A River Runs Through It and Other Stories by Norman Maclean

I am part of a book club, we read a book a month. This month we are reading A River Runs Through It and other Short Stories.    There are 3 short stories in this collection.
The 1^st story in the book is A River Runs Through It, this is a story about fishing and family.  It is about the Maclean brothers Norman and Paul in the late 1930’s in Montana.  The narrator is the older brother Norman who talks about a fishing trip with his younger troubled brother and Norman’s attempt to help Paul get straightened out.  The Macleans are a Presbyterian family that describe life through their religion and their passion for fly fishing.  Personally, I found all the fishing commentary boring and tedious, but it is obviously important to MacLean and his story line.
The 2^nd story in the book is Logging and Pimping and “Your Pal Jim, this is a story about Maclean’s summer working as logger with a adversarial partner Jim.  It tells how they spent the summer working against each other instead of with each other.
The 3^rd story in the book is USFS 1919: The Ranger, the Cook, and the Hole in the Sky, this is a story about MacLean’s time in the forest service.  I was unable to complete this story, by page 16 I was so bored out of my mind I just couldn’t finish reading it.
Personally, I find Norman MacLean’s writing flat and uninteresting.  He narratives of his stories are of his family and experiences, but they are not engaging events.  MacLean seems to focus on unimportant details that have no purpose in the story and he describes these details to a painful degree.  For example, in Logging and Pimping and “Your Pal Jim, he spends an entire page of the story describing Jim’s logging boots and the boots have no significance to the storyline beyond this description.  The stories seem to ramble and do not have a point, there is no epiphany found at the end that gives us a reason to read the story.  In a way, I felt like I was listening to an old man talk about his youth with no point behind his recollections, just a desire to talk and not forget who he was when younger.

A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire

This is the third book in the Oz trilogy.  In this book the Cowardly Lion is interviewing Mother Yackle regarding Elphaba and Liir, and during the interview we find out more about the Lion’s life.  And finally we find out what happened to Nor.  This book still leaves a great many mysteries unresolved.  Some mysteries are solved and/or clarified but if I told you which ones I would spoil all the fun.  A Lion Among Men was a more difficult read for me, the storyline seemed less cohesive then the first two books.  The storyline jumped between the Lion’s story, Mother Yackle’s story, and Nor’s story in such a way that the entire book seem disjointed.  The jumps sometimes were too abrupt and did not allow for a good flow.  I was glad to know the backgrounds of the characters and it made some events in the first two books clear, but it made it hard to read and follow too.  In the end there were still a great many things left unresolved hopefully Out of Oz will finally answer all my questions.  It seems to me in this book that Maguire has lost some of his story telling mojo.

Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire

This is the sequel to Wicked: The life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.  This book takes place ten years after the death of Elphaba, Liir is found beaten almost to death and as he lays in a comatose state we find out his adventures since Elphaba’s death.  Liir is tasked by the Elephant princess, Nastoya, to find a cure for her half life and return her to her Elephant body to die.  Liir also tasks himself with finding out what happened to Nor. 
The rich landscape and world of Oz from Wicked is still present in this book, although it seemed a little duller to me.  Maguire’s writing did not seem as rich or insightful in this book as in Wicked.  There was very little social commentary or political intrigue.  Most of the plot is about Liir’s internal struggle to find himself.   Liir’s character did not have the depth that Elphaba did and therefore the internal struggle wasn’t nearly as interesting.  This was a nice continuation of the story to see what happened to Oz after Elphaba’s death, but it just left me wanting something with more meat to it, this was too light   I give it a 3 1/2 star rating.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

** Note: Third Paragraph has spoilers for both The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West.
As I stated in my last post I wanted to read the original Wizard of Oz to compare it to Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, so I did. 
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is an easy read with short chapters that are perfect for reading one or two chapters to my three year old son as a bed time story each night.  Also, it keeps his attention while reading even though there are no pictures to look at, so that gives the book a big thumbs up from a Mom perspective.  I was surprised at how close to the film version the book is, there were no surprise facts or story lines when reading the book that I didn’t know from watching the movie, which is a kudos to Warner Bros, but it left me a little disappointed that I knew exactly what was going to happen and no surprises.  I give the book a 3 star rating, good story and great for children’s bed time story, but a little slow in some parts.
When I compare the original to Wicked, I was very surprised at how closely Gregory Maguire followed the events of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but with a few creative differences.  For example, in Chapter 3 of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Dorothy does have dinner with Boq and his family the same as in Wicked, however in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Boq is  wealthy Munchkinlander and in Wicked Boq is poor.  In Chapter 5 of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz we learn how the Tin Woodsman was cursed by the Wicked Witch of the East paid by an old woman whom didn’t want her serving girl to marry him, the same as in Wicked, surprisingly even the payment of a cow and two sheep was the same.  Maguire however made them a Cow and two Sheep, which of course are Animals that can speak rather than the normal animals presented in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz .  I was very surprised to find how closely Maguire followed The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’s storyline, if I had not already given Wicked a 5 star rating Maguire’s diligence with staying true to the original storyline would have caused me to increase my star rating.  Wicked is about the Wicked Witch of the West, and so the storyline does not meet Dorothy until the final section, but Maguire does a great job of leading us to the meeting and staying true to original chain of events created by L. Frank Baum.

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire.

This is the second time I have read Wicked, and I really enjoyed it the first time I read it.  I finally bought the entire trilogy and decided that I needed to re-read the first book before starting the second. I have not read the original Wizard of Oz, and I am only familiar with the story due to my love of the movie as a child.  My E-Book version of Wicked came with the original L. Frank Baum story included.  After finishing Wicked and writing this review I decided to read the original and my next post will be review/comparison to Wicked
Wicked is the story of the witch from the story of Oz.  Gregory Maguire describes an Oz that has a much deeper and richer landscape and history than just watching the movie would lead one to believe. Oz is a land full of political intrigue, espionage, murder, faith and of course magic. Maguire did not write a fluffy version of the Wizard of Oz from the Witch’s point of view. Wicked is full of social and moral commentary. Maguire addresses religion, ethnic suppression/genocide, slavery, tyranny, and the idea of good vs. evil in a way that makes the reader think not only about Oz’s landscape and political environment, but about the state of the world around us as well. These issues are not blaring in your face, but are more subtle, so that at the end of chapter or section discussing them you may not immediately think “How does this apply to the world around me?” But later while watching TV or beginning to doze off you may find yourself contemplating that exact question.
Maguire provides a ‘background’ for not only the witch, Elphaba born with a green skin and sharp teeth, but also for the Glinda, the Wicked Witch of the East, the Lion, and the Tin Man, weaving their stories into Elphaba’s. We follow Elphaba, the renown Wicked Witch of the West, from her birth to her death.  Maguire weaves a tale that explains how all the decisions made, both large and small, lead to the Elphaba’s fateful death.   Elphaba is a complex and complicated character.  She has an independence and sense of righteousness that all revolutionaries must possess.  There are hurts and dark periods of her life that mold her into the famous woman that she is. Through Maguire's writing I am drawn to her character and I find her not evil, but not always likable either, and completely fascinating.  Although I knew what her fate was to be, I was enthralled with the events that lead to it.  Elphaba goes through a journey of self discovery to find herself and understand the reason behind her actions.  And though everyone know how the Witch meets her end, the story Maguire weaves that describes how she reached that point draws the reader in and doesn’t let go.
My star rating:  5 Stars

Introduction

I am a prolific reader and I have decided that it would be fun to review the books that I read, I thought about keeping a reading journal, and I do have a notebook I jot things down in as I read, but what I really have always dreamed of is to be a book reviewer, and as I have no idea how to get paid to read.  I have decided that I can still review books, I just have to do it on my own dime.  So here is my opportunity. I initially tried to blog about my family life and life as an accountant and I love my family, but I found the blogging dull and it just petered out.  But as I love to read and to talk about books I am hoping that this is an outlet that will allow me to do that.  I don’t know that anyone would read this blog, but at least I am following a dream.  So let the adventure begin.