From Publishers Weekly
With a husky voice and a gentle, dramatic manner that will call to mind the image of a patient grandfather reading to an excited gaggle of children, McDonough leisurely narrates this fantastical tale of good and evil, of choice and responsibility. In Maguire's Oz, Elphaba, better known as the Wicked Witch of the West, is not wicked; nor is she a formally schooled witch. Instead, she's an insecure, unfortunately green Munchkinlander who's willing to take radical steps to unseat the tyrannical Wizard of Oz. Using an appropriately brusque voice for the always blunt Elphaba, McDonough relates her tumultuous childhood (spent with an alcoholic mother and a minister father) and eye-opening school years (when she befriends her roommate, Glinda). McDonough's pacing remains frustratingly slow even after the plot picks up, and Elphaba's protracted ruminations on the nature of evil will have some listeners longing for an abridgement. Still, McDonough's excellent portrayals of Elphaba's outspoken, gravel-voiced nanny and Glinda's snobbish friends make this excursion to Oz worthwhile.

What a fantastic book! Very different from anything I've read before and has made me want to read more and more by him!

Highly recommended!

RELEASE NOTES:

Sending off to JaneUK as an RABCK.

I received this in the post today, thank you so much! This is going straight to the top of the pile. =)

First off I'd like to say that all the publicity material for the musical 'Wicked' that says 'based on the novel by Gregory Maguire' needs to be changed to say 'contains most of the same characters as the novel by Gregory Maguire' - I haven't seen the show yet, but as far as I can work out most of the plot is completely different! This isn't necessarily a bad thing, I just thought it needed noting.

I did really enjoy this. As the review at the top says, it did go on a bit about the nature of evil at some points, and I confess I did skim a few paragraphs! But I liked most of the characters (especially Elphaba - even if she seemed quite un-feminine in places) and the plot seemed to carry itself forward well.

I know this is a book I'm going to want to read again, so I plan to buy my own copy so that this one can continue its travels (probably as a trade or RABCK, time to search some wishlists).

Thanks for passing this book on to me Jane, it looks really good!

I feel a bit bad that this book didn't grab me the way that it did the previous readers. It was a good solid read, and I enjoyed the beginning set at the college, but after that I sort of lost it a bit. Probably not my type of thing, I'm sorry, I feel really guilty!

Sending this to mirp as a RABCK. I hope you enjoy it!

It arrived today and looks fantastic. This will be next on my list! Thanks so much for fulfilling my BC wish.