4 out of 5 stars

It is not easy to be the bad one

A review of Wicked: the life and times of the Wicked Witch of the West 

By Beatriz Lara

We all know the story of Dorothy, the sweet girl from Kansas who magically ends up in the land of Oz and in order to get back home she has to kill the wicked witch of the West. What we have forgotten is that every story has at least two versions. What about the witches view of the story? Was the witch really that wicked?

That is the question that the American novelist Gregory Maguire answers in his book Wicked: The life and times of the wicked witch of the West published in 1995. The story is set in the Land of Oz in the years before Dorothy’s arrival. Through the five chapters of the book, Maguire narrates the story of Elphaba, a green-skinned girl born in Munchkinland and that grows up to be the antagonistof the famous children tale The Wizard of Oz.

Wicked is the first book of the saga The Wicked Years. All the books in this collection are referenced in characters of The Wizard of Oz. Wicked is also the basis of the Broadway musical of the same name presented almost ten years after of the publication of the novel.

The five chapters are entitled by its location and narrate different episodes of Elphaba’s life: her childhood, her college years where she gets involved in an activist movement in defense of the Animal’s rights and against the dictatorial policies of the Wizard of Oz; all her attempts to get rid of The Wizard and how she meets Dorothy.

Maguire’s biggest achievement in this novel is to give the classic characters a new view. He worries about showing the reader the other versión of the story, making him/her question the charachters moral and motives. He transforms the fantastic nature of a children story and merges it with human complexity.

Wicked is not a children story, even though it is based on one. Maguire uses the original story and charaqcters created by Lyman Frank Baum and gives them a “grown up twist” by adding some criticism about subjects like Politics, Religion and Philosphy. Therefore, it is not as easy to digest as the original Wizard of Oz.

It is a more complex lecture that is worth reading because of the debate it creates of what or who is good or bad. In Wicked, Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West is revindicated, shown as a compassive, justice lover sorceress willing to defend an ideal. After all, it must not be easy to be known as the bad one.