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An excellent book that I'm reading right now. Really, really good. It sounds like a strange premise, but author is brilliant and highly imaginative. An enjoyable read. Thought I'd let my fellow DU'ers know about it.
Part of a review:
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"We’re DEFINITELY not in Kansas anymore.
WICKED is, at its core, a character study of what we thought we knew about the Wicked Witch of the West—whether you’ve read L. Frank Baum’s masterpiece, or seen the Disney-ized adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. This version might be tough for the die-hard film enthusiasts to digest, but rest assured there’s plenty of material in here to enliven even the staunchest critic.
What Gregory Maguire (the author) has done is to create a back-story for the Wicked Witch of the West. He also gives her a special name: Elphaba, a nod toward her creator, L. Frank Baum, as Mr. Maguire incorporated the author’s name (work on it, you’ll figure it out).
There’s almost too much information in the book to cover in one simple review: there’s the quest for the existence of souls, the search for God (in something called the Unnamed God), a challenge to our knowledge of what true evil is (is Elphaba REALLY evil?), family and how they impact our growth (or stunt it), adultery (is it adultery if it happens in another realm?), sexual behavior, mythology within this mythological world, politics and government, sibling rivalry, fate versus individual choice, and a smattering of other ideals. Wow!"http://www.fwomp.com/rev-wicked.htm