Thanks to the wonderfully successful movie Wicked that premiered last November (not to mention the long-running Broadway musical Wicked that the movie was based on) I think it’s safe to say that the world knows about Gregory Maguire’s take on The Wizard of Oz. Wicked looked at the life of Elphaba, AKA the Wicked Witch of the West. We learned about her past and the events that led up to her and Dorthy’s showdown at Kiamo Ko and her death. But Wicked mostly glosses over Elphaba’s childhood. A little is said about her as a baby and toddler, then it jumps ahead to her entering University. What about those missing formative years as a child? What happened in that time, and how did it shape Elphaba? Macguire’s new novel, Elphie looks to answer those questions by filling in the missing years of Elphie’s childhood. Her experiences stomping around the Quadling outback with less than attentive caregivers shines some light onto the woman Elphie becomes, a woman who might have changed the world if not for an ill-timed bucket of water.
[Note: While I am reviewing this novel independently and honestly, it should be noted that it has been provided to me by HarperCollins Publishers for the purpose of this review. Warning: My review of Elphie contains some spoilers!]
Elphie is an odd child who lives an odd life
Elphie’s father is a guilt obsessed preacher who wants to hide his own shortcomings by leading others. Elphie’s mother is a narcissistic harlot who just wants to follow her own whims. The two make some of the worst parents in the entire world. To ease their guilt over past transgressions, the two decide (well, the father mostly decides, the mother just follows) to venture into Quadling country and track down the family of their murdered paramour. Even though they didn’t have anything to do with his death, Elphie’s father has assumed the guilt for it (perhaps to cover his guilt for having taken the man on as a lover) and wants to seek absolution from the man’s family. But Quadlings are nomadic and the only thing they actually know about Turtle Heart is his the Ozish version of his name and that he was a glassblower. Talk about finding a needle in a haystack. Still, off the small family goes to find peace through absolution or death, whichever comes first.
As they journey through the swampy Quadling country, both of Elphie’s parents continue to be distant, unreliable guardians. Nanny is the adult who takes care of Elphie and her little sister Nessa the most, but even that isn’t much. Thanks to Nessa’s physical needs (she was born without arms), Elphie is mostly forgotten. Growing up in a swampy jungle without much supervision sounds like a death sentence for most kids but thanks to Elphie’s water allergy there isn’t much she can do without fear of extreme pain. This keeps her close to camp, and usually, she’s roped into the caregiver role for her sister.
When her younger brother comes along and her mother dies in childbirth, Nanny has her hands full taking care of the little baby, pushing Elphie further into the caregiver role for Nessa. But empathy doesn’t come naturally to Elphie, she’s much more interested in the natural world around her, especially once she discovers Animals. Elphie is fascinated by Animals and wants to know more about them, a fascination that will continue her whole life.
We continue to follow the small family’s rise and fall until Elphie finally makes her way to university. This is where Elphie most firmly meets Wicked. The childhood Maguire hinted at and mostly glossed over is filled out. We’re left with high hopes for Elphie’s future, but anyone who’s read Wicked, knows that only heartache and tragedy await her.
This “wicked witch” was always on the outside
Having been born green, Elphie is always destined to be different from everyone else. But she isn’t just different on the outside. Perhaps because of the way people treat her or perhaps because that’s just who she is, Elphie is different on the inside as well. She is quiet, keeps her own counsel, and always seems to be thinking. Although Maguire is wishy-washy on whether or not she’s actually having deep thoughts or just passively observing the world around her, I like to think that she’s making connections and figuring out how the world works, even if she doesn’t understand why.
In Wicked, it was easy to think that Elphaba held back because of how people treated her thanks to her skin tone. But after reading Elphie it’s obvious that she was always different, and trying to untangle whether it’s because of how people treat her or because of how her brain works is both impossible and pointless. In the end, that’s just how she is. But that doesn’t make it bad. Being on the outside allows her to feel for other outsiders. In Elphie we learn that her fight for Animals began at a very young age. So did her maybe magic.
While a few definitely magical things can be attributed to her in Wicked, most of Elphaba’s magic is hinted at, maybe she has magic, maybe she doesn’t, maybe it’s all coincidence. That not quite committed style of storytelling that defines Maguire’s work. In Elphie the line is even blurrier. Maybe Elphie makes some magic happen, or maybe a monkey does some sneaky tricks. Or maybe the magic is in the fact that she attracts the monkey in the first place. Maguire loves to tell a story, then backtrack on what he says. Hedging his statements and leaving the reader unsure of exactly what is going on. So we’re never really sure what happens or doesn’t happen with Elphie, just a vague idea of something going on.
Gregory Macguire’s Elphie is a nice backstory for Wicked fans
In Wicked, Maguire quickly skims through Elphaba’s childhood. We get the general impression of an unhappy and isolated child who observes everything and knows more than she lets on. In Elphie, we get a closer look at that same general picture. We’re given the foundations that built the wicked witch of the west. We see how some of her most firm beliefs (justice, Animal rights, privacy) were formed, and we get a greater sense of the girl who will become the woman who will influence so many. If Wicked swayed our sentiments about the Wicked Witch of the West, then Elphie firmly cemented them as pro-Elphie. Anyone who isn’t on Elphaba’s side by the end of Elphie either has a heart of stone or is completely befuddled by Gregory Maguire’s writing style.
My Rating: 7/10
Admittedly, if you aren’t a Wicked fan, you probably won’t care much for Elphie (unless you intend to continue the series afterwards, that would be an interesting way to introduce a new reader to the series…). And Maguire’s back and forth, it is and it isn’t, style is not something everyone will enjoy. As a younger reader, I really loved it. As I’ve grown, I find myself getting annoyed with it at times. Don’t spend three pages telling me about what happened, then say maybe it never happened at all, who can tell? It gets a little irritating.
Still, I fell in love with Elphaba long ago, and I enjoyed reading about her childhood, although I felt like the clock should have made an appearance in some way, and it never did. So Wicked fans, or those who might like to become a Wicked fan, pick up a copy of Elphie today to learn more about one of the most famous witches that ever lived.
Have you read Elphie by Gregory Macguire yet? What did you think? Let us know on social media @mycosmiccircus or @TheCosmiccircus.com on Bluesky!
Also check out: Book Review: Wicked by Gregory Maguire
