Sunday August 17, 2008
Odd view of Oz
Review by KOAY EE LING
SON OF A WITCH
By GREGORY MAGUIRE
Publisher: Headline Review,
399 pages
ISBN 978-0755341559
SON of a Witch is part of Gregory Maguire’s Wicked series, which is, interestingly, a sequel of sorts to L. Frank Baum’s classic children’s book, The Wizard of Oz – though the world is probably more familiar with the 1939 Judy Garland movie version, while the younger generation would know it as a Disney movie.
But there’s nothing Disney-fied about Son of a Witch, or anything childlike about it, either. This fantasy is strictly for adults, as is Maguire’s first book set in the Oz universe, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.
Maguire explores sexual preferences, political corruption, hypocrisy, and religious oppression, while revealing much that is rotten in human nature – and he does it within the magical world of Oz, thus creating an intriguing contrast.
In the original Oz, Dorothy is the star and the Wicked Witch of the West, Elphaba, is the unredeemable villain. And, rather shockingly for a children’s book, Dorothy kills Elphaba – by throwing water at the witch, which makes her melt.
Son of a Witch is the story of what happens after Dorothy kills the witch. Not to Dorothy (who goes on to have other adventures while trying to get back home) but to Liir, the, well, son of the deceased witch. Well, he might be the Elphaba’s son, no one’s sure, not even Liir.
This is a mystery that Maguire actually maintains throughout the novel, right until the very end, and he manages to do it without frustrating or irritating me. And that is one of the factors that makes Son of a Witch a good read for me.
Liir is discovered almost dead by a traveller who takes him to a mauntery, Oz’s strange version of a nunnery.
The witch’s son lies in a coma, and Maguire cleverly uses this to reveal the central mystery of Liir’s ancestry bit by bit in a series of flashbacks that also reveal all his adventures.
And those adventures are bizarre and unpredictable, indeed, with a number of surprises both pleasant and unpleasant.
I find Son of a Witch quite an ingenious piece of work, though it took me a while to get used to Maguire’s style of writing. He does not use as much descriptive language as the fantasy writers I’ve read before do.
I had to use much of my own imagination to cook up images of his characters and scenery, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. And I just love the way the story unfolds, its witty humour, and its creativity.
In Maguire’s Oz, nuns drink alcohol, tribes of talking animals are harassed to convert to the official religion, and scarecrows are cunning politicians. There is one particular scene in the book that still tickles me every time I remember it: Sister Liquor (the nun in charge of the brandy store – of course!) swinging from and singing on a ladder while “checking” on the brandy.
And the part when Liir travels to Oz with Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, Tin Woodman, Scarecrow and Toto is so entertaining because Maguire is very sarcastic in his portrayal of these characters. He never loses sight of the fact that, despite all these famous names, it is Liir who is this book’s heart.
And through Liir, Maguire provided me a touching insight into the heart and mind of an orphan dealing with insecurities and life-altering realisations.
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