Book Review: Gregory Maguire - Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Sorry, I just don't get it. I don't understand why there ever was such hype on Gregory Maguires Wicked.

You see I'm going to be honest. I bought this book simply because I loved the charm, the glitz, and the glam of Oz after watching the movie back when I was a child.
When I learned that this was a tale from the wicked witches point of view, I knew I had to grab it up and indulge my mind within its pages.

The first page in the book was a crudely drawn map, poinitng out all of the different lands in Oz. I figured this would be like a neat Lord of the Rings type of adventure.

I was at first a little confused by the book. The author speaks of Munchkinland in the first chapter, a land inside of Oz. However for me the lack of description about these little people just stunk. Munchkinlanders they're little, about 4 feet tall. Some could be 5 feet tall. Yet the image that is set in every single readers heads is that from the movie. The small jolly happy, beautifully decorated munchkin people.
In the book however that charm is taken away, the munchkinlanders are spoken of as if they are just regular Joes walking around a cruddy dirty little town.

After your introduced to Munchkinland your thrown into this confusing clock tik tock tower. Trying to understand why, or the point of the tik toc tower will just give you a migraine. It sees the future, and is animated, as in the tower puts on these mini puppet shows within itself. This is where Elphaba (the future wicked witch of the west) is born.

Its no big surprise here as to what the problem with this baby is going to be. Elphaba is born green, and she's got sharp jagged fangs for teeth; she bites the first person that tries to touch her. There is a small discussion of killing her, due to her being green and deformed.

After this, you're put into the setting of Elphaba and her mothers relationship.