I really enjoyed this book which is made up of lots of intertwined layers. The main story is told like a historical novel about a little girl called Dorothy Gael who is raised by her aunt and uncle in a poverty-stricken farming community in Kansas in the 1870s & 1880s. As Dorothy gets older and suffers abuse at the hands of her uncle, her path crosses that of a supply teacher at school by the name of L. Frank Baum. Fragments of Dorothy's life filter into Frank's imagination becoming the genesis of his as yet unwritten classic, 'The Wizard of Oz'.

But this is no simple historical novel. Also layered into this story is that of the young Judy Garland (Frances Gumm) - her role as Dorothy in the movie version of Baum's novel, and her relationship with her mother. Yet another dimension is added to the novel with the introduction of a man in his 30s whose obsession with the Wizard of Oz as a young child recurs as he finds himself dying. After being colour-blind for most of his life, his vision returns to glorious technicolour as he enters Oz in his final moments...

I probably enjoyed most of all the way Ryman assimilated features from the fairy tale into Dorothy's 'real' life (my favourite being childhood friend Wilbur as the scarecrow). It could have felt contrived but it didn't (to me) - if I hadn't been looking for parallels, I probably wouldn't have noticed them. It only becomes obvious towards the end of the book when Dorothy regresses into the land of Was, and the movie-like images occur within her own mind, as she loses it. I enjoyed the later sections where Dorothy's story moved into the more recent past, and she is found in a home for the mentally ill. It really felt at that point like a character from a book coming to life.

I got quite involved with each of the different strands of story within this novel. Every time it moved onto a different strand I was temporarily annoyed because I wanted to carry on with the one just ended, but as soon as I began the next strand I became caught up in that instead. A theme which recurs in all the strands of story is that of the misunderstandings which occur within close relationships, the barriers which are built up, and the need for escape. Or the need to find a place you can call home, to return to...

I have never felt a great affinity with the 'Wizard of Oz' previously, although I've always enjoyed the movie, and love fairy tales as a genre. I'm looking forward to reading Gregory Maguire's 'Wicked' ('The True Story of the Wicked Witch of the West') soon, as I don't want this particular fairy tale to end, yet.

I am starting a bookring to release this book – please send me a Private Message including your screen name and country if you would like to join (please specify if you are NOT willing to ship overseas).

*I will make a list below of members in the order the book will travel (this may be amended later depending on shipping preferences/location etc).

*The current and previous owners of the book will be shown on the list in bold, with the current owner also marked with an arrow (>).

*Please make a journal entry when you receive the book, then read, review and release the book within 1 month of receiving it, to keep the circle turning.

*When you are ready to release the book, send a PM to the next member on the list asking for their postal details.

*When the last person on the list receives the book, please send me a PM for my postal details, for the book’s return journey.

BOOKRING MEMBERS
1. TangledThreads (UK – will ship internationally)
2. oblivious1980 (oops - accidentally sent to someone who didn't sign up for this ray, but hopefully she will be kind enough to forward to ziggythecat for me!)
3. ziggythecat (UK - prefer to ship within UK but will ship to Europe)
4. rmg (UK - will ship internationally)
>5. tqd (Australia - will ship internationally)
6. spaceystacey (USA - prefer to ship within US)
7. cait017 (USA - prefer to ship within US)
8. yourotherleft (USA - prefer to ship within US but will ship internationally)
9. Tuz (Brazil - prefer to ship within North & South America)
10. gwendy (USA - prefer to ship within US)
11. tabby90 (USA - prefer to ship within US)
12. Mom-of-one (USA - will ship internationally)
13. cisco (USA - will ship internationally)
back to me,
14. tangledthreads (UK)

Sent back on its rightful way 20th April!

Arrived this morning, thanks for sending it on Oblivious! Looks very intriguing and will be started straight away as I finished 'Last Chance to See' on Tuesday & was horrifyingly without a book to read last night (well okay there are lots but I didn't want to start one when I knew there were 2 ring-books about to arrive ;o))

A very satisfying read. What a fantastic book!!!
Staggered a bit through the first chapter or so but then couldn't put it down.
Very clever the way the stories interlink and are held together by Oz (liked the history of the word too). Lots & lots of interesting ideas in this book.
Fascinating stories of pioneer america and of the making of the Wizard of Oz film. Ah the Wizard of Oz, do you remember it was on every xmas - never really thought of it as being a book, lol, and certainly never knew it was a controversial/banned one! must search it out to read now.

Its off to see 'rmg' now.

This book arrived earlier in the week. I'm now ready to start reading it...

I have to be honest: I found this book a bit of a struggle. The thread of story dealing with the "real" Dorothy Gael was so grim with its loneliness, poverty and sexual abuse that I trouble reading it. Just the fact that nobody cares about her at all was nearly enough to reduce me to tears. I suppose that this is a tribute to Mr Ryman’s writing, producing such a strong emotional response, but I was constantly tempted just to stop reading and do something less upsetting. At one point the whole book seemed to be composed of nothing but miserable childhoods.

Fortunately, I found the latter part of the book easier going, as I liked both Jonathan and Bill. By the end I was enthralled by the whole thing and thinking about it all the time.

Possibly the most interesting part was the endpiece, in which Ryman explains that he is a fantasy writer who has come to prefer realism. I liked his assertion that our thoughts and actions are hemmed in by the weight of history and the cosy fictions we spin for ourselves.

This was a very clever and thought-provoking book, but something of an ordeal!

WARNING: Terrible joke coming...

Anyway, now it's time to post this book off... to Oz!

I should probably mention that I have sent this book by surface mail, so it could take up to 8 weeks to arrive.

Yay! It's finally arrived!

And, of course, so have a lot of other bookrings in the meantime. I will get onto this one asap, but it might be a while, my apologies.

Thanks tangledthreads and rmg!

Finally finished this one! I'm afraid it took me quite a while to get into it - I was at the stage early on of just chucking the whole thing in and sending it on unfinished. But I thought after it spent so much time actually getting to Oz, the least I could do was to give it a proper effort.

And I'm glad I did, I thought the second half was much more interesting.

I found Dorothy's story too bleak; I had difficulty latching onto what made Aunty Em tick; Baby Frances was cloying; I found all the introductions to yet another character frustrating; and I thought it was overly harsh towards Judy Garland who I always have a lot of affection for as an incredibly talented person who got completely screwed up by life.

But I really liked Jonathon, and the passages about the older Dorothy, and the behind-the-scenes of the making of The Wizard of Oz (what can I say, I'm a movie junkie).

And I've really got to read the original stories now! I only know the story through the movie. (My bad.)

I've got spaceystacey's address already, so I'll pop this in the mail tomorrow!

UPDATE 31-AUG-2004: posted to spaceystacey today. Economy air, should be there within two weeks.

My apologies for not noticing that this ring wasn't moving. I definitely posted it to spaceystacey, and I've been in contact with her and it definitely hasn't arrived at her end. :(

My apologies to tangledthreads for being the last to see their book.

Came in the post today along with 3 other more currently mailed bookrings that I had signed up for. Am sooooooooo happy :-) that it had finally arrived, I know that tqd was concerned about it. It's safe and I hope to have it back on the road again in a short amount of time.


7/8/06 Having received this one just before my husband was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, I misplaced the book along with about 15 other books. I have recently cleaned out most of this room and have been sending the books on their way one by one.

skipped cait as no reply. Mailed out to next reader after her.

I'm sure I made a journal entry for this when I received it...but apparently it didn't save. I'm about halfway through it now, and will pass it on as soon as I can. Thanks!

"It was as if they had all stood back to back shouting 'love' at the top of their lungs, but in the wrong direction, away from each other." pg 273


I had mixed feelings about this book. I think the quote pretty much sums up the theme...the people in this book and people everywhere are all so bad at loving each other. I'm sure many of the characters in this book think they're loving others, but they seem to fail miserably again and again. It's a very human problem, I think, and this book is a vivid illustration of it.

I enjoyed the realistic fictional representation of Judy Garland, and the "real" story of Dorothy was very depressing but absorbing at the same time. I especially liked how Dorothy was connected to Bill at the Home so that we get to see what becomes of her in the end. I really appreciated and understood her character more in those scenes than in the rest of the book. The separate stories were interesting and absorbing in and of themselves, but I didn't feel like it all came together too well for me. Maybe I didn't think about it hard enough...

I didn't hear back from Tuz, so I'll be sending this off to gwendy on Monday. Thanks for sharing, tangledthreads. =)

I just wasn't getting around to this and thought it better to send along.

Got in the mail, thanks!

I thought this book started off a bit slow and bleak. I never like it when an author takes several chapters just to introduce characters. But about halfway through it began to seem like every sentence was moving and there was so much going on behind what the author was telling you. Like the references to Oz in the characters real lives. I really relished every chance to read it, like eating fine chocolates. Although the story isn't dramatic and the ending isn't as happy as we normally see, I thought it was full of human truths. All in all I really enjoyed reading it, thanks for sharing!

Mom-of-one hasn't responded to PM's, so I've got Cisco's address. However since I've talked about it so much my boyfriend is dying to read it before I send it on. It may be delayed a week or two.

"Was" arrived today. Since I am the end of this ring, I hope it's OK that it will be a few weeks before I can start it - I'm reading one and have another waiting - then this one!
Happy New Year, tangledthreads!

Wonderful and unique! I will look for more from this author! Waiting to hear back from tangledthreads as to where I should mail this now. Thanks so much for including me in this book ring!

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailing this to fanclub in exchange for another book on my Wish List. Fanclub will try to reach tangledthreads again after reading this one! Otherwise, Ray It Forward!
Thanks!

Cisco

Received in today''s mail - thanks for the trade! :)

I have been trying to get into this book for some time now, and have had no luck. I can see from other journal entries that it may get better if I press on, but it has become a chore to try. I am going to follow my personal rule - once it becomes a chore and I can't even work up the enthusiasm to try any more, I have to give up. It's unfortunate, because the concept really intrigued me and I thought I would really enjoy this. Ah, well.

Based on the note in tangledthreads profile, I am going to release this book into the wild - I hope it finds an appreciative reader! Thanks, cisco, for sharing with me.

RELEASE NOTES:

Leaving on a bench on beautiful River Street, somewhere in the vicinity of River Street Sweets.