Wicked - The Book (A GC Book Club Discussion)

[Cardinal026]

From the Reader's Group Guide of "Wicked":
1. Gregory Maguire fashioned the name of Elphaba (pronounced EL-fa-ba) from the initials of the author of The Wizard of Oz, Lyman Frank Baum - L-F-B - Elphaba. Wicked derives some of its power from the popularity of its source material. Does meeting up with familiar characters and famous fictional situations require more patience and effort on the part of the reader, or less?


I felt like it required less patience on my part, because of how familiar I was with the original story. I grew up reading the "Oz" series books when I was little, which is 12 or so books that L. Frank Baum wrote, involving characters like the Tik Tok creature and Osma, so I was familiar with the back ground of all of them. I also knew about the different regions of Oz, like Munchkinland and Gillikin, so it was an interesting refresher of things I found familiar, along with a fascinating introduction of some new (the main) characters in Wicked. I can see how it would be more difficult for some people though, especially having to change your perspective from what we've always believed about The Wicked Witch, and what we read about Elphaba.