Wicked.

- Wicked. Gregory Maguire. Elphaba was a strange one since the minute she was born --with green skin and a natural affinity for the weird. She was destined for greatness even when she lived her whole life simply trying to make sense of it. Barely even aware of her title: The Wicked Witch of the West! 

The infamous novel that reimagined the classical Oz novels from the point of view of the villain and for a decidedly adult audience. This novel is perhaps more famous for starting or popularizing several trends and media. It was adapted to a very successful Broadway musical (which for the record is VERY good, and also quite different to the book in terms of plot, if actually pretty similar in spirit), it launched Maguire's career as a writer specialized in re-writing popular fairy tales and books for children, adapting them to adult sensibilities ("Confessions of an ugly stepsister", "Mirror, mirror", "After Alice"). It became the first in a (so far) four book series. It revitalized a tradition of dark Oz variations (before this, there was the movie "Return to Oz", the short story "Emerald City Blues" and so on. After this there was the "Dorothy must die" book series, the characters' inclusions in the comic book "Fables", the MacFarlane Toys "The twisted world of Oz" series and so on). It popularized a trend of re-presenting classical fairy tales and children's book adaptations from the point of view of famous female villains (the movie "Maleficent", the tv show "Once upon a time"), itself a classical literary device. All of which nearly overshadows the novel itself. 

So how is this novel? Is it a light-hearted fantasy with a political subtext, like the musical? No. Is it a cynical, bigoted novel written solely to piss on a childhood memory, as quite a few critics and bloggers say? No, not at all. It is a more realistic exploration of what a fantasy land like Oz would have been in the harsh 1930's, as other literary critics and other bloggers claim? Not really, no. 

So what is it? It's what the book's subtitle tells us: "The life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West". It's a novel that chronicles a character's life from birth to beginning, and in the process illustrates an era. It's just that the character happens to be the infamous Witch (named "Elphaba" --in-universe after Saint AElphaba, and out of it, in homage to original author Frank L. Baum. LFB, get it?), and the era happens to be a fantasy land that is unknowingly living the end of one time (the Wizard's rule). 

It does have queer characters aplenty (gay couples, bisexual three-way marriages, lesbian crushes) --for which we are all quite thankful (and yes, author Maguire is himself gay, in case anybody was wondering). It does have a, if you'll pardon the obvious pun, a wicked sense of humor (when the witch addresses Dorothy as "The one whose house had the nerve to make a crash landing on my sister", the girl nonchalantly answers "Well, it wasn't my house in a legal sense, strictly speaking."). It's also enigmatic to the very end (we really only see Elphaba's point of view a handful of times. Most of the time the narrative is more focused on the many characters around her), and often refuses to go where the reader would expect. 

All in all, an engaging novel, very much for people interested in the off-beat.