Author: Gregory Maguire
My favorite movie as a kid was The Wizard of Oz and I loved the book, and I recently developed a deep love for the musical Wicked -- so of course the next natural step was to read the book on which the musical was based.
When I first wanted to read Wicked, my dad told me I should wait because it was too "grown-up" for me. I finally got back around to it and at first didn't understand what it was that he thought was so awful about it; there were some allusions to sex, one unpleasant murder towards the end, they said the word "nipple" once, but nothing that seemed to justify having me wait to read it.
Having finished the book, I think I understand. It's not that the content would have been horribly inappropriate (although I probably would have asked some uncomfortable questions about sex, true), it's that the themes -- religion, politics, the nature of evil, whether there is a soul -- would have confused little-me and gone right over my head.
I have to say I prefer Baum's original and the musical version because I'm a sucker for happy endings and the writing style of Wicked wasn't as engaging as I would have liked, but I did really enjoy reading this one. It's given me a lot to think about, and it was really awesome revisiting an old favorite from a completely different perspective. I'm glad that I waited to read it, because I got so much more out of it now than I would have several years ago. There's a LOT in this book that's food for thought. I would definitely advise trying it!
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