“Son of a Witch” by Gregory Maguire

“Son of a Witch” by Gregory Maguire
2005, Harper Collins
ISBN: 978-0-06-054893-3

One of the first books I remember reading was, “The Wizard of Oz”. The absolute very first movie I ever watched was, “The Wizard of Oz” with Judy Garland as Dorothy. I was six years old at the time. Many is the Thanksgiving that you can find me settled in front of the television watching that beloved old movie again.

When I caught wind of a different story that had been published about the Wicked Witch I just had to read it. The title of that story by Gregory Maguire is, “Wicked”. I read it and it was fabulous. I had to have more. The second in the series is called, “Son of a Witch” and centers in on Liir. He doesn’t know for a certainty that he is Elphaba’s son (Elphaba is the Wicked Witch, by the way) but we, the dear reader, do know. Or rather Gregory knows and he is the one telling the story.

These are the old characters you know but more of their stories and of their hearts is told than we first knew from Frank Baum. They are just as magical as they were then, but there is that bit of us in them too. It’s like we are all related and the DNA is the same once you get down to brass tacks.

This is just fabulous. You know what else it has? It has magic. While I was reading it there were times when I almost felt the psychic thing going on where I could remember or, at least, relate to the magic of the people and Animals in Oz. It was an odd feeling, one that I don’t often feel while reading. It’s almost as though a molecular shift is going on deep inside. It happened when I read, “A Course in Miracles” and danged if I couldn’t feel it happening with this book too. Then, of course, maybe it was just my imagination.

But, I’ve got the third book to read now. It’s called, “A Lion Among Men” and centers in on the Cowardly Lion. It’s like having lots and lots of dessert. As much as you could ever want.

My recommendation to get the fullest enjoyment from this trio of books is to read them in the order they were written. Sometimes you can read a series out of sequence, but this is not one of them. Enjoy. I did.