Blog Post #3 Wicked by Gregory Maguire

I've been torn this week.  Just as my book was getting good, I've had 100 essays to read, so I've had less time for reading.  It might be odd to imagine, but during reading time I LIKE to read with you guys and try to as often as possible.  This week, however, the essays demanded my attention.  All the same, I'm on 127, so I did get my 75 pages in for the week.

On to the prompt:

What do you notice about the author’s style of writing?  

• What person is the book in (1st, 2nd, 3rd)?  
• What makes the author’s writing interesting.  How does he use description, figurative language, sentence structures?
• Include on great line from the section you read this week.

This book is told in 3rd person with a focus on Elphaba, the "Wicked Witch of the West" although her wickedness is not yet evident, nor is she actually from the West.  So... I imagine some of the inconsistencies will be sorted out by the end of the book.

When I first started reading this book it grossed me right the heck out.  I don't think a year is ever indicated, but I imagine this story taking place long ago, before proper sanitation and hygiene were recognized as important and connected to a healthy lifestyle.  In the first section (of five) there were WAY more vivid descriptions of bodily fluids and general filth than I was quite comfortable with.  I didn't understand why the author spent so much time on such disgusting details that were really relatively meaningless to the development of the major story line.  During the first section, I wasn't sure I would finish the book because of the writer's style.  However, now that I'm in to the second section, descriptions are no longer gross, so I am enjoying the writer's style more now.

In general, the longer a sentence is, the more difficult it is for the reader to keep track of its point.  Maguire's sentences are often quite long, so I find this book challenging to read.  I am not having trouble understanding it, but it definitely requires more effort than most of the books I usually choose for my own enjoyment.  I think that it is this kind of challenging, but not impossible, reading is the kind of reading that makes me a better reader.  It's a mental workout, and I feel good about reading something that is good for me.

Finally, as utterly squalid as Maguire's descriptions were in the first section, he's delivering some real beauties in this section.  Here's a lovely little nugget I read this week:

"They both gazed and the green and flowery spectre reflected in the watery old glass, surrounded by the blackness, driven through with the wild rain beyond.  A maplefruit leaf, shaped like a star with blunted points, or like a heart grown lopsided, suddenly whirled out of the night and plastered itself on the reflection in the glass, gleaming red and reflecting the firelight, just where the heart would be-- or so it seemed from the angle at which Galinda stood"  (Maguire 101).

On a dark and stormy night, two girls are standing before a window, looking at their reflections in the glass.   Then a red leaf blows to the glass and sticks there, so it now looks like the reflection has a glowing red heart... THAT IS AWESOME!! Look at all the participle phrases in those two sentences!! Look at all those concrete details!! That is sophisticated language use and beautiful imagery.. This... THIS is why I'm an English teacher: because sentences like those fascinate me, and I thought it would be fun to make a career out talking about earth-shattering sentences and how to write them.