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Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
 | Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West Gregory Maguire Date: 06 November, 1996 — $10.20 — Book Rating: |
Review of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Yes, we all know Dorothy and Toto got trapped in their house while a tornado lifted it up and whisked it away... it landed on, and killed, the Wicked Witch of the East... and she had to follow the yellow brick road in search of the Wizard of Oz... and was tasked to kill the Wicked Witch of the West... but that is just one side of the story.
This book paints a very different picture of Oz and its inhabitants and shows a different perspective to the fairy tale.
I've always been fascinated by these stories --the untold stories, or those told from a different perspective ever since I read The Eldest Princess by A.S. Byatt, a short story that was written, patterned after the fairy tale where three daughters go in search of something to heal their father/save the kingdom, etc.
The formula is that the first two elder sisters usually fail in the quest and the youngest one usually succeeds. And so the story is told (as the title suggests) from the eldest sister's point of view, how she assesses her situation and realises that since she's bound to fail anyway in the natural order of things, that she shouldn't waste her time with the quest and just go and forge her own destiny.
But, I digress.
In this book, readers will find that the "wicked witch from the west" was not wicked at all, but a rather passionate rebel who only wanted the best for Oz and its people.
Engrossing and interesting and though we all know how the story ends, it is the untold and the telling of it that makes this book a worthy read.