Wicked by Gregory Maguire.

Let me just say, I hated this book for years. I read it when it was not available in paperback, when it was not a musical or a pop culture phenomenon. I read it and inspite of my dear love for The Wizard of Oz, I was not a fan.

I used to (and occasionally still do) have a big problem with adaptations, reimaginings or retellings of stories that I enjoy. I don't even typically enjoy remakes of movies or covers of songs. But maybe six, seven years later, I've reread Wicked and I've gotta say, it's not half bad.

It's the life of Elphaba, The Wicked Witch of the West. You can get that much just from reading the full title, I'm aware, but it's really how it is. There is so much you can say about this book and honestly, there's forty thousand other blogs, blurbs and a whole musical to say the rest and summarise, so I'm going to focus on the part that appealed to me most of all.

So, without further ado or dithering, here's a quote:
"This is why you shouldn't fall in love. It blinds you. Love is wicked distraction."

My basic reaction to this entire book was that Elphaba was betrayed by love, over and over again. The love her parents denied because of her appearance, the love of her real father, the love she felt for Fiyero was strong enough to make her try to confess to his wife, his sisters, anyone and in the end even that instinct ended up working to her detriment. If she had been treated with dignity, if she had been allowed to develop normal feelings towards herself instead of being forced to look at her life through the filter of the prejudices of those around her, maybe she would not have been in so much trouble. Maybe she never would have been the kind of person people felt they needed to defend Dorothy against. Maybe she could've been happy, and not so concerned with her lack of a soul and the need to try to correct some of the wrongs in the world. But then, really, compared to who she was, she would've been nobody.

The issue of love in relation to Elphaba's development was fairly dense. Ain't it always, though, folks? Her appearance, the questionable parentage, her mother's distance, her sister's religious leanings and the 'political' mood of Oz leave you with the feeling that it's really no surprise that the life of this heartbreakingly human character ends up being lost in the legend, propaganda and conjecture of the 'greater' (or simply more aesthetically appealing?) story of Dorothy Gale.

Elphaba was ostracized and marginalised even from birth. The obvious differences such as her green skin, uncertain gender and baby teeth lead her father to either parade her around to potential converts to display the "wrongness" of her existence or deny her as being any part of him, emotionally or biologically. And in spite of her devotion to her sister, Nessarose, the obvious preference shown as well as the issue of faith serves to futher isolate her from her family. Elphaba's disbelief in her own soul and her impatience with fantacism seems to me the only logical reaction to a system of belief that states she is either horribly wrong down to her very soul or is somehow lesser than her non-green, non-deformed counterparts. This also makes her devotion to Animal rights seem the only path her life could take.

I mean, come on. She is reviled for being less than human. So, in a very personal and real way, she understands the difficulty, humiliation and pain that comes from being told over and over, your life is worth less than others' lives. Her love for Fiyero, although immoral by the standards of the day, also seems to me the most realistic option. She does not compromise, does not change her beliefs or behaviour. It seems that a person so devoted to reason, whose personal philosophy is rooted so firmly in logic, could only fall passionately and irrevocably in love, even with someone who is taken. That being said, after his death and what she feels is her hand in it, it is only understandable that she would try to tell his wife, try to do what is right according to her worldview. Like I said before, maybe she would've cherished her son more if love hadn't betrayed her this one last time and led her to think it only leads to pain? I dunno. Maybe I'm missing the point. But this was my whirling point of view when I read this book.

I guess I don't have some great overwhelmingly intellectual response to this novel. It hit me in the gut and the heart. I can't really analyse it very well yet. I can only react to it. So forgive me if this isn't the best reaction I've ever written.