Review of Wicked

Have you ever wondered what made the Wicked Witch of the West so wicked? I hadn't either. But when I heard that Gregory Maguire's book explored this very question, I was intrigued. Although I had never contemplated the witch's story, once I knew that a story existed, I wanted to know what it was.

Wicked is the story of how a green girl in the land of Oz grows up to be the Wicked Witch of the West. The story begins with the birth of Elphaba (the witch) to Melena, an heir to a powerful family from Munchkinland (FYI - not all Munchkinlanders are small). Melena's husband, Frex, is a zealous minister often away preaching in faraway towns, and Melena is not 100% sure who Elphaba's father actually is. Elphaba is born with green skin, a full set of razor sharp teeth, and a strong aversion to water. Although not inititally affectionate, she grows up to be willful and smart.

The Oz in Wicked is not the Oz we are familiar with. The Wizard is a cruel dictator, issuing laws and edicts from on high that limit the rights of humans and Animals (animals who speak, think, and integrate with society), making life in Oz more and more difficult for those who do not support his rule. There are guards who roam the streets, jailing people who dare to speak against the Wizard, creating a miliary State in and around the Emerald City, where Elphaba is sent to attend boarding school. Elphaba starts school at a time when the Wizard is starting to clamp down on human and Animal rights, and she is outraged. Her roommate, Galinda (one day to be known as Glinda), is a snooty girl from the north who initially couldn't care less about anything other than her social status, but as the girls get to know each other they become friends over a shared desire to make Oz a better place. And it all goes down hill from there.

Wicked spans about 40 years, and in that time we learn why Elphaba turns into the Wicked Witch of the West...kind of. Although I really enjoyed reading this story - it was creative, fun, and different - I felt that Maguire was not able to aptly explain why Elphaba actually became so wicked. Yes, she was frustrated, short of temper, and racked with guilt over the death of a lover, but by the end of the book I did not see the wickedness from the witch in the movie in the character of Elphaba. Perhaps this was Maguire's intention -- when you actually know and understand someone, they are not as evil or scary as they might seem at the surface. Perhaps the Wicked Witch of the West that we are all familiar with wasn't actually that wicked at all - just misunderstood.

MY RATING: 7/10

Review of When a Crocodile Eats the Sun

Heartbreaking. If there is one word to try and capture this book, that is the one. Tragic and infuriating are close behind.

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun is a memoir by Peter Godwin, a successful journalist who hails from Zimbabwe but presently lives in New York City. It begins in the late 1990's when some of the first signs of Mugabe's inane policies regarding land-reform started to emerge, and ends in 2004, when the destruction and tragedy were all but a done-deal and broadcast around the world. Godwin is an excellent writer, and he deftly tells his family's story while weaving Zimbabwe's history and more recent events into the tale. Godwin's elderly parents are all that remains of his family in Zimbabwe; His younger sister has been forced to leave due to her affiliation with the Opposition, and his older sister is dead, killed years before by friendly fire in the civil war. Several of their friends have emigrated or been killed, and Godwin is unsuccessful in convincing them to leave. Godwin's parents are virtual prisioners in their own house in Harare, a city that is quickly descending into chaos. His parents' failing health presents an additional challenge, and Godwin struggles to help from a distance.

Godwin manages to travel back to Harare frequently by taking on assignments, and it is on one of his trips that his father tells him a secret that he had kept from everyone except Godwin's mother for over 40 years. It would ruin the story to divulge it here, but suffice to say that it changes Godwin's entire image of himself, and allows him to weave a whole new chapter around WWII into the story.

I cried a lot reading this book (and I rarely cry when I read). I cried with anger at what Mugabe has done to this incredible country, I cried with a deep sadness for Godwin's family, and the millions of other innocent people who have had their lives all but taken away from them, but I also cried with love and respect for his parents, whose spirit and perseverence was something that we should all aspire to. As heartbreaking at this book is, it is a book that needs to be read far and wide, and I highly recommend it.

MY RATING: 9/10

Review of Persuasion

One of the things you've got to love (or hate) about Jane Austen is that, for the most part, you know what you're going to get when you pick up one of her books. Sometimes there's something to be said for predictability with authors -- it's like a kind comfort food. It's nice to know that there is something out there that will make you feel good, fill you up, and leave you with a smile on your face when you're done, even if it's not the most delicious meal you've ever had. For some, that's macaroni and cheese, for me, it's Jane Austen.

Persuasion is the story of Anne Elliot, the oldest of three sisters who is teetering on the edge of spinsterhood at the ripe old age of 26. Anne was once engaged to marry Captain Frederick Wentworth, but her friend and confident, Lady Russell, persuaded her that he was not the right match and the agreement was ended. Eight years later, Anne is still unmarried and wondering if she made the wrong choice when Captain Wentworth comes back into her life.

And the rest is typical Jane Austen: for several chapters there are miscommunications, misunderstandings, and a few dramatic moments when it looks like Anne will end up with the wrong guy and Captain Wentworth will end up with the wrong gal, but then...ta da! All ends well and everyone ends up with the person they were supposed to be with. That being said, Persuasion was actually my favorite Austen read so far - I found the characters to be more interesting and multi-faceted then usual (despite the predicably facile younger sisters and absurdly vain father) - and there were a couple of twists and turns that did leave me guessing. I was transported back to early 19th Century English society, and found myself smiling from start to finish.

Ah...felt so good, just like mac n' cheese.

MY RATING: 7/10

Review of Master & Commander

Master & Commander by Patrick O’Brian is the first in a series of twenty books that is well regarded as the best nautical literature ever written (if not some of the best literature ever written). I picked up the first in the series, Master & Commander, on my way to Cape Cod for a two week vacation. It took me the full two weeks to read the book, partly because I found that I could not completely get into the story with as much fervour as I had expected. What I did not realize when I started reading was that the first book is as much about introducing us to Jack Aubrey, newly appointed to rank of Captain, and Stephen Maturin, an erudite Irishman/Catalonian who becomes the surgeon on Jack’s ship, the Sophie, as it is about telling us the story.

The first third of the book consists of establishing their characters and ensuing relationship, along with an esoteric introduction to the Sophie and all of her crew, rigging, sails, decks, etc. Once Jack’s cruise gets underway we quickly come to realize that he is an extremely able seaman: strategic, fearless, and cunning. He is also in it for the money, much to the chagrin of his Lieutenant, James Dillon, another Irishman and once-member of a resistance group (along with Stephen Maturin). The second third of the book follows Jack on his cruise as he takes several French and Spanish ‘prizes’ during various battles, and earns himself and his crew quite a bit of cash and a reputation for being lucky. Along the way Jack continues to have an affair with a woman married to his superior, who, by the final third of the book, has taken out his anger on Jack by cutting his cruise short and relegating him to convoy. Along the way he is beaten in battle, and the close of the book is the court-martial where Jack is found not-guilty of any wrong doing.

Perhaps it is because I was expecting so much in the way of non-stop action and adventure that I was somewhat disappointed by my first Patrick O’Brian experience. However, I am not giving up, as I have been told that the books only get better and more exciting, and there is no way that a 20-book series as beloved as this can disappoint.

MY RATING: 6/10 (but mostly due to raised expectations)

Review of Three Junes

Three Junes has been on my “to read” bookshelf for at least four years. I bought it because I am a sucker for the gold or silver stickers denoting some major book award, and Julia Glass won the National Book Award for Three Junes in 2002. I started the book soon after I bought it, and could not get into it, so it rested on my bookshelf until early summer when I decided that I needed to space out my Twlight Saga obsession with some actual literature. I did in fact start Three Junes after Twilight, but was quick to put it down when the other three books of the saga came into my possession. Miraculously, I always picked Three Junes back up in between each book for a chapter or two, and then finally finished it about a month after I had first started it.

The book is actually three distinct stories, with no overlap in characters except for one or two degrees of separation between the protagonists in each story. The first follows Paul on a guided tour to Greece following the death of his wife. The second follows Fenno, Paul’s gay bookstore owning son in New York and Scotland (the provenance of Paul and Fenno), and the third follows Fern, a widow five months pregnant from her Greek boyfriend. Each story consists of several flashbacks to periods in the character’s lives, and the present day is different for each one. Glass does an impressive job of weaving back story and present day for each character to create in-depth portraits of individuals in various stages of their lives. For Paul, it’s his ‘sunset’ years, for Fenno, it’s his mid-life/early 40’s, and for Fern, it’s her ‘grown-up’ phase, following graduate school and starting her career (and family).

Although I was not blown away by the book while I was reading it, once I finished I was happy to have given it my time (a month, in this case). Glass is a skilled writer, and she was not afraid to delve deeply into her characters’ psyches (and psychoses). None of the characters was lovable, but they were all likeable in their own ways, mostly because anyone reading the book would be able to relate to at least some of the challenges one or all of the characters were confronting. Three Junes was woven together by the themes of transition, of letting go of control, and what it means to be born and to die, whether you’re ready for it or not.

MY RATING: 7/10

Review of Eclipse and Breaking Dawn

Beemused was right. It was impossible to not read the Twlight Series back to back. Although I was successful in reading at least one book in between, that was the extent of my ability to pace myself. Unfortunately, the rest of the series continued to falter, and neither Eclipse nor Breaking Dawn were as good as Twilight. However, despite their faults, I was still unable to put them down.

I finished both books over a month ago, and I am finding it difficult to recall the major plots points, twists and turns of each of them, not to mention distinguishing between the two. I think the Twilight Series is less about the plot itself and more about the experience of reading them. There is nothing quite like it when you find a book that completely takes you in and builds a metaphoric wall that separates you from the outside world. That is what happens when you read this series. This is not to say that any of the books are quality literature - they are not. In fact, as the series progresses it gets quite trashy.

Warning: spoiler alert if you read on.

Eclipse and Breaking Dawn center around Bella's desire to 1) have sex with Edward and 2) become a vampire. With a few battles against evil vampires thrown in between, she succeeds in both. However, I actually laughed out loud when I read about the birth of Bella and Edward's vampire-human hybrid baby. What annoyed me most wasn't the fact that they conceived and had a child, but that the name chosen was a combination of Bella's mother's (Renee) and Edward's mother's (Esme) names - Reneesme. Yes, Reneesme is the name of their child. Need I say more?

I'll close by saying that despite the downturns in plot, I had fun reading the books, and am glad that I experienced this latest phenomenon of popular culture.

MY RATING - ECLIPSE: 5/10
MY RATING - BREAKING DAWN 4/10

Review of New Moon

Well, I guess the honeymoon had to end sometime, and better sooner rather than later. This is not to say that I won't be reading the rest of the series - I will, but I am not expecting much in the way of plotlines. New Moon is the second book in the Twilight series. It picks up a few months after the end of Twilight, with Bella and Edward hopelessly in love, happy in their human-vampire relationship. The town of Forks is still completely oblivious to the vampires in their midst, and life is seemingly perfect for Bella. Until she gets a paper cut. That sets off a sequence of events that lead to Edward leaving, Bella going headlong into months of despair, and subjecting the reader to endless descriptions of crying into pillows, holes of pain in stomachs, and doldrums that seem to go on for hundreds of pages.

What is frustrating is that the book is still mind-numbingly addictive. The sexual tension that held up the first book isn't existent in New Moon, but I still found myself staying up way past my bedtime to read just one more chapter. The second book revolves around Bella's friendship with Jacob (who, by the way, turns out to be a werewolf), one of the Quileute Indians we were briefly introduced to in Twilight. Jacob distracts Bella from her longing for Edward, who has disappeared, along with the rest of his family in the hope that Bella will forget about him and move on with the rest of her life. Of course, she is too head over heels in love with him for this to happen, hence the misery I described earlier.

Even though I just finished this book a little over a week ago, I'm struggling to recollect the major plot points, because the story dragged on quite a bit. The first third consists of Bella's pain and longing for Edward, the second third is her friendship with Jacob, and the final third is her reunion with Edward and the introduction of the Volturi (the super ancient and powerful vampires who live in Italy). The scenes in Italy were definitely the best part of the book, with some great descriptions of vampire horror and carnage. But the rest of the book pretty much left me cold (I could make some vampire joke here since, according to the books, they're all cold as marble).

Anyway, I know that I will read the others, but I'm not holding my breath for the thrill that wove its way through Twilight.

MY RATING: 5/10