Wicked Confessions...

A few years ago I read a book review about a new novel that looked at the psychology behind the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz. It was obvious that my mission was to locate and read this book. I've always thought that the most fascinating characters in fairy tales were the naughty ones...though there is a tendency to paint them as one dimensional crones! Well I eventually tracked down my very own copy of Wicked by Gregory Maguire during our trip to Hawaii:



I eagerly devoured it on the plane ride home and became quite entranced in the life of Elphaba with her jagged teeth and green skin:

"She would emerge. She always had before. The punishing political climate of Oz had beat her down, dried her up, tossed her away - like a seedling she had drifted, apparently too desiccated ever to take root. But surely the curse was on the land of Oz, not on her. Though Oz had given her a twisted life, hadn't it also made her capable?" (Maguire, 2000:4)

Currently, I am immersed in Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister - his retelling of Cinderella:



I am as mesmerised by gaunt and unlovely Iris, as I was by Elphaba...

"In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings. When we grow up, we learn that it's far more common for human beings to turn into rats." (Maguire, 2000:x)