beautiful. Gregory Maguire takes a dazzling idea and makes it dull as dishwater. Quite simply, an ordinary novel about extraordinary events and characters.
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