CRITICAL ARTICLE #3
This article is a book review written by Michiko Kakutani, and he is stating that Gregory Maguire's book is "deadly dull". The theme that Michiko believes Gregory Maguire is trying to express is that "people who claim that they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us". In Wicked, Elphaba was not wicked she was just misunderstood by her family and friends, Glinda was obsesses with money and status, and the Wizard of Oz is the evil one because he instituted murder against minority groups. In this book review, Michiko Kakutani, states that Gregory Maguire did a very good job for coming up with adventures for Elphaba and her friends but with his insistence on politicizing Oz turns a world of fun, spontaneous fantasy into a sad, and uneventful realm. In addition, he says that his awkward and bulky language further weighs his story down along with the fact that Elphaba and her friends spend too much time debating on the nature of good and evil and the difference between sorcery and science. Michiko Kakutani also says that certain passages in the novel makes the reader long to go back to the original Land of Oz that Baum created for audiences nearly a century ago.

Kakutani, Michiko. "Books of the Times-Let's Get This Straight:Glinda Was the Bad One?" New York Times, 24 Oct. 1995. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE7DF1738F937A15753C1A963958260&n=Top%2fFeatures%2fBooks%20Reviews>.