Wicked Book Review

“Well,” said the Head, “I will give you my answer. You have no right to expect me to send you back to Kansas unless you do something for me in return. In this country everyone must pay for everything he gets. If you wish me to use my magic power to send you home again you must do something for me first. Help me and I will help you.”

“What must I do?” asked the girl.

“Kill the wicked Witch of the West,” answered Oz.

L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Upon reading the passage at the beginning of the book I was immediately put into a different mindset on a familiar tale. Those of us who have seen the movie, but not read the book, remember the tale as a courageous young girl taking on an evil witch so she could return home to her precious Aunt and Uncle. At the core though, the story is really about an old man who sends this young girl on a homicidal mission against a woman she doesn’t even know.

Right from the prologue, as the Witch hides in a tree listening to her assassins, you realize that when reading Wicked you are definitely no longer in Kansas. Hell, you’re not even in the Oz you came to know as a child.

“She was castrated at birth, ” replied the Tin Woodsman calmly. “She was born hermaphroditic, or maybe entirely male.”

“She’s a woman who prefers the company of other women,” said the Scarecrow, sitting up.

“She’s the spurned lover of a married man.”

“She is a married man.”

The Witch was so stunned that she nearly lost her grip on the branch.

That exchange, the homosexual undertones between the Lion and the Tin Woodsman, and the Witch’s reaction to the ruby slippers on Dorothy’s feet (let’s not forget that this tale is also about a slain sister) all made me eagerly continue reading the book and I literally didn’t put it down for three days.

The first two sections of the book, Munchkinlanders and Gillikin, which deal with the birth of the Witch (Elphaba) and her time away at school respectively, were my favorites. From the start there was mystery surrounding Elphaba. Born with green skin, razor sharp teeth (she bit off a woman’s finger just a few moments old), and a nasty disposition, you wonder not only where she came from, but why. Born to a minister and his unfaithful wife, Elphaba’s life seemed doomed from the start.

Here are some of my thoughts/observations/questions by section:

Munchkinlanders
I

- Thank God for Nanny. From the moment she arrived to help Melena and Frex take care of baby Elphaba she cracked me up. “Come to Nanny, you horrid little thing.”

- In the beginning, when you’re trying to figure out how Elphaba came to be born the way she was – was she a punishment for her mother’s infidelity? a punishment for her father’s failure as a minister? the Devil’s spawn? – I think Nanny’s observation was the best.

Perhaps, thought Nanny, little green Elphaba chose her own sex, and her own color, and to hell with her parents.

- The arrival of Turtle Heart showed that Melena did not learn her lesson. Carrying on an affair with him right under the noses of her husband and Nanny. His constant referring to himself in the third person was quite annoying, but his arrival did begin the thought process of the politics of Oz and its different cities.

- Did we ever get an explanation of why water was like acid to Elphaba?

Gillikin
II

I loved, loved, loved, this section. Who woulda thunk it? The Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good Witch were college roommates? And friends no less?! And best of all…Glinda, excuse me, Galinda was a bitch.

- I found it interesting that Galinda was all about appearances. Even when she engaged in conversation she didn’t give much thought to what she said, but rather how she said it. It was important to her to use the right words to give the impression that she was smart and a deeper thinker than she actually wa