Wicked

By Gregory Maguire. 

SPOILER WARNING.

Well I mean the book and not the musical.  I just finished reading it. I have seen the musical too but this post is about the book. I had been curious about the book ever since I watched the musical. So last week I finally borrowed it from my room-mate.

The book, as its full title suggests, is about the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Remember The Wizard of Oz? Poor little Dorothy Gale from Kansas trying to get home. Good witch of the North (or was it south?), Glinda giving her the ruby shoes of Wicked Witch of East whom Dorothy killed when she arrived in Oz. The Scarecrow, the Tin man and the Lion lacking the brain, the heart and courage. Wicked Witch of West trying to get back her sister’s ruby shoes from Dorothy. And in the end Dorothy killing the Witch by throwing a bucket of water on her which melted her.

Well this is the story of that Wicked Witch of West whose name was Elphaba, the eldest daughter of a missionary of Unnamed God. She is green from birth. Oz, the kingdom where she grew up, is in midst of political turmoil. It’s under a tyrant, a foreigner who arrived in a balloon, called the Wizard. As the book progresses, the political turmoil comes more in focus. Elphaba, a strong willed teenager, gets involved as she couldn’t watch the atrocities and injustice of the administration from sidelines. The Animals ( the sentient animals, the ones who can think and talk) are being marginalized and enslaved. So when her natural science teacher Doctor Dillamond (a Goat) is murdered before he can publish his findings about Human and Animal being equal, Elphaba leaves her school and joins a terrorist organization working in the underbelly of the Emerald City (the capital of Oz). There she fells in love with an old classmate from college whom she accidentally meets after a long time. But he is murdered brutally the night she fails to assassinate her college head (who was responsible for Doctor Dillamond’s murder). The murder of love of her life sends her over the edge and she spends 7 years in a monastery to recuperate. When she emerges from that monastery, her only mission in life is to seek forgiveness from her lover’s family (his wife and children). However when she arrives at his village, his  wife refuse to forgive her or even listen to her story even though she accepts her as a house guest. Elphaba is trapped in that castle as she can’t move on unless she is forgiven. But Sarima, the wife, is also murdered along with her sisters and her son when Elphaba went to visit her family after a long separation. Only survivor is Nor, the daughter who is held a prisoner by the Wizard. And then arrives Dorothy…

Yes you got it. It’s no longer a kid’s story. Murder, politics, assassinations, religion, philosophy: it has it all. And that’s what it makes it a weird book. There, I said it. It was a weird book to read. It was weird because it was based on a story that has almost become a fairy tale. It had familiar characters in completely different environment. It was like watching a dream turn into a nightmare. And may be that’s why I couldn’t muster any sympathy for Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of West. Or may be it’s  just my aversion towards terrorist groups.

I think that was the weirdest thing about the book. It was written to explain the wickedness of Wicked Witch of the West and I simply assumed that by the end of the book I would be more sympathetic towards her but that never happened. Again may be my aloofness was due to dream-turning-to-nightmare effect. It was simply a weird book to read…

Anyway, just for fun, I want to quote two hilarious dialogues from the book:

Nanny (an old lady): “…I’m supposed to be teary with joy, at my age. You’d think I could rest my feet for once but no. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.”

“Always the godfather, never the god,” said Liir (Elphaba’s son).

 

Liir: “She’s sent the crows out to blind the guests coming for dinner!”

Nanny: “What?” (She is slightly deaf in old age).

Liir: “She’s BLINDING THE GUESTS COMING FOR DINNER!'”

Nanny: “Well, that’s one way to avoid having to dust, I suppose.”

And I learned two new words while reading the book: Shrive and Pogroms. The usage will be etched in my memory for a long time:

“We don’t shrive, we don’t shrive….Her moral system doesn’t allow forgiveness.”

“Are you saying was he involved in any of those campaigns? Those---pogroms? First the Quadlings, then the Animals?”